May 1, 2024 • 40 mins
Ever wondered how a school ecosystem can adapt to better serve both students and educators? This episode is a deep dive into the world of MTSS (Multi-Tiered System of Supports) and its profound impact on the educational journey. Join me, as we unravel the skepticism and spotlight the true transformative power of MTSS within education. You'll come away with a fresh understanding of how MTSS not only propels students into becoming active participants in their learning but also strengthens their resolve to tackle academic challenges. It's about building resilience, motivation, and a community that supports each learner's unique path.
Our conversation goes beyond the student desk to the heart of our schools—the teachers and administrators. Delve into the collaborative spirit that MTSS fosters among educators, providing them with an arsenal of strategies against burnout and isolation. We'll share stories from the frontlines, including how MTSS is not a shortcut to special education but a bastion for targeted support, easing the load on those resources. For parents tuning in, this episode sheds light on the clarity and empowerment MTSS brings to understanding and engaging with your child's educational needs. Together, we're painting a picture of a healthier, more supportive educational system for all.
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Links Mentioned in the Show:
https://teachingstrugglinglearners.com
5 Steps to Getting Started with Progress Monitoring
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:01):
We know what MTSS is and if you don't, you can always
go back a couple podcastepisodes and listen to.
I think it was episode 90,where I explained exactly what
MTSS is and all the tiers andeverything.
And last week we talked aboutthe purpose behind MTSS.
(00:21):
But that's all, honestly,really theoretical and teachers,
schools they have to work in.
Yeah, they have the realm oftheoretical to back up what
they're saying, but really theyneed to know actual results.
They need to know the actualbenefits of MTSS or the
(00:46):
differentiation levels and allthat.
The fact is that students,teachers, classrooms, schools,
districts all of those differentlevels should be getting some
benefit from the MTSS process.
But what are those benefits?
That's what we're going to talkabout today.
(01:06):
Hi, I'm Jessica Curtis ofTeaching Struggling Learners.
I'm a boy mom and a veteranteacher.
You're listening to theReaching Struggling Learners
podcast where we talk all abouthelping students succeed
(01:27):
academically, socially andbehaviorally.
Thank you so much for tuning.
In.
Several times over the lastseveral years that I was working
with different school districts, I had several different
(01:49):
administrators at the secondarylevel explain to me that MTSS
for the secondary level was acomplete and utter waste of time
, energy resources and, at onepoint time, energy resources,
and at one point I even had anadministrator explain to me that
she was not going to waste hertime even thinking about that
(02:11):
process, the mandated process.
She wasn't going to think aboutthat because it was such a
waste of time and she had suchbetter things that she could be
filling her time with to serveher students.
If only those administratorscould have understood the
benefits that they could haveseen in their school districts
(02:33):
and in their schools.
The fact is, mtss does havesome really significant benefits
at every single level if wefollow the process, the system,
correctly and we actually use itthe way it was meant to be.
Today, I just want to talkabout the different levels of
(02:55):
benefit that could be achievedif we are following the MTSS
process the way that it'ssupposed to be done.
Now, all of these benefits areimportant.
All of them can be justabsolutely life-changing for
students.
But I am also listing all thesebenefits with the assumption
(03:18):
that the school is following theprocess, making MTSS, the
different levels of MTSS, asefficient as possible.
Now, I realize this is not autopian world.
We have a long way to go, butthis is what we should be
striving for these benefits thatI'm about to lay out for you.
(03:41):
This is what we should bestriving for, about to lay out
for you.
This is what we should bestriving for Every time we meet
for MTSS, every time we go overMTSS data or do data chats.
This is what we're going forhere.
So obviously, I always want tostart out with the students
right, because, let's face it,what are schools without
(04:08):
students?
We have to be giving them theeducation, the experiences that
they deserve and that they needto be successful.
So when we perform the MTSSsystem properly, students at all
levels, elementary throughsecondary they can absolutely
see progress, significantprogress.
They can also start to reallyunderstand their own learning.
(04:30):
When we're talking about tiertwo and tier three specifically,
those smaller groups can bereally, really significant in
helping the students tounderstand the way that they
learn and the way that theylearn most easily.
We all know that every singlestudent is different.
Every single student learnsjust a little bit differently
(04:53):
than the one sitting next tothem or the one sitting in front
of them.
We know that as educators.
We know that as parents.
If you have more than one kid,you know, looking at your
children, those children do notlearn the exact same way.
They don't act the exact same.
They're different kiddos and sowhen we employ MTSS, tier 2 and
(05:13):
Tier 3 specifically forstudents who are struggling, we
have a wonderful opportunity toteach those kiddos how they
think, not what to think thosekiddos how they think, not what
to think, but how they think andhow they learn, which is a huge
opportunity for them to takecontrol of their own learning
and that they can move forwardwith some strategies and how
(05:38):
they can help themselves, which,honestly, that is hugely
empowering for children.
It's empowering for anyone, butright now we're talking about
kids in school.
It is hugely empowering to givethem the keys to their own
success, not just the littleskills that we want them to
learn, but actually the keysthat they can use to learn for
(06:01):
themselves, to choose what theywant to learn, what they want to
focus on.
That's huge and obviously,students who are successful,
students who have met achallenge, struggled a little
bit and have overcome it, havelearned, have been able to see
the progress that they have madethrough hard work, through
(06:22):
extra work, through the graphsthat we make, through progress
monitoring.
That very much bolsters astudent's confidence level.
When children meet and overcomechallenges.
That opens up moreopportunities for them because
(06:42):
they see that, hey, thischallenging thing that I've just
experienced, I can be okay, Ican meet a challenge, I can
overcome it and I can be betterfor it.
I can be better on the otherside.
So that very much boosts astudent's confidence and, by the
(07:03):
way, it also motivates them towhen they come up against a
challenge again in the futureacademically, they know in their
head hey, I know I can overcomethis because I overcame that
other thing back there.
But I'm motivated to try alittle bit harder, put a little
bit more effort in, because Iknow that I can progress.
