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WTH is MTSS?: A Jargon Free Explanation for Parents
It’s ok. Many school, district, and state leaders are confused about it too. Or at least the way they communicate about the Multi-Tiered System of Supports (MTSS) with parents would suggest that. I’ve seen the good, the bad, and the ugly of MTSS in meetings and trainings with various school districts in the Sunshine State over the past several years and have come to the conclusion that:
MTSS, philosophically, is a very GOOD thing for our kids that, when truly understood and implemented, can reap some very positive results.
But..
Even districts that implement MTSS effectively have difficulty articulating what it is to parents.
With that, your friendly neighborhood school psychologist will try to do what others haven’t: make MTSS make sense.
So what is MTSS?
MTSS is a way of doing things within the school that impacts every single student enrolled and is designed to make sure no one “falls through the cracks.” It is not a program. It is not a process. It is not anything that anyone can be “put in.” MTSS is a philosophy that considers all learners to make sure all students are getting the instruction needed and are making adequate growth. There are three tiers of instruction, and your child is in (at least) one of them.
Tier 1: The General Curriculum (100% of students)
No need to overcomplicate this. Every single student receives the core, or Tier 1, instruction. Schools use various curriculums (i.e., Treasures for reading, Go Math! for mathematics, etc.) as a means for presenting that core instruction. It is expected that at least 80% of our students will make adequate progress with this core instruction. Simple so far, isn’t it?
Tier 2: Students Who Struggle Get More Support (15%-20% of students)
If 80% of our kids are making adequate progress with the core instruction, that means that 20% are not gaining enough, so Tier 2 exists to support these students. Many schools provide Tier 2 support in groups of four or five students working with a teacher each day using a program in a given subject in addition to the core Tier 1 instruction. Other schools provide Tier 2 with computer programs in labs. Regardless of the method, it is expected that the majority of those students getting Tier 2 support will make adequate progress.
Tier 3: Intensive Instruction (5% of students)
When students are getting the core instruction (Tier 1), frequent instruction beyond that (Tier 2), and are still not making gains, MTSS calls for an individualized, intense level of instruction (Tier 3); there should be no more that 5% of the general student population needing this level of support. Diagnostic assessments are given to pinpoint why students are not learning and create a plan for how to intervene. This support, when provided appropriately, must be in a setting that is no larger than a one-to-three teacher to student ratio; one-to-one instruction is ideal when possible.
It is vital that in Tier 3, the teaching be specific to the student need. For instance, if a child is weak in reading and the diagnostic shows that he has excellent phonics skills but has a poor vocabulary, vocabulary should be the focus of this level of instruction.
If Tier 3 Is Not Successful: Psychoeducational Evaluations / ESE Testing
If a child is still not making adequate progress despite intensive, individualized amount support, it is likely that an evaluation is warranted to determine if there is a learning disability, intellectual disability, language impairment, or other condition that is preventing the student from making progress. If an evaluation is requested, schools should adjust the instruction further and continue with an intensive level of support while waiting for the evaluation to be completed.
There are a million nooks-and-crannies (which you can explore here) that go into what those three tiers of MTSS. School improvement, behavior management, and curriculum evaluation are part of that. They are details for the professionals you entrust your children with to sort through. But when you get down to what MTSS really is, it is just a way of doing things to make sure all children are being taught at their level so everyone can grow and have their needs met.
Is Your Child’s School Using MTSS Effectively? If So, Then…
- They are monitoring your child’s progress in every tier. Just as the instruction gets more intense and specific, so does the progress monitoring (i.e., Tier 2 / small group progress may be monitored monthly, while students receiving Tier 3 / intensive instruction should be monitored at least weekly).
- They are communicating with you about what tier of support your child is in and showing specific data (yay, line graphs!) that illustrates progress.
- They are meeting regularly to make sure that the instruction at your child’s school is effective. This means looking at individual classrooms and grades to make sure most students are making gains, and when they are not, analyzing why not (i.e., Is the reading series we use not as good as we hoped? Is Mr. Jones teaching fractions correctly?).
- Teams are providing your child with help before (and while) any type of testing or ESE services have begun. They will continue providing a high level of support regardless of the outcome of the evaluation.
- They use the MTSS model in a similar manner to help improve behavior issues at the school as well.
And most importantly…
- They will NOT allow your child to fall through the cracks!
