How to run MTSS

Why this matters

An MTSS coordinator plans small groups from screening scores, and schools generally screen three times a year (MTSS Center). A score says a student is behind, and says nothing about what the student misunderstood. Teachers see the misunderstanding in class work every day, but nobody has time to read all of it, so a student who thinks plants get their food from the soil can carry that idea until the next screening.

What MTSS is, and the three tiers

A multi-tiered system of supports (MTSS) is "a proactive and preventative framework that integrates data and instruction to maximize student success", according to the Center on Multi-Tiered System of Supports at the American Institutes for Research. The Center names four essential components: screening, progress monitoring, a multi-level prevention system and data-based decision making (MTSS Center).

The prevention system has three tiers of increasing intensity. Tier 1 is high-quality core instruction for all students, and in an effective system most students do well with Tier 1 alone. Tier 2 is small-group support with interventions that have worked for the same need, and it gives students more practice and corrective feedback. Tier 3 is intensive, individualized support for students who don't respond to Tier 2 (MTSS Center). Teams decide who moves between tiers with written decision rules and a problem-solving process (MTSS Center).

1. Check that Tier 1 works for most students in each class
2. Group students for Tier 2 by the specific skill they missed
3. Look across subjects before a student moves to more intensive support

Screeners and progress-monitoring tools give the scores for these steps, and Flint is neither. Flint shows where students stand on the standards your school adopted, from their work in Flint, and Sparky, Flint's AI, can tell a coach what each student got wrong.

Sparky shows the coach which students have not met a standard, and why

The school, students and staff here are made up. Sparky's answers are its real answers about an example class, shortened.

What Flint did for Mr. Bennett

• Sparky named each student's misconception from their own answers, such as James writing "dirt, water and sun" for what a plant takes in.
• Sparky put Henry, James and Elijah in one group because all three think plant mass comes from the soil, and said to check in with Charlotte first because she fixed her mistake after a hint.
• Sparky found that James is struggling in both science and English, with a different gap in each: precise evidence in science, and summarizing the plot instead of stating a theme in English.

A coordinator can't read every student's work in every class before a data meeting, and Sparky reads all of it.

The Outcomes page shows where every student stands on each standard

Where students stand, on Flint's Outcomes page, splits every standard into Met, Approaching and Not yet, for the whole school or one class. Standards Outcomes below it shows each student's evidence from their work, grouped by how the student engaged the standard, such as Needed support or Misconception corrected.

Try it with your school for free

Flint is free for up to 80 users, counting students, teachers and administrators. A teacher adopts standards in a class's Curriculum tab and turns on Auto-grading with a rubric in an activity's settings, so Sparky grades the work against those standards. Then open Admin, then Analytics, then Outcomes for the whole school, or open a class and click Analytics in the class sidebar for one class. The speech-bubble button at the top left opens Ask Sparky about your analytics.

For more on what school leaders see in Flint, read Flint for school leaders.