(07:25):
I know that I can beat thatchallenge.
Now, obviously, every singlestudent is different.
Every single student is goingto see progress at a different
level, is going to gain moreconfidence or less confidence,
based on who they are, as a asan individual.
But across the students who aregiven the proper tier two and
(07:46):
tier three interventions, theyreceive all of those benefits.
And all of that rolls into thebenefits that our teachers see.
Now the first thing is kind ofobvious Obviously, our teachers
want to see their children,their students, succeed.
Teachers want the students tomake progress.
(08:08):
They want them to be able toread, they want them to be able
to do math, to write on gradelevel.
They want these things.
And so when we provide theproper supports for their
students, right then and thereteachers are much happier than
they were.
When we're not giving the kidswhat they need, just the
opportunity to have support fortheir students, that's a really
(08:32):
big win for teachers because,let's be honest, teaching is a
lonely profession and knowingthat there is a group of people
in the school that is going tomeet on a regular basis to help
their students Again, assumingthat we are performing the MTSS
(08:53):
meetings appropriately, assumingthat the teachers are not put
on the spot and made to feel badit's a judgment-free zone, like
we talked about in previouspodcast episodes that is hugely
beneficial to teachers to knowthat somebody's got their back,
that somebody is going to helptheir students who need it.
(09:14):
Also, like we've talked about inprevious episodes, it is a big
benefit to teachers to learn newstrategies or get new resources
through this MTSS process.
Even teachers who have beenteaching for 30 years can come
into a meeting and talk about astudent that is struggling in
(09:37):
their classroom and come awaywith something new, something
new to try some new resourceAgain, having that backup of
knowing that, yeah, I have thisstudent that's struggling.
It's not all on that teacher totry and figure it out.
Do it all on their own.
(09:58):
No, they have backup, they havesomeone, they have a group of
someones who are there who aregoing to share strategies, who
are going to share resources.
That's huge and teachers wantthat.
They want to have support, theywant to have a communal sharing
of resources and strategies,again in a non-judgmental area.
(10:22):
It has to be a judgment-freezone.
Part of the reason that teacherslove learning new strategies,
getting new resources, isbecause, yeah, they want to see
their students perform well.
They also want to improve theirown craft.
Teachers are lifelong learners.
That's part of the reason theygot into the profession.
They value education, theyvalue learning, and so when they
(10:48):
are given opportunities on aregular basis in a comfortable
environment to improve their owncraft, their own teaching craft
, that is a huge motivationaland confidence booster.
That is absolutely going tohelp teachers be better.
Teachers feel like they'remaking improvement, feel like
(11:11):
they're making a difference, andthat's really, really what they
want.
Teachers need to feel moresupported.
We've talked about on thisepisode, podcast episode, many
others, and I mean it's in thenews all the time.
Teachers are leaving educationin droves Because, yeah, there's
(11:35):
the money thing we won't eventalk about that because the
money thing is a big one.
But the reality is teachers areleaving the profession because
they don't feel supported.
They have been thrown to thewolves on.
Here's this new curriculum thisyear, and here's this new
curriculum the next year, andhere's you know what?
Do that stuff that you're notreally comfortable with.
(11:57):
Now do it online without anyprep, and now do it kind of
hybrid.
So be prepared to do it online,but also be prepared to do it
in person.
Oh, never mind, you're justwe're back in person.
Oh, never mind, we're going totake two weeks off.
It is ridiculous.
We have to have new curriculum,but the students are far behind
and we're still going to testthem.
(12:18):
But the tests don't matter,because there was the lockdowns
and stuff.
But it does matter for whetheryou get paid and how much you
get paid, and there's a bigpressure to get the test done
and that the students have toperform well on the test, even
(12:39):
though they weren't in schoolfor a year and a half.
Yet teachers don't feelsupported.
They don't.
And if we do the MTSS system,we perform the series of
meetings and providing theinterventions again the way it's
supposed to be teachers dostart to feel supported again.
(13:01):
It's not the end all, it's notthe only thing that we can do or
should do to support ourteachers, but it's a really big
step in the right direction tohelping our teachers feel more
supported.
And then, finally, when itcomes to teachers and the
benefits from MTSS, teachersneed community.
(13:22):
They need to feel like they area part of something.
For a very long time, teachershave been told yeah, you listen
to what's been told to you, theylisten to the gurus, and then
you walk in your classroom andyou shut your door and you do
what you need to do.
That has been said over andover again.
It was said to me when I firststarted teaching and for many
(13:43):
times afterwards.
But the fact is, teachers doneed community.
Teachers cannot continue to doit on their own, certainly not
when we are just throwing newthing after new thing after new
thing and never giving them achance to breathe.
We are also, at the same time,giving them new curriculum,
(14:05):
giving them students who didn'tmaster the previous set of
skills.
They haven't mastered theskills of reading, of writing,
of performing math on gradelevel way back when.
And now we're expecting them toeducate students that aren't
(14:27):
prepared for their curriculum.
A case in point I had a teacherfriend send to me last week just
a really quick picture didn'thave the student's name
obviously on it, but just a verysmall work sample of a student
at the high school level.
That child was unable to writea sentence and the reason this
(14:53):
teacher sent it to me was to tryto help.
She knows that I'm really goodat interpreting.
I can usually sound out thingsand figure out what a child is
trying to say, and she's doingeverything she can to give this
child credit.
And let me tell you the thingsthat were written down.
Most of it wasn't letters, thestudent.
(15:15):
I was able to decipher twowords the cell, and they spelled
the word the T-H-A.
I am not saying this to make funof a student.
Certainly not, absolutely not.
But that student is in a highschool classroom and is expected
(15:38):
to perform and be taught at thehigh school level and be taught
at the high school level.
How in the world is any of thatstudent's teachers going to be
able to get that student towrite sentences or be able to
express themselves when simplewords like the are misspelled?
(16:01):
How is the student supposed toperform well with assessments
and things when the child is notable to understand form letters
, handwriting down letters?
