Building a Foundation to Meet Every Student Where They Are

It was an exciting start to the school year at Northwest Middle School! The school hosted all of its network’s interventionists for a meeting about the Multi-Tiered System of Supports (MTSS) framework. This framework is essential to help interventionists provide every student with the targeted support that they need to succeed academically. 

It includes three tiers. Tier I is core instruction and supports for all students; Tier II is targeted supplemental instruction and intervention, often held in small groups; and Tier III is intensive individualized instruction and intervention. 

We connected with Ms. Cindy Alvarado and Ms. Rehmat Khan, interventionists at Northwest, to learn more about how this meeting went and how they are using it as a starting place for a successful school year. 

How did your MTSS meeting go? 

It was extremely helpful to connect with other interventionists across the network, and instructional support leaders from the network were also present to answer questions about the role and practices that other schools are using. It was a really great reminder that we aren’t alone in this work. 

What were some of your key takeaways from the meeting? 

Since it’s the beginning of the school year, there was a lot of talk about scheduling, including the right approach as we begin scheduling interventions with students. We also talked about tier movement and how students can change tier levels during the year. And we discussed the problem-solving process—collaborating with teachers to make sure that every student receives the support they need. 

How do you involve parents and teachers in the MTSS process? 

This work starts with making sure that our parents understand our roles within the school. We make sure they have our contact information and know they are always welcome to reach out to us. 

With teachers, we collaborate through grade-level meetings. And we also meet as an MTSS team as well. We have a big spreadsheet that helps us stay organized and reach our goal of providing interventions to every student in Tier II or Tier III. 

What advice would you give to other schools related to MTSS? 

Take advantage of the District’s virtual training! There is a whole calendar of virtual topics that are so easy to access. The CPS MTSS website is also a great resource. 

What is your message to your students for this school year? 

MTSS is fun! It’s not constricting, and we always try to creatively implement interventions based on the skills our students need. Our students should always remember that they have a lot of strengths, and they should try to keep from being discouraged because progress takes time. We know that they can be great and do great!