MTSS:
Evolutions
One Perspective on History
Our education system has grown up through a
process of “Disjointed Incrementalism”
Gifted
The Education
System’s
Programmatic
Evolution
K-12 Education
Migrant
General Ed
Title 1
At Risk
Reynolds, 1988
Special
Ed
ELA
Unintended Effects
 Conflicting programs
 Conflicting funding streams
 Redundancy
 Lack of coordination across programs
 Nonsensical rules about program availability for students
 Extreme complexity in administration and
implementation of the programs
 Confusion for students, families, and stakeholders
Old System Thinking
Title
Gifted
Special Education
General Education
Migrant
At
Risk
Adapted from RtI Innovations Conference Presentations
ELA
Bridging the Gap
EVERY ED
Intensive Supports
Targeted Supports
Universal Supports
Adapted from RtI Innovations Conference Presentations
Bridging the Gap
“EVERY ED” = Every Kid!
Intensive Supports
Targeted Supports
Universal Supports
Adapted from RtI Innovations Conference Presentations
Colorado Special Education Data
Source: Part B FFY Annual Performance Report for Special Education
Considerations for Looking at your
Data
 Consider looking at Cohorts of students over several years.
 Look at achievement data for Special Populations by school
and by classroom if necessary.
 Contrast high-performing schools with lowest performers
 Identify those with high impact needs (FRL, ELL, etc.)
 When high turnover of staff occurs- use climate survey as a
gauge for staff morale.
 Get more information by including ODR’s, truancy, S/E
 For at-risk populations use attendance, behavior and
achievement/grades regularly.
Explicit connections (UIP/RDA)
Continuous Improvement Processes
 Unified Improvement Planning (UIP)
 Systems Implementation
(“every ed”)
 Results Driven Accountability (RDA)
 Collaborative and specialized services
(“special ed”)
Resource Providers collect tool & distribute to tablemates.
Text
Activity
Partner Talk
Timekeeper:
You have
5 mins. for
steps 1-4.
You have
5 mins. for
step 5-6.
Consult: Special Ed. & MTSS Fact Sheet
Steps for Text Rendering:
1. Individually: Quietly review this text.
2. Note: How is this fact sheet organized?
3. Highlight 1-2 phrases that you want to
remember from this document.
4. Think about: Why is this document
important or beneficial?
5. When facilitator gives you the signal,
find someone from another table.
6. Introduce yourselves, and take turns
sharing your notes.
Busting Myths #1: National View
 1990s: Pre Referral policies
 2000s: RtI gets to the tipping point
 2010s: RtI morphs into MTSS
-RtI Action Network
So, how is Colorado
different?
Context for the Conversation