This is not a skill and, by theway, this is not a student who
(16:22):
has any type of OTPT type ofsituation.
We're not talking aboutsomething like that.
We're talking about an averagestudent who is struggling,
obviously significantly, butdoes not have any extra special
supports in place.
This is the average studentthat this teacher is seeing.
(16:48):
So this is a prime example ofwhy we have to get MTSS systems
working efficiently andeffectively in our schools,
because these kids are gettinginto high school and they're not
able to complete simple taskslike writing a sentence with
(17:09):
correct capitalization,punctuation and let alone
spelling Just capitalization andpunctuation and even
phonetically spelling words.
Our teachers need support.
They need to have people thatthey can lean on within their
building, in their grade level,in their subject level, whatever
(17:33):
it is.
They desperately need this ifwe want to keep good teachers in
our school buildings.
We talk a lot about the teachershortage.
I have recently seen quite a fewsnippets of information about
administrators are also leaving.
I don't have any personalexamples of this, so I don't
(17:54):
know how widespread it is, but Ido know that the statistics are
out there, that administratorsare absolutely leaving the
school environment and, again, Ican't blame them.
The pressures and all of theexpectations are just as bad for
(18:15):
them as they are for theteachers.
They don't get as much lipservice, I guess, when you look
at social media and things likethat, but the fact is there is a
lot of pressure foradministrators to perform and a
lot of misunderstandings fromabove that the fact is the
students are behind.
The fact is that students didvery much not benefit from the
(18:42):
shutdowns and the lockdowns andthere is learning loss if we are
going to try to compare ourstudents' test scores now to the
norms which were done beforethere was a pandemic and before
we shut down an entire nation.
I am going to talk a little bitabout some of the benefits that
(19:03):
administrators see from properlyrunning MTSS, because, again, I
do think it is important thatwe realize that administrators
are people too.
I do tend to bash them becauseI love teachers I do but the
fact is that administrators areunder a massive, massive amount
(19:24):
of pressure and if we are goingto make big improvements in our
schools in MTSS, we have to getadministrators to want to stay.
We have to keep the goodadministrators wanting to stay,
wanting to persevere throughthese rough times in education.
(19:48):
So, of course, obviously thefirst benefit we're going to
talk about for administrators isyour students are going to do
better, which means your data isgoing to look better.
Data speaks a lot when you're aschool administrator talking to
district administrators, weknow this.
We want the data to get betterevery single year and that's,
(20:13):
honestly, that's the first step.
When it comes down to it, mtssdoes improve your data because
your students are able toperform better.
They're filling skill gaps,which we need them to do.
It also increases teacherretention.
What does that do?
Well, that means you're nothaving to train new teachers
every year.
It means that your teachershave the opportunity to get
(20:36):
their feet under them and theycan start to hone their craft
and get better and better everyyear, which again cycles back to
guess what your student dataimproves year by year.
You do not want, every singleyear, to have a massive number
of new teachers, especially notemergency hires and those kinds
(20:57):
of things, not to mention thestress of the time lost to
having to interview new teachersand trying to figure out who's
going to be a good fit for yourschool environment and, quite
frankly, not having a whole lotof choices because we don't have
a whole lot of teachers outthere that are wanting to come
(21:19):
into the field.
So it's really good foreveryone involved if we can
increase teacher retention.
A lot of times teachers willtalk about school culture.
They will talk about the factthat a culture was toxic or it
was a welcoming environment.
Those kinds of things.
(21:40):
We don't tend to talk a lotabout how the school culture
affects administrators Because alot of times the fact is
administration very much doesset the tone for school culture.
We will admit that.
But it is also really tough tofor an administrator, for any
(22:03):
administrator, to take a schoolculture, whether they're a brand
new administrator to thebuilding or they've been around.
They've been around there for awhile and they realize this is
not the way we want it to be.
We want to improve our schoolculture.
It is very difficult to turnthat ship around MTSS and
(22:23):
providing that environment, thatsafe, judgment-free zone for
teachers where you can be inthere and support your teachers
and show them.
You support them and providerealistic strategies and ideas.
Or hear me out here Providethem with a break, provide them
(22:43):
with an opportunity.
Hey, I see that you've beenstruggling with this student.
How about I give you a10-minute break?
You know, because I realized wehad that meeting last week in
MTSS and I know you're stressed,so I had an extra five minutes.
I'm going to watch your classfor a little bit.
You go down, you take a littlebreak and then you come back,
(23:06):
not because the student wreckedtheir classroom, not because
anything happened, but becauseyou're tuned in to what's going
on in that classroom for thatteacher, and that will make huge
, huge steps in helping yourschool culture and helping your
teachers to understand that youare there to support them.
(23:29):
Having all those things in placecreates a cycle and it all
becomes a beautiful cycle of.
We start improving the teachingbecause we're providing support
, we're providing resources,we're providing strategies and
we're improving the craft thatthe teachers have and we're
(23:51):
keeping teachers around longer,which increases student outcomes
, which then increases teacherretention, which goes back
around to.
We're going to continuouslyimprove teaching and it becomes
a beautiful cycle of improvementinstead of just constantly
(24:11):
getting worse and worse, becausewe're losing good teachers who
had the good strategies, becausewe don't have the supports in
place that they need, andsomething that I guess is a
little bit controversial, butthe fact is MTSS if you check
out, you know my last week'spodcast episode.
(24:32):
The purpose of MTSS is actuallyto prevent the need for special
education, and later on, monthsfrom now, I do have plans to
talk about improving the specialeducation system in our schools
, which I really hope you stickaround for, because I've got
some really good ideas.
(24:53):
But the fact is, the specialeducation system as a whole is
completely overtaxed.
Our special education teachersdo not have the time or the
resources to deal with thestudents that they already have
on their caseloads, and usingMTSS as a slip and slide to get
(25:15):
more kids into the quote unquoteservices that they need is not
helping that.
