 Hi, we're going to be discussing MTSS additional support, those Tier 2 supports in your MTSS system. I'm Steph Lundgren, a PD coordinator at ESU 8. And I'm Toni Earhart, the MTSS and PIC coordinator at ESU 8. Welcome. Today we're going to talk about just the quick basics of what MTSS is, then discuss those additional supports of Tier 2, and talk about some diagnostic screeners that you might use to get more information on your students, and also the support that you can get from us at ESU 8. So MTSS, what is it? MTSS is an educational framework for continuous improvement, problem solving, and decision making. It promotes an integrated system connecting general and special education, along with all teaching and learning components, into a high quality standards-based instruction and intervention framework that can be adapted to meet students' academic, social, emotional, and behavior needs from preschool through graduation. So it's really that structure we're using to make great decisions for kids on their learning and what they need more help with, and the things that they've already mastered. Lots of times we see this pyramid with MTSS. In a previous video we talked about Tier 1 or those core supports, and really the aim is for the core supports to meet the needs of at least 80 to 90 percent of your kids. We'd love to get 100 percent of our kids there, but typically if we can shoot for 10 to 15 percent needing that Tier 2 that we're going to talk about today, those layered supports. So we still have the core for all those students, and we're going to layer on some extra support for about 10 to 15 percent, and then we could see 1 to 5 percent need that intensive support, and really when we're talking about MTSS we're talking about the academics and behavior all together. We see improvements in both areas when we address both of them, and it also works with our AQUEST tenants that we can see off to the right there. So additional supports. All right, next is additional support. So additional support is Tier 2, so today we're going to talk about Tier 2. This additional support is for some of the students. So like Steph said, we would like all students, and we would like 100 percent to receive the instruction from the core. However, some students need that layered extra support in order to reach benchmark. So usually that percentage is around 10 to 15 percent that we'd like to see that fall into this category. So then with this Tier 2, it's targeted instruction based on the student's needs. So what are those students low in, and what support can we give them in order to reach benchmark? We want to use evidence-based practices in interventions and make sure those are evidence-based. They have research behind them to back up that support in order to make those gains. And again, this support is in addition to the core, so it's not going to replace it. Those students are still receiving their core instruction, and then you're going to layer on this extra targeted instruction. So how do we determine additional support? So students are placed in your tiers based off of the universal screener results. So that when you guys give that universal screener, you'll see where they place in those tiers, if they're below benchmark, well below, if they met benchmark, or if they're above benchmark. So depending on this will be placed in your tiers, and then that shows what kind of support that they'll need. So your data and your decision rules are made then to decide what they need help in. So what subject areas such as reading, math, behavior, or social emotional learning, and then even what skill that they're low in. Are they low in fluency? Are they low in decoding? So you really want to focus on that need in order to figure out what support that they need. Also, decision rules, they're a little bit complex with districts, and different districts have different needs. So if you guys need any help with decision rules, we have samples, and we're here to help and support you also. So we can definitely help you on that too. So just reach out to us if you need help with decision rules. And another thing with these tiers is students can go in and out based on their data. So you have to base their needs off of what the data is saying. So if they're meeting benchmark, they don't need to be in an intervention. They can receive their information from that core. So there's fluid movement based on the needs. And also students may go in and out of the tiers based on what your district can provide for the support. So different districts may be able to provide a little bit more or less. And that would be dependent on your decision rules. So please, if you have any questions on that, ask us. So Tony, throughout the year as they have different MTSS meetings, you might move kids in and out of groups. Yep, definitely. So definitely use those research based interventions for this additional support in tier two. In tier two, the interventions need to be research based. They need to be specific to the skills. Often they're provided in small groups, provide a rapid student response, and that explicit instruction is important in these research based interventions. Here are some great websites to look at when reviewing research based interventions. These are the top five that are most commonly used and that we would suggest also to look at if you guys need any help figuring out interventions or what the research states about them. And here's also a few more that you can touch base on also that have some great information. So we need to monitor that additional support or monitor those interventions and see, you know, are the interventions we're using even working for our kids? Are they making the progress that they need to make to get to that end goal that we're looking for? And so progress monitoring is the practice of testing students briefly but frequently on a skill area in which they are receiving instruction to ensure that they're making adequate progress to attain the benchmark goal. And that's the definition from a cadence. Most of our schools are using a cadence as their screener. And we know that those progress monitoring tests are given pretty much every week for students. Some are every other week. Some are once a month. And really we are just looking at seeing, you know, are they on the road to meeting that later goal. So the purpose for progress monitoring provide that ongoing feedback of the effectiveness of our instruction. And really that's part of NTSS is looking reflectively at our instruction and not just seeing, you know, is it all on the kid but really are we tailoring our instruction to that student's needs. And so our instructional practice is working. We're going to determine students' progress toward that goal like we talked about before. And we can make timely decisions about changes to instruction so that the students will meet those goals. So, you know, we can see, hey, you know, partway through the semester, the student