For decades, the "Reading Wars" have sparked fierce debates over the best way to teach reading. But at the heart of it all, one truth remains: without strong foundational reading skills, students will struggle in school and in life. Phonemic awareness, phonics, fluency, vocabulary, and comprehension aren’t just check boxes in early education; they’re the building blocks that determine a child’s ability to become a fluent, independent reader.
And the reading struggles don’t stop in elementary school. Nearly 30% of eighth graders lack basic reading mastery, meaning far too many students enter high school unprepared to tackle advanced coursework. Without intervention, these gaps don’t just persist—they widen, making graduation and future success even harder to achieve. It’s time to rethink how we support readers at every grade level before it’s too late.
As we bid farewell to 2024 (what a year it's been!) and prepare for the new year, it’s the perfect time to highlight some of the game-changing MTSS resources and stories you loved this year!
From improving reading outcomes to creating behavioral support systems that work for students and teachers, these resources can help enhance your MTSS intervention strategies for 2025.
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-Tied 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!
Do you ever find yourself trying to make sense of all the assessments your students are expected to take, only to end up with more questions (and maybe a headache)? When should they take the assessments? Are they for ALL students or only SOME students? Which teachers can administer them? Which students need testing accommodations, and which accommodations do they need?
As more and more schools implement a Multi-Tiered System of Supports, a common question I hear in my work as an educational consultant among teachers, administrators, and instructional leaders is, “How are Tier 1 and Tier 2 Different?” They want to know what it means to differentiate at the Tier 1 level, and how this is different than a Tier 2 intervention. It is a valid question that resonates with frustrated teachers experiencing initiative fatigue. The bottom line is that teachers want to understand how their daily instruction is expected to change.
During the past couple of weeks, I have facilitated Branching Minds’ “Foundations of MTSS” for two elementary campuses. I asked one of the principals what I should write about in a blog dedicated to MTSS on an elementary campus. She pointed out that she wanted to hear more about the layers of support illustrated in the graphic below. “Okay”, I thought I could work on that.
I remember the days when I was teaching a classroom full of 2nd graders, intending to ensure each student would experience success. Then reality set in…Johnny, Sue, and Ben could not read, Sara, Keon, Nhu, and Mike could not learn how to tell time to the half-hour, and Christian, Debora, and Aaron had some behavioral challenges.