Our special education system iscompletely overtaxed, which
means that mistakes arehappening, which means that
services are not being providedthat the students need and that
we are legally obligated to givethem, which is causing special
(25:39):
education to be a hugely, hugelystressful system, not just for
the teachers but for theadministrators.
Enter MTSS.
If we are doing MTSS properly,if we are providing a supportive
environment for our teachers,if we are providing
interventions and strategiesthat are focused on what the
(26:02):
students need, we're going toget the kids on grade level and
they will not need specialeducation.
Now, does that mean that nokids should ever be going from
MTSS into special education?
Absolutely not.
No kids should ever be goingfrom MTSS into special education
Absolutely not.
We know that there are somestudents who absolutely 100% do
(26:23):
need special education servicesbecause they do have special
needs.
We get that, but not themassive numbers that we have
going through.
Special education was nevermeant to house the large number
of students that we have.
And the fact is, when we haveteachers that have caseloads of
(26:44):
20, 30, 40, 50 kids, thateducation that they are
providing is not specialized.
You cannot provide a actualindividualized IEP if you are
having to write an IEP and havean IEP meeting every other day.
And, let's be honest, if youhave a 180-day schedule and you
(27:09):
take into account testing andthe beginning of the school and
the end of the school weeks,that means that if you have a
teacher that has 40, 50 kids ontheir caseload, they're writing
multiple IEPs a week that's notindividualized.
There's no way in the worldthat that teacher has the time,
(27:31):
the mental capacity to actuallyindividualize that, to actually
individualize that, which is whywe have mistakes happening,
that's why we have problems withprocedures not being followed,
that's why we have huge issueswith the service numbers and the
minutes not adding up and allof that.
(27:52):
We have to start realizing thatwhat we're doing with MTSS
being a slip and slide tospecial education.
It has to stop.
And a huge benefit toadministrators by getting MTSS
done correctly, providing theinterventions and getting the
(28:12):
kids to be more successful, iswe take some of that strain over
time off of our specialeducation system so that our
special education system and theteachers can do what really
needs to be done for those kidswho desperately, desperately
need the individualizedattention that we are promised
(28:35):
and that we are legally supposedto give them.
We always talk about with MTSS.
We talk about the school, wetalk about the administrators,
the students, the teachers,administrators we don't really
talk as much, but definitely wetalk about the students and the
teachers, the impact of MTSS forthem.
I don't know that I've ever hadanybody really talk, have a
(28:56):
real discussion about thebenefits of MTSS to parents.
I think it's important that wehave this discussion today.
We know that parents want theirchildren to be successful.
I don't know of a single parentthat I have ever worked with,
whether I liked them or not,that didn't want their child to
be successful.
There were varying levels ofinvolvement.
(29:19):
There was varying levels ofengagement with their children
and understanding of theeducation system and how
teaching and education works,but not a single parent that
I've ever met has ever wantedtheir child to not be successful
.
That's just kind of not a thing.
(29:41):
Those parents tend to not bearound and you tend to not ever
meet them in all honesty.
So the fact is, if we're doingMTSS right and we are providing
the interventions, theirchildren are going to be
successful, which that's abenefit to them.
Parents want their kids to besuccessful, and another thing is
(30:06):
that it gives parents clarityto understand exactly what their
child is struggling with.
A lot of times when I talk toparents, they will say that they
don't understand why theirchild isn't doing well in
reading.
Well, they're getting all thisextra help.
Why aren't they doing well inreading?
It's not that their child isn'tdoing well in reading.
(30:28):
It's that they didn't learntheir letter sounds.
And when you explain it and youbreak it down to them, then
they go oh, oh, okay.
And then when they ask theschool what can I do to help my
child read, just reading withthe child is not going to help.
Can we just all agree on that?
(30:48):
That?
A child who is struggling inreading, just reading to them
more, is not actually going toteach a child to read.
We have to actually zone in onthe skill that they're missing.
We have to do that.
And what better way to get achild to progress than to get
(31:11):
the parents to help and giveextra help on top of what we're
doing in school.
So instead of when teachershear the parents say, when you
know when they're sitting inconferences, and all that, when
the parent says, well, what canI do to help my child improve?
Instead of giving them awebsite to go to or saying, well
(31:33):
, you could make flashcards orwhat have you, we can pull out
these MTSS data charts and showyour child knows these 20 sight
words right here.
They have to learn these 100sight words in the next nine
weeks.
And here's some flashcardsalready made.
(31:55):
Can you work on these flashcards with your child every
evening or three times a week orwhatever it is.
That is something that a lot ofparents are willing to do
Obviously not all parents.
We know that some parents arenot very involved for a lot of
reasons, and that's not, it'snot blaming.
(32:17):
We know that there are someparents that are getting home
right before bedtime and they'redoing the absolute best they
can no judgment on them at all,none whatsoever.
But a lot of times those kidsare going to after school care
and those parents could requestthat the child be worked with to
(32:38):
work on those flashcards.
We got to start thinkingoutside the box and if we want
to get the kids extra helpoutside of their intervention
time, then we have to startreally including parents so that
they can help support theirchildren or, quite frankly, just
so that they can understand alittle bit more of why their
(33:02):
child is experiencingfrustration.
Maybe they need to understandthat the reason your child
doesn't want to write thegrocery list for you is because
they really can't spell thewords and we're working on
teaching them the letter soundsand so when you want them to
write something down for you,help them.
(33:23):
Help them to sound out theindividual sounds in the word we
can give the parents.
When we work through MTSS andwe're working on very specific
goals, we can give parents veryspecific ideas that they can
work into their lives to helptheir children and, honestly,
(33:43):
that all comes back to helpingparents feel more connected with
the school and the education oftheir children.
There have been a lot of pollsthat have gone out that one of
the biggest complaints thatparents have about schools is
that they don't feel connected.
They don't feel like they knowwhat's going on in the schools.
They don't feel like they knowwhat their children are learning
(34:05):
.
If their children arestruggling and are in MTSS,
they're really sending an excusefor the parents not to know
what we're working on.
That's actually kind offundamental, don't you think?