really isn't on track, isn't making progress toward their aim line. What do we need to switch up? Do we need to add some more time to that intervention? Do we need to add some fidelity? Do we need to make it a smaller group so that each student has more response opportunities? So that's really the purpose of our progress monitoring, monitoring that progress towards the goal. So then how do we evaluate the support that you're given these tier two kids? So you'll want to have team meetings and how often that you have these meetings is up to your district. Oftentimes a lot of schools have these meetings after each benchmark because they want to leave these students in the support for at least four weeks in order for it to be considered an intervention. So then they have these kids in this intervention until the benchmark and then they use that to evaluate if they need to change the intervention, change the person, or change the amount of time. However, before they do that, though, you definitely need to look at that intervention closely and see if the student's attendance was low, how engaged were they, and their accuracy also. So definitely check those three things first before you go to quick changing up that intervention. Also, you'll want to have those decision rules put together so that when your school does meet, they have rules that they are following to see when they do change interventions, give that extra time, it'll say in those decision rules too. Always look at data and make your decisions based off that data also. And when you have team meetings, make sure they're very clear and your expectations are clear on what you're supposed to be doing. What is your goal for that meeting and what are you supposed to do? What are you supposed to talk about with that student? So definitely have an agenda and an objective so you know what you're going to get done in that meeting. If you need any of the ESU 8 staff, myself, staff, or your school psychologists, we're more than willing to sit in your team meetings also and we can also help come up with agendas if you need to know what to work on. So this is just a review of universal screeners so that you know the difference between universal and diagnostic screeners. So in our previous series of MTSS, we talked about universal screeners more in depth. So if you really have any questions on that, please refer back to that video. But it's the act of assessing all students. So universal is all. Remember you're going to test all of them and see the results and see where these kids fit. It's typically conducted three times a year to identify the level that they perform at. And this measures the critical early skills that are predictive of their skill attainment used to identify the tiers for MTSS. So when we talk about diagnostic screeners, that's taking it a step further. So we've already universally screened all of our students and that's done three times a year. The beginning, the middle, and the end of the year. We have those results in and we might choose to give a diagnostic screener to certain kids who we need that more in-depth information about. So they've scored in the yellow or red, they've scored below or well below. And we need to find out what exact areas should we be working with that student on. Is it a phonemic awareness issue? Is it a phonics issue? What's keeping them back? And so the diagnostic screener will provide that in-depth information about a student's skills and instructional need. It's not used with all students. Again, you would be wasting your time. If your kids are scoring at benchmark, that's great. You don't need to use a diagnostic screener with them. This is really the kids that you're going to need to get at what their deficiencies are. So one source that you could use to help with some of these diagnostics is your ESU 8 school psychologists. They can give some of the diagnostics to help you out and to collaborate with your MTSS team. So some of those examples are the Divils Deep. So that's one that's been widely used. Dr. David Kilpatrick, who's just really a reading guru and a guru on dyslexia, has the past test. There's also the Corphonic Survey and really great reading diagnostic. So these are all links in here. And we are linking our presentation to this video in the description. So please see that for a way to access each of these links on these different diagnostics. Also, you can Google search them. Yep. And then these are just examples of reading ones for reading difficulties. Yes. And of course, there's more. And I totally contact your school psych if you need one for math or for behaviors and SEL type things. So you use this assessment in the diagnostic screener to inform instruction and intervention and make your instruction more focused and more powerful. So again, we're going to focus in on those exact missing skills for kids and get them up to speed. So we're using our time the most wisely that we can. And then how can the ESU-8 support you? All right. So for the ESU support available, we have myself, who's the MTSS coordinator. Please contact me with any questions. You can call me or email me. You can also refer to these series of videos that we have. Otherwise, Steph Lundgren, she's a PD coordinator. You can ask her with any questions. She has great experience with MTSS. And your school psychologists are available also. And their main focus are going to be your screeners or interventions if you have any questions on those. But please reach out to us. The different things that we can offer our professional learning, we can come out and do personalized professional development, classroom coaching, instructional coaching. We can offer fidelity checks. And then definitely the collaboration and support. We're always here to support you based on your needs. So please reach out to us on what you need for your school. We also developed MTSS days at our ESU. This is a five-year process with two days in each year, along with a workday at the end to look at your data. So you would enter- I'm sorry. Sorry to interrupt you, Tony, but also we would have on-site support through all that too, where we'd have coaching back at your school in between our meeting dates. Definitely. Yep, that on-site coaching comes with the MTSS days. And then you'd start at year one, which is strengthening the core and then you would go into your interventions and you would keep building. You continue to do the things that you're doing, but this just gives you guidance on where to start and what to continue to do to build the MTSS process at your school. And it's in the subject area that you want to focus in, whether it's reading, whether it's math, whether it's at the elementary or junior high level, this fits to your needs. So we're definitely here to support you. Please reach out to us with any questions. Yeah, thanks, everybody. Here's our contact information. So again, just reach out. We're here to help you. Yeah, thank you very much. Have a good day.