Essential Understandings

Cycle Step 4: What will we do if our students have not learned it?

What the Research Says:

Alhambra educators are committed to ensuring the success of every student. Success is defined as graduating lifelong learners who will successfully compete, lead, and positively impact the world. Teachers join the profession because they are passionate and want to help children. They recognize that all students do not learn in the same way, enter school with the same prior knowledge and skills, or have the same academic support at home (DuFour et al. 2016). Some students will need additional time and support to learn at high levels. In order to achieve the district’s mission, schools must have a systematic process to address the question, “What will we do if our students have not learned it?”

An educational framework for improving outcomes for all students is commonly referred to as multi-tiered systems of support (MTSS). This approach is also known as response to intervention (RTI). The MTSS framework consists of a continuum of evidence-based practices that are matched to student needs. The process focuses on gathering information on individual student learning to guide systematic support at the classroom, school, and district levels to ensure student success (Goodman & Bohanon, 2018). When implemented effectively, MTSS provides educators with a powerful tool to meet all students’ needs and close achievement gaps. Longitudinal studies show that MTSS has an impact on student achievement greater than any environmental factor including economic status, limited language proficiency, or lack of home support (Hattie, 2008).

According to Mattos (2016), “The MTSS approach is designed around four basic assumptions:

1. If the ultimate goal of a learning-focused school is to ensure that every student ends each year having acquired the essential skills, knowledge, and behaviors required for success at the next level, then all students must have access to grade-level essential curriculum as part of their core instruction.

2. At the end of every unit of study some students will need some additional time and support to master essential grade-level curriculum.

3. Some students will enter each school year lacking essential foundational skills that should have been mastered in prior years – skills such as foundational reading, writing, number sense, and English language. These students will require intensive interventions in order for students to succeed.

4. Some students will require all three of the above areas to succeed.”

Alhambra educators accept this reality and plan accordingly to design multi-tiered systems of support focused on closing achievement gaps.

There are three tiers of support within MTSS. At each level, students receive support based on data relevant to their needs. The process is fluid in the sense that students maintain access to all tiers as needed and may exit interventions in Tiers 2 and 3 as gaps close (Goodman and Bohanon, 2018). Time and targeted instruction become the variables in this process and student learning the required constant.

According to Buffum, Mattos, and Weber (2010), “In Tier 1, schools act to ensure that every student has access to a rigorous, grade-level curriculum and highly effective core instruction.

Teacher teams work collaboratively to:

• define essential standards

• deconstruct standards

• develop learning targets that identify what each student must be able to know and do to demonstrate proficiency

• identify prior skills needed to master the standards

• identify how to assess students on each target and what will constitute mastery

• and create a scope and sequence for the learning targets that would govern their pacing.”

Using this information, collaborative teams create common assessments and compare results to determine which core instructional practices were most and least effective. Using data from common assessments and classroom observations, teacher teams work collaboratively to plan approaches for scaffolding content delivery and differentiating instruction based on student needs, setting aside time to meet with small groups of students to address gaps in learning. Enrichment and reteaching are essential aspects of strong Tier 1 instruction.

As teachers and teams determine which students have not yet learned the essential standards during Tier 1 instructional time at the end of a unit of study, they should begin to put plans in place for Tier 2 intervention. Tier 2 support may be delivered in whole group and/or small group settings, depending on the needs of the students. Buffum, Mattos, and Weber (2010) found that “research has shown that small-group instruction can be highly effective in helping students master essential learnings” and that “interventions are most effective when [they] are timely, structured, and mandatory; focused on the cause of a student's struggles rather than on a symptom (for example, a letter grade); administered by a trained professional; and part of a system that guarantees that these practices apply no matter which teacher a student is assigned to.”

“At Tier 3, effective schools guarantee that all students in need of intensive support receive this help in addition to core instruction—not in place of it. If the goal is to ensure that all students learn at high levels, then replacing core instruction with remedial assistance not only fails to achieve this outcome, but also tracks at-risk students into below-grade-level curriculum” (Buffum, Mattos & Weber, 2010).

Schools will benefit from developing a team to address the varied Tier 3 needs of students. Consideration should be given to individualizing supports that address each student’s social-emotional, behavioral, and instructional needs. These supports are provided outside of, yet do not replace, Tier 1 and 2 supports.

The successful implementation of multi-tiered systems of support at a school requires a culture of collective responsibility, commitment to team collaboration, and an unwavering belief that all students can achieve high levels of learning. Schools make life-altering decisions on behalf of those they serve. Educators have a professional and ethical obligation to utilize proven practices to best ensure every student succeeds.