If a child is struggling,shouldn't we be telling the
parents what they're strugglingwith in the hopes that the
(34:27):
parent can do something and iswilling to do something?
Because I have to believe thatthe vast majority of parents are
willing to help their children,but they don't know how.
At least that's what the pollssay.
So I mean I got to kind ofbelieve that to a certain degree
, and I mean all the parentsthat I have talked to they're
(34:51):
all very willing to work withtheir kiddo, read with their
kiddo and work on flashcards,work on multiplication facts
they're more than willing to dothat, but they need to know what
that foundational skill is thatthey need to be working on to
make the most impact for theirchild.
Because if the parents are athome working on something that
(35:15):
is light years ahead of wherethe child is, all we're doing is
causing frustration for thatchild and the parent.
And finally, when it comes toparents getting some benefit
from MTSS, we want parents tounderstand that their child is
important to us.
I don't even know how manytimes I have sat in meetings or
(35:37):
seen emails from parents ormessages from parents accusing
teachers or counselors orschools in general school
districts that they don't careabout the kids.
We care about the kids, aboutthe kids.
I've been one of the peoplethat has received those emails
(35:59):
and it shocks me, because when Iam working for a school
district, the kids are my numberone focus.
I spend hours, every everyminute of every day, doing
things to try and help thestudents.
Parents don't see that.
(36:20):
They just know that their babyis struggling and their baby
doesn't want to go to schoolbecause their baby is frustrated
, and why wouldn't they be?
Why wouldn't a child befrustrated when they have made
it to the third, fourth, fifth,5th, 8th, 9th, 10th grade and
they can't read?
Why wouldn't they be frustratedwhen they've made it to high
(36:43):
school and they can't spell theword?
Because that's a problem?
And kids aren't dumb.
They know when they can't dosomething that they are expected
to be able to do.
They know that and parents wanttheir kids to be successful and
(37:04):
they need to know that theirchild is important, is a
priority to us as teachers,administrators, whoever you are,
whatever you're doing in theschool district, the parents
need to know that, and involvingthem in MTSS is a huge step in
(37:29):
the right direction.
Imagine a parent who isfrustrated and feeling like
nobody cares that their child isstruggling and they are invited
to a meeting where a panel ofteachers come together and talk
about yes, their child isstruggling in reading.
This is why and here's somestrategies that we can try and
let's talk about, here's someideas.
Maybe this other resource wouldwork better and they see that
(37:51):
and go.
There's a panel of teacherstalking, there's specialists
talking about my kid, there'sadministrators and everybody in
this room is talking about mychild.
That proves to a parent that,no, their child is important.
They are important and we'renot going to sit on our laurels
(38:12):
and just let their child fail.
We're not going to do that.
And that's how we get parentsbacking us up.
That's how we get parents backinvolved in the school culture.
That's how we get back tohaving volunteer parents and all
of that the heyday of educationwhere we had parent support.
(38:34):
We have to get back to that.
Where we had parent support.
We have to get back to that.
Are all parents going to getinvolved?
No, they're not.
But that doesn't mean we can'tchange that.
All of the benefits, whetherit's for students or teachers or
administrators or parents, allof those benefits help all of us
within the education ecosystem,but all of us as a society in
(38:58):
general.
The fact is our schools, asI've talked about for a while,
our schools are failing us.
They're failing our students,they're failing our teachers,
our administrators, our parents,everybody.
But we can turn that around ifwe get our systems in place and
working the way they were meantto work, and we can do this.
(39:22):
If we want the benefits thatwe've talked about today, we
have to put in the hard work ofsetting up a good system so that
our students can benefit.
So next week we're going totalk about what is the rate of
improvement that we should beexpecting for our students when
(39:45):
they are in MTSS.
So I can't wait to talk to younext week and until then, may
your coffee be strong, yourstudents calm and always your
students progressing.
Bye.
We know what MTSS is and if you don't, you can always
go back a couple podcastepisodes and listen to.
I think it was episode 90,where I explained exactly what
MTSS is and all the tiers andeverything.
And last week we talked aboutthe purpose behind MTSS.
(00:21):
But that's all, honestly,really theoretical and teachers,
schools they have to work in.
Yeah, they have the realm oftheoretical to back up what
they're saying, but really theyneed to know actual results.
They need to know the actualbenefits of MTSS or the
(00:46):
differentiation levels and allthat.
The fact is that students,teachers, classrooms, schools,
districts all of those differentlevels should be getting some
benefit from the MTSS process.
But what are those benefits?
That's what we're going to talkabout today.
(01:06):
Hi, I'm Jessica Curtis ofTeaching Struggling Learners.
I'm a boy mom and a veteranteacher.
You're listening to theReaching Struggling Learners
podcast where we talk all abouthelping students succeed
(01:27):
academically, socially andbehaviorally.
Thank you so much for tuning.
In.
Several times over the lastseveral years that I was working
with different school districts, I had several different
(01:49):
administrators at the secondarylevel explain to me that MTSS
for the secondary level was acomplete and utter waste of time
, energy resources and, at onepoint time, energy resources,
and at one point I even had anadministrator explain to me that
she was not going to waste hertime even thinking about that
(02:11):
process, the mandated process.
She wasn't going to think aboutthat because it was such a
waste of time and she had suchbetter things that she could be
filling her time with to serveher students.
If only those administratorscould have understood the
benefits that they could haveseen in their school districts
(02:33):
and in their schools.
The fact is, mtss does havesome really significant benefits
at every single level if wefollow the process, the system,
correctly and we actually use itthe way it was meant to be.
Today, I just want to talkabout the different levels of
(02:55):
benefit that could be achievedif we are following the MTSS
process the way that it'ssupposed to be done.
Now, all of these benefits areimportant.
All of them can be justabsolutely life-changing for
students.
But I am also listing all thesebenefits with the assumption
(03:18):
that the school is following theprocess, making MTSS, the
different levels of MTSS, asefficient as possible.
Now, I realize this is not autopian world.
