"Implementing MTSS in High School" was recommended by my Principal Mentor at Corinth Holders High School to be my Problem of Practice. Johnston County Public Schools required all high schools in the District to implement MTSS by the end of the 2021-22 school year. Previously, only middle and elementary schools were required to have an MTSS program. Because I have over ten years experience at the elementary level, I was excited to see what results we could get in a secondary school.

High school was a challenge as there are only four blocks in a day, and tight time requirements for core instruction. I broke this project up into two separate parts: implementing the framework of MTSS, and running the process. It took longer than expected to get the structure in place as there were many components such as training teachers, obtaining and training on the interventions, setting up a workable schedule, communications to parents and combing through data to identify MTSS candidates. One of the most challenging pieces was getting teacher buy-in after coming out of our COVID years. Teachers were reluctant to take on "one more thing" as teacher shortages meant staff were covering classes for open positions, taking on extra duties due to a lack of custodians and cafeteria workers, and already exhausted from making instructional changes from virtual to in-person. We were able to get six interventionists for ELA and six interventionists for Math.

We started interventions in October, 2021, and by February 2022 were beginning to see some positive results. Students who were now meeting benchmark scores on their Progress Monitors were able to be exited from the program. We have seen a rise in our MTSS student's grades in their core subjects and teacher feedback overall has been positive. I feel we have a good MTSS program in place now that is sustainable and viable to be continued in the coming years. We have already begun looking at incoming Freshman data for next year and are planning to add more intervention classes in 2022-23.