Most schools have adopted multi-tiered systems of support (MTSS) to increase the achievement for all of their students. Implementing MTSS frameworks requires the early identification of students in need of additional support, the provision of increasingly intensive interventions to help meet students’ needs, and monitoring student progress over time. Implementing an MTSS framework is a resource intensive process. Our research focuses on identifying the evidence supporting assessment and intervention practices and ways that schools can streamline these procedures to maximize their benefits for the students who receive them. To date, our work has focused on two critical aspects of implementing MTSS, universal screening and tiered interventions.
Universal Screening to Identify Academic Risk
Universal screening is a process in which schools administer short assessment (or assessments) to all students to identify students who are in need of additional support. We have collaborated with a number of districts to conduct independent evaluations of their current screening procedures to identify their accuracy in identifying students in need of additional support in math and reading.