We have a long way to go, butthis is what we should be
striving for these benefits thatI'm about to lay out for you.
(03:41):
This is what we should bestriving for, about to lay out
for you.
This is what we should bestriving for Every time we meet
for MTSS, every time we go overMTSS data or do data chats.
This is what we're going forhere.
So obviously, I always want tostart out with the students
right, because, let's face it,what are schools without
(04:08):
students?
We have to be giving them theeducation, the experiences that
they deserve and that they needto be successful.
So when we perform the MTSSsystem properly, students at all
levels, elementary throughsecondary they can absolutely
see progress, significantprogress.
They can also start to reallyunderstand their own learning.
(04:30):
When we're talking about tiertwo and tier three specifically,
those smaller groups can bereally, really significant in
helping the students tounderstand the way that they
learn and the way that theylearn most easily.
We all know that every singlestudent is different.
Every single student learnsjust a little bit differently
(04:53):
than the one sitting next tothem or the one sitting in front
of them.
We know that as educators.
We know that as parents.
If you have more than one kid,you know, looking at your
children, those children do notlearn the exact same way.
They don't act the exact same.
They're different kiddos and sowhen we employ MTSS, tier 2 and
(05:13):
Tier 3 specifically forstudents who are struggling, we
have a wonderful opportunity toteach those kiddos how they
think, not what to think thosekiddos how they think, not what
to think, but how they think andhow they learn, which is a huge
opportunity for them to takecontrol of their own learning
and that they can move forwardwith some strategies and how
(05:38):
they can help themselves, which,honestly, that is hugely
empowering for children.
It's empowering for anyone, butright now we're talking about
kids in school.
It is hugely empowering to givethem the keys to their own
success, not just the littleskills that we want them to
learn, but actually the keysthat they can use to learn for
(06:01):
themselves, to choose what theywant to learn, what they want to
focus on.
That's huge and obviously,students who are successful,
students who have met achallenge, struggled a little
bit and have overcome it, havelearned, have been able to see
the progress that they have madethrough hard work, through
(06:22):
extra work, through the graphsthat we make, through progress
monitoring.
That very much bolsters astudent's confidence level.
When children meet and overcomechallenges.
That opens up moreopportunities for them because
(06:42):
they see that, hey, thischallenging thing that I've just
experienced, I can be okay, Ican meet a challenge, I can
overcome it and I can be betterfor it.
I can be better on the otherside.
So that very much boosts astudent's confidence and, by the
(07:03):
way, it also motivates them towhen they come up against a
challenge again in the futureacademically, they know in their
head hey, I know I can overcomethis because I overcame that
other thing back there.
But I'm motivated to try alittle bit harder, put a little
bit more effort in, because Iknow that I can progress.
(07:25):
I know that I can beat thatchallenge.
Now, obviously, every singlestudent is different.
Every single student is goingto see progress at a different
level, is going to gain moreconfidence or less confidence,
based on who they are, as a asan individual.
But across the students who aregiven the proper tier two and
(07:46):
tier three interventions, theyreceive all of those benefits.
And all of that rolls into thebenefits that our teachers see.
Now the first thing is kind ofobvious Obviously, our teachers
want to see their children,their students, succeed.
Teachers want the students tomake progress.
(08:08):
They want them to be able toread, they want them to be able
to do math, to write on gradelevel.
They want these things.
And so when we provide theproper supports for their
students, right then and thereteachers are much happier than
they were.
When we're not giving the kidswhat they need, just the
opportunity to have support fortheir students, that's a really
(08:32):
big win for teachers because,let's be honest, teaching is a
lonely profession and knowingthat there is a group of people
in the school that is going tomeet on a regular basis to help
their students Again, assumingthat we are performing the MTSS
(08:53):
meetings appropriately, assumingthat the teachers are not put
on the spot and made to feel badit's a judgment-free zone, like
we talked about in previouspodcast episodes that is hugely
beneficial to teachers to knowthat somebody's got their back,
that somebody is going to helptheir students who need it.
(09:14):
Also, like we've talked about inprevious episodes, it is a big
benefit to teachers to learn newstrategies or get new resources
through this MTSS process.
Even teachers who have beenteaching for 30 years can come
into a meeting and talk about astudent that is struggling in
(09:37):
their classroom and come awaywith something new, something
new to try some new resourceAgain, having that backup of
knowing that, yeah, I have thisstudent that's struggling.
It's not all on that teacher totry and figure it out.
Do it all on their own.
(09:58):
No, they have backup, they havesomeone, they have a group of
someones who are there who aregoing to share strategies, who
are going to share resources.
That's huge and teachers wantthat.
They want to have support, theywant to have a communal sharing
of resources and strategies,again in a non-judgmental area.
(10:22):
It has to be a judgment-freezone.
Part of the reason that teacherslove learning new strategies,
getting new resources, isbecause, yeah, they want to see
their students perform well.
They also want to improve theirown craft.
Teachers are lifelong learners.
That's part of the reason theygot into the profession.
They value education, theyvalue learning, and so when they
(10:48):
are given opportunities on aregular basis in a comfortable
environment to improve their owncraft, their own teaching craft
, that is a huge motivationaland confidence booster.
That is absolutely going tohelp teachers be better.
Teachers feel like they'remaking improvement, feel like
(11:11):
they're making a difference, andthat's really, really what they
want.
Teachers need to feel moresupported.
We've talked about on thisepisode, podcast episode, many
others, and I mean it's in thenews all the time.
Teachers are leaving educationin droves Because, yeah, there's
(11:35):
the money thing we won't eventalk about that because the
money thing is a big one.
But the reality is teachers areleaving the profession because
they don't feel supported.
They have been thrown to thewolves on.
Here's this new curriculum thisyear, and here's this new
curriculum the next year, andhere's you know what?
Do that stuff that you're notreally comfortable with.
(11:57):
Now do it online without anyprep, and now do it kind of
hybrid.
So be prepared to do it online,but also be prepared to do it
in person.
Oh, never mind, you're justwe're back in person.
