What Does Fidelity Monitoring Mean in MTSS?

Although educators meet frequently to discuss student needs, teacher supports, and interventions, how often is there a discussion around implementing those supports with fidelity? Our goal is to serve the needs of our students. However, without fidelity monitoring in a Multi-Tiered System of Supports (MTSS), we don’t know if the student actually received the high-quality instruction or intervention that we planned! There is often a big difference between a plan on paper and what happens in the day-to-day life of a school.

A consistent plan to monitor and improve the quality of your intervention implementation could be the missing ingredient in your students’ success!

Fidelity Monitoring: A Critical MTSS Practice

Fidelity is a measure of how consistently the critical components of MTSS are implemented in the school setting, including core instruction, interventions, and assessments. The American Institute of Research states that fidelity of implementation is a crucial school infrastructure and support mechanism to ensure the effectiveness of a Multi-Tiered System of Supports. (American Institutes of Research, 2022) This blog will address the fidelity of one part of an MTSS — intervention implementation, including instruction and assessment. 

Fidelity is concerned with the following critical questions around intervention implementation: 

• Program specificity: How explicitly is this intervention defined, and does it impact your students?
• Quality of delivery: How well are the assessment, instruction, and intervention given? Are good teaching practices evident?
• Exposure/Duration: How frequently are students receiving the intervention, and how long is the intervention?
• Student engagement: Are they present and engaged in this intervention?
  
  

What Does Fidelity Monitoring Look Like at the School Level?

When considering interventions and support for students, measuring fidelity means gathering data to check implementation and assessment. Best practice is to have a regular system of observation and feedback for those who provide interventions and assessments. A colleague or supervisor who is trained to use a fidelity rubric can provide much-needed support for teachers and interventionists — something that can be part of the duties of the Student Support Team (SST) and MTSS team members. Fidelity monitoring can also include self-evaluation using reflection or video.

A few questions to consider when thinking about the intervention fidelity for your students are the following:

1. Are grade-level teams and MTSS leadership regularly checking and discussing fidelity of implementation and progress monitoring?
2. What is the current process for monitoring fidelity and differentiation within core instruction and intervention?
3. What are the formative assessment techniques that are embedded within lesson design? Are they effective?
4. How are we supporting staff members who are struggling with fidelity of implementation?
   
   

Even with the best intentions, it can be challenging to keep up with fidelity monitoring. It can feel “optional” somehow, even though it is absolutely critical to the success of an MTSS. 

Tips for Measuring and Improving Fidelity for Educators and Leaders:

• Utilize a fidelity of implementation rubric whenever possible. This goes for academic, behavior, and social-emotional learning and assessment.
• Use direct observation along with self-reporting of fidelity. A different pair of eyes will often catch something that the teacher or interventionist is unaware of (because they are busy teaching!)
• Measure fidelity in a variety of ways and across several settings and times of year.
• Provide adequate training and follow-up to ensure that interventions and assessments are used as intended. 

Why Fidelity Matters

Without a system to check fidelity, we can't be sure that our students are receiving the best possible instruction and intervention. MTSS is about more than compliance and documentation — utilizing a fidelity rubric, direct observation, and regular training and follow-up, we can help ensure that we are providing the high-quality support that our students deserve.

How Branching Minds Strengthens Fidelity in Practice

Branching Minds is built to provide visibility into the entire intervention process, including whether intervention plans are in place for students in need, if those intervention plans are actually being implemented, and if the student is responding.

Source:

• American Institutes for Research. (N.D.). MTSS Infrastructure and Support Mechanisms Series. Retrieved October 28, 2022, From https://mtss4success.org