Academic strategies must be developed and consolidated, which can be supported by the MTSS implementation . This diagnostic monitoring is proven to be effective and is ensured by tiered support. Often, the initial focus of MTSS in elementary schools is on basic academic skills in reading, writing, and math .
When considering MTSS for your district, school or classroom, it’s best to start by identifying why. The MTSS umbrella combines elements of RTI and PBIS to address the whole student. This is important because intervention is usually more effective when it’s done early. Schools often don’t have the resources and time to allow for the personalized instruction that tiers 2 and 3 require, Fuchs said. The biggest challenge of MTSS is its implementation, according to Fuchs, Zumeta Edmonds, and Yell. “If you really have a good system, and it’s working, you should have fewer nonresponders that wind up getting referred to special education, because their needs are being addressed in these earlier tiers of instruction,” he said.
In implementation trials, mediators represent proximal targets believed to influence more distal endpoints such as implementation outcomes (e.g., EBT acceptability, adoption, fidelity, penetration, or sustainment) or clinical outcomes (e.g., reduced symptoms or improved functioning; Proctor et al. 2011). As a result little is known about the mutable, generalizable, and causal change mechanisms through which implementation strategies improve care. However, despite the proliferation of research, the accumulating body of evidence offers little information regarding how and why effective implementation strategies facilitate EBT adoption and integration. “We know any challenges in any of those areas could really create significant barriers to students’ learning,” Zakszeski says. This is why a robust MTSS framework is so important for schools.