Oh, never mind, we're going totake two weeks off.
It is ridiculous.
We have to have new curriculum,but the students are far behind
and we're still going to testthem.
(12:18):
But the tests don't matter,because there was the lockdowns
and stuff.
But it does matter for whetheryou get paid and how much you
get paid, and there's a bigpressure to get the test done
and that the students have toperform well on the test, even
(12:39):
though they weren't in schoolfor a year and a half.
Yet teachers don't feelsupported.
They don't.
And if we do the MTSS system,we perform the series of
meetings and providing theinterventions again the way it's
supposed to be teachers dostart to feel supported again.
(13:01):
It's not the end all, it's notthe only thing that we can do or
should do to support ourteachers, but it's a really big
step in the right direction tohelping our teachers feel more
supported.
And then, finally, when itcomes to teachers and the
benefits from MTSS, teachersneed community.
(13:22):
They need to feel like they area part of something.
For a very long time, teachershave been told yeah, you listen
to what's been told to you, theylisten to the gurus, and then
you walk in your classroom andyou shut your door and you do
what you need to do.
That has been said over andover again.
It was said to me when I firststarted teaching and for many
(13:43):
times afterwards.
But the fact is, teachers doneed community.
Teachers cannot continue to doit on their own, certainly not
when we are just throwing newthing after new thing after new
thing and never giving them achance to breathe.
We are also, at the same time,giving them new curriculum,
(14:05):
giving them students who didn'tmaster the previous set of
skills.
They haven't mastered theskills of reading, of writing,
of performing math on gradelevel way back when.
And now we're expecting them toeducate students that aren't
(14:27):
prepared for their curriculum.
A case in point I had a teacherfriend send to me last week just
a really quick picture didn'thave the student's name
obviously on it, but just a verysmall work sample of a student
at the high school level.
That child was unable to writea sentence and the reason this
(14:53):
teacher sent it to me was to tryto help.
She knows that I'm really goodat interpreting.
I can usually sound out thingsand figure out what a child is
trying to say, and she's doingeverything she can to give this
child credit.
And let me tell you the thingsthat were written down.
Most of it wasn't letters, thestudent.
(15:15):
I was able to decipher twowords the cell, and they spelled
the word the T-H-A.
I am not saying this to make funof a student.
Certainly not, absolutely not.
But that student is in a highschool classroom and is expected
(15:38):
to perform and be taught at thehigh school level and be taught
at the high school level.
How in the world is any of thatstudent's teachers going to be
able to get that student towrite sentences or be able to
express themselves when simplewords like the are misspelled?
(16:01):
How is the student supposed toperform well with assessments
and things when the child is notable to understand form letters
, handwriting down letters?
This is not a skill and, by theway, this is not a student who
(16:22):
has any type of OTPT type ofsituation.
We're not talking aboutsomething like that.
We're talking about an averagestudent who is struggling,
obviously significantly, butdoes not have any extra special
supports in place.
This is the average studentthat this teacher is seeing.
(16:48):
So this is a prime example ofwhy we have to get MTSS systems
working efficiently andeffectively in our schools,
because these kids are gettinginto high school and they're not
able to complete simple taskslike writing a sentence with
(17:09):
correct capitalization,punctuation and let alone
spelling Just capitalization andpunctuation and even
phonetically spelling words.
Our teachers need support.
They need to have people thatthey can lean on within their
building, in their grade level,in their subject level, whatever
(17:33):
it is.
They desperately need this ifwe want to keep good teachers in
our school buildings.
We talk a lot about the teachershortage.
I have recently seen quite a fewsnippets of information about
administrators are also leaving.
I don't have any personalexamples of this, so I don't
(17:54):
know how widespread it is, but Ido know that the statistics are
out there, that administratorsare absolutely leaving the
school environment and, again, Ican't blame them.
The pressures and all of theexpectations are just as bad for
(18:15):
them as they are for theteachers.
They don't get as much lipservice, I guess, when you look
at social media and things likethat, but the fact is there is a
lot of pressure foradministrators to perform and a
lot of misunderstandings fromabove that the fact is the
students are behind.
The fact is that students didvery much not benefit from the
(18:42):
shutdowns and the lockdowns andthere is learning loss if we are
going to try to compare ourstudents' test scores now to the
norms which were done beforethere was a pandemic and before
we shut down an entire nation.
I am going to talk a little bitabout some of the benefits that
(19:03):
administrators see from properlyrunning MTSS, because, again, I
do think it is important thatwe realize that administrators
are people too.
I do tend to bash them becauseI love teachers I do but the
fact is that administrators areunder a massive, massive amount
(19:24):
of pressure and if we are goingto make big improvements in our
schools in MTSS, we have to getadministrators to want to stay.
We have to keep the goodadministrators wanting to stay,
wanting to persevere throughthese rough times in education.
(19:48):
So, of course, obviously thefirst benefit we're going to
talk about for administrators isyour students are going to do
better, which means your data isgoing to look better.
Data speaks a lot when you're aschool administrator talking to
district administrators, weknow this.
We want the data to get betterevery single year and that's,
(20:13):
honestly, that's the first step.
When it comes down to it, mtssdoes improve your data because
your students are able toperform better.
They're filling skill gaps,which we need them to do.
It also increases teacherretention.
What does that do?
Well, that means you're nothaving to train new teachers
every year.
It means that your teachershave the opportunity to get
(20:36):
their feet under them and theycan start to hone their craft
and get better and better everyyear, which again cycles back to
guess what your student dataimproves year by year.
You do not want, every singleyear, to have a massive number
of new teachers, especially notemergency hires and those kinds
(20:57):
of things, not to mention thestress of the time lost to
having to interview new teachersand trying to figure out who's
going to be a good fit for yourschool environment and, quite
frankly, not having a whole lotof choices because we don't have
a whole lot of teachers outthere that are wanting to come
(21:19):
into the field.
So it's really good foreveryone involved if we can
increase teacher retention.
A lot of times teachers willtalk about school culture.