Matthew Wiggins, Ed.S
Licensed School Psychologist
WigginsEvals.com
Why Does the Gifted Testing Process Take So Long?
“I just wasn’t willing to wait all year for the school to do the testing.” This is the sentiment so many parents express when reaching out to me to test their children for giftedness. Sometimes they make that call due to a disputed score or concerns with a previous test, but 9 times out of 10, it comes down to one issue: Time.
Most psychologists at our public schools are very good at what they do and provide excellent gifted evaluations (though if I may sell myself for a moment, I look A LOT like Superman and exude great charm matched only by my modesty, but I digress). Several factors, most out of the hands of the school’s psychologist, contribute to excessive wait times during “the process” of having a child tested for gifted eligibility.
Schedule Your Gifted Evaluation Today!
So why, specifically, does it takes so long to have that gifted test done at school? Below is a typical (read: no hyperbole needed) timeline of events that illustrate why a gifted evaluation takes so long to be completed.
The Screening Process Begins
November 4 – Ms. Waters requests that her son, Roger, be tested for the gifted program. Before he can be formally tested, she is told, Roger must be screened by the school counselor. Paperwork is signed, Roger is added to “the list,” and the wait begins.
December 15 – The school counselor is able to screen Roger using the KBIT-2, a brief IQ test. Ms. Waters is informed that her son’s KBIT-2 score of 125 has made the cutoff, and he will be given the full gifted evaluation by the school psychologist. Knowing how important the evaluation is for Ms. Waters, the counselor expedites getting paperwork ready to submit to the district so the next stage can begin before the Christmas break.
December 17 – Ms. Waters comes in to sign a consent form to allow Roger to be given the full IQ test. She is informed that the evaluation will take place within 90 school days of this date.
Ticking away. The moments that make up the dull day.
The Evaluation Clock Starts (Officially) Ticking
January 4 – When Roger returns to school after the holidays, he is officially on day three of the 90 school days that the evaluation must be completed within. He waits…
February 2 – Groundhog Day. Also, the 23rd school day since consent was signed. Ms. Waters, though eager, patiently waits…
February 22 – After the Rodeo Day Holiday (not a joke in Osceola County! But don’t worry, they make up for it by attending school on President’s Day), Ms. Waters’ calls the school psychologist to inquire when Roger may be evaluated. It is now day 36 towards the 90 day deadline. The psychologist offers genuine sympathy and understanding with Ms. Waters’ growing impatience and assures her that she will work with Roger as soon as she possibly can.
What the school psychologist does not share with Ms. Waters is that since that consent form was signed, she has been juggling two schools, so she is on campus only a day or two each week. Half of her time is spent in mandatory meetings (MTSS / RtI meetings, staffings, district trainings, etc.), and she is fortunate if she gets a full day at one of her schools to devote to testing. She currently has 28 referrals to evaluate other students, most of whom are struggling learners or students with significant behavior problems. For each evaluation she conducts, she writes a psychoeducational report, each of which take several hours to complete. Meetings are then scheduled to discuss the results of each evaluation. Because she is on the district crisis team, she missed two of her regularly scheduled school days last week to provide counseling at a school across the county that had a teacher unexpectedly pass away. Oh, and that scuttlebutt parents had heard about the kindergartener who bit the teacher and had run away from the class several times? That was true, and the school psychologist has been instructed to bump that youngster to the top of her evaluation list for safety reasons.
March 11 – Day 50. Still waiting…
March 14-18 – Spring Break.
April 15 – Day 70. Still waiting…
So you run and you run to catch up with the sun, but it’s sinking.
Evaluation Day!
April 28 – After a week of FSA testing, and on the 78th day after having signed consent, Ms. Waters brilliant son is finally tested! The next day, an excited Ms. Waters calls the school psychologist to ask how Roger did. She is informed that the results cannot be shared at that time, but once the report is written, they will schedule a meeting to discuss the results and all program options.
May 6 – Day 84. The school psychologist completes Roger’s report and submits it for processing at the district office, six days ahead of the 90th day deadline.
May 11 – Roger’s school receives the processed report with his gifted evaluation results from the district office. Ms. Waters is contacted to set up a meeting to discuss the results. The meeting will need to be scheduled for the last week of May due to the large number of ESE meetings that are required to take place before summer vacation.
The sun is the same in a relative way, but you’re older.
Evaluation Results
May 26 – Finally, the meeting to discuss Roger’s testing results takes place, and with his RIAS IQ of 134, he officially qualifies for the gifted program. His services will begin next year.
June 9 – School lets out for summer break.
The time is gone. The song is over. Thought I’d something more to say.
Coda
So why does it takes so long for a school to test a child like Roger for the gifted program? Well, here you have it. Run this article by your school’s psychologist or counselor and ask how realistic it all sounds and I bet you get at least a wink if not an affirmative grin. Site-based school psychologists or even psychologists who specialize in only gifted testing within districts would drastically speed up the process, so advocating for such things with your local school board and / or legislators may be a worthwhile endeavor to prevent wasted school years like the one Roger experienced. In the meantime, I hear that there are private evaluators out there who can bypass the screening process, administer the full IQ test, and provide results faster than a speeding bullet. Up, up and away!
(*Note – Since publishing this article, the timeline has been trimmed by the state to 60 days.)
Matthew Wiggins, Ed.S
Licensed School Psychologist
WigginsEvals.com
When Your Gifted Child is Yin to Your Yang: 4 Tips for Supporting the Scattered Gifted Child
Sitting on the right side of the couch, meet Mother Yang: highly intellectual, neat and tidy, everything organized and categorized, runs her home business like clockwork, a bit of a perfectionist, and is never late for an appointment. To the left we have Kid Yin: highly intellectual, shoes kicked off haphazardly on the floor, several piles of comics, books, electronics, and who-knows-what-else scattered throughout the living room, starts but does not finish things, and understands the complexities of time as a continuum, but managing it to catch the morning bus is onerous.
We all want to relate to, support, and nurture our children, no matter how yang they are to our yin. With this in mind, here are four tips for to help organized parents support their scattered gifted children:
Be part of your child feeling comfortable being herself. Children with superior intelligence, despite their intellectual gifts, often feel different and out of place. Their interests, 
senses of humor, and the vast places their thoughts travel to are frequently unlike at least 95% of their peers. This leads to many gifted kids being extremely self-conscious, often wishing they could be more “normal” like the other kids. Parents can alleviate such insecurity and breed confidence by acknowledging but also praising differences. For instance, your gifted child may be less of a “concrete thinker” than her parents, but her creativity and ability to think “outside of the box” can (and should!) be celebrated.
Help your child with organization, but avoid over-organizing. When having your child locate a homework assignment in his backpack leads to a heap of crumpled, wrinkly papers (and other childhood debris), it is natural for the tidy parent to snap into action to keep things in order. But what may come naturally to you may be a significant challenge to your gifted child. It makes sense in your mind to have a folder for every subject and a well categorized planner to keep assignments in line. To your child, this may feel impossible or inconsequential or both. A happy medium to avoid over-organizing is having your child keep two folders: one for homework, one for classwork. A simple notebook or calendar to write down assignments will help as well.
Follow your child’s lead and expand on his interests. You love taking family bike rides. He would rather build inside with Lego (a nod to Lego enthusiasts: I’ve heard you loud and clear. No “s” on the end of Lego!). You like Civil War history, but he is delving deep into the differences between various whale species. Your into family TV sitcoms, but he can’t get enough of Dr. Who. Making a conscious effort to show interest in topics that are important to your child, even if that means faking it, is an excellent way to validate how important he is to you. Sit down and let him educate you on a science topic he is becoming fascinated with. Schedule family field trips to museums, science centers, parks, or conventions to share in authentic experiences. Your child will feel important, and your bond will be made stronger despite your differences.
Advocate for your gifted child. Some people will not “get” your child. Many assume “gifted” means “perfect.” Or at least easy to teach at school and raise at home. So when (euphemism alert) misguided folks experience your gifted kid who can’t ever seem to remember to bring his lunchbox or homework to school, spaces out, and isn’t the most mature student out at the playground, you can be a great advocate not just for your child, but for the gifted community. Letting teachers and other parents know that high intelligence often comes with its own challenges will be eye opening to many. Share his challenges with teachers, what has and has not worked in the past, and what your goals are moving forward to help foster a strong parent-school relationship that will help ensure that your child’s teacher really “gets” him.
While you and your gifted child may be complete opposites, keep in mind that yin and yang represent two forces that despite their contrasts, are perfectly complimentary. It’s not easy, but as a caring parent, you will guide you and your child to a place of harmony and balance… that might be a little cluttered.
Wiggins Educational Evaluations 