They will talk about the factthat a culture was toxic or it
was a welcoming environment.
Those kinds of things.
(21:40):
We don't tend to talk a lotabout how the school culture
affects administrators Because alot of times the fact is
administration very much doesset the tone for school culture.
We will admit that.
But it is also really tough tofor an administrator, for any
(22:03):
administrator, to take a schoolculture, whether they're a brand
new administrator to thebuilding or they've been around.
They've been around there for awhile and they realize this is
not the way we want it to be.
We want to improve our schoolculture.
It is very difficult to turnthat ship around MTSS and
(22:23):
providing that environment, thatsafe, judgment-free zone for
teachers where you can be inthere and support your teachers
and show them.
You support them and providerealistic strategies and ideas.
Or hear me out here Providethem with a break, provide them
(22:43):
with an opportunity.
Hey, I see that you've beenstruggling with this student.
How about I give you a10-minute break?
You know, because I realized wehad that meeting last week in
MTSS and I know you're stressed,so I had an extra five minutes.
I'm going to watch your classfor a little bit.
You go down, you take a littlebreak and then you come back,
(23:06):
not because the student wreckedtheir classroom, not because
anything happened, but becauseyou're tuned in to what's going
on in that classroom for thatteacher, and that will make huge
, huge steps in helping yourschool culture and helping your
teachers to understand that youare there to support them.
(23:29):
Having all those things in placecreates a cycle and it all
becomes a beautiful cycle of.
We start improving the teachingbecause we're providing support
, we're providing resources,we're providing strategies and
we're improving the craft thatthe teachers have and we're
(23:51):
keeping teachers around longer,which increases student outcomes
, which then increases teacherretention, which goes back
around to.
We're going to continuouslyimprove teaching and it becomes
a beautiful cycle of improvementinstead of just constantly
(24:11):
getting worse and worse, becausewe're losing good teachers who
had the good strategies, becausewe don't have the supports in
place that they need, andsomething that I guess is a
little bit controversial, butthe fact is MTSS if you check
out, you know my last week'spodcast episode.
(24:32):
The purpose of MTSS is actuallyto prevent the need for special
education, and later on, monthsfrom now, I do have plans to
talk about improving the specialeducation system in our schools
, which I really hope you stickaround for, because I've got
some really good ideas.
(24:53):
But the fact is, the specialeducation system as a whole is
completely overtaxed.
Our special education teachersdo not have the time or the
resources to deal with thestudents that they already have
on their caseloads, and usingMTSS as a slip and slide to get
(25:15):
more kids into the quote unquoteservices that they need is not
helping that.
Our special education system iscompletely overtaxed, which
means that mistakes arehappening, which means that
services are not being providedthat the students need and that
we are legally obligated to givethem, which is causing special
(25:39):
education to be a hugely, hugelystressful system, not just for
the teachers but for theadministrators.
Enter MTSS.
If we are doing MTSS properly,if we are providing a supportive
environment for our teachers,if we are providing
interventions and strategiesthat are focused on what the
(26:02):
students need, we're going toget the kids on grade level and
they will not need specialeducation.
Now, does that mean that nokids should ever be going from
MTSS into special education?
Absolutely not.
No kids should ever be goingfrom MTSS into special education
Absolutely not.
We know that there are somestudents who absolutely 100% do
(26:23):
need special education servicesbecause they do have special
needs.
We get that, but not themassive numbers that we have
going through.
Special education was nevermeant to house the large number
of students that we have.
And the fact is, when we haveteachers that have caseloads of
(26:44):
20, 30, 40, 50 kids, thateducation that they are
providing is not specialized.
You cannot provide a actualindividualized IEP if you are
having to write an IEP and havean IEP meeting every other day.
And, let's be honest, if youhave a 180-day schedule and you
(27:09):
take into account testing andthe beginning of the school and
the end of the school weeks,that means that if you have a
teacher that has 40, 50 kids ontheir caseload, they're writing
multiple IEPs a week that's notindividualized.
There's no way in the worldthat that teacher has the time,
(27:31):
the mental capacity to actuallyindividualize that, to actually
individualize that, which is whywe have mistakes happening,
that's why we have problems withprocedures not being followed,
that's why we have huge issueswith the service numbers and the
minutes not adding up and allof that.
(27:52):
We have to start realizing thatwhat we're doing with MTSS
being a slip and slide tospecial education.
It has to stop.
And a huge benefit toadministrators by getting MTSS
done correctly, providing theinterventions and getting the
(28:12):
kids to be more successful, iswe take some of that strain over
time off of our specialeducation system so that our
special education system and theteachers can do what really
needs to be done for those kidswho desperately, desperately
need the individualizedattention that we are promised
(28:35):
and that we are legally supposedto give them.
We always talk about with MTSS.
We talk about the school, wetalk about the administrators,
the students, the teachers,administrators we don't really
talk as much, but definitely wetalk about the students and the
teachers, the impact of MTSS forthem.
I don't know that I've ever hadanybody really talk, have a
(28:56):
real discussion about thebenefits of MTSS to parents.
I think it's important that wehave this discussion today.
We know that parents want theirchildren to be successful.
I don't know of a single parentthat I have ever worked with,
whether I liked them or not,that didn't want their child to
be successful.
There were varying levels ofinvolvement.
(29:19):
There was varying levels ofengagement with their children
and understanding of theeducation system and how
teaching and education works,but not a single parent that
I've ever met has ever wantedtheir child to not be successful
.
That's just kind of not a thing.
(29:41):
Those parents tend to not bearound and you tend to not ever
meet them in all honesty.
So the fact is, if we're doingMTSS right and we are providing
the interventions, theirchildren are going to be
successful, which that's abenefit to them.
Parents want their kids to besuccessful, and another thing is
(30:06):
that it gives parents clarityto understand exactly what their
child is struggling with.
A lot of times when I talk toparents, they will say that they
don't understand why theirchild isn't doing well in
reading.
Well, they're getting all thisextra help.
Why aren't they doing well inreading?
It's not that their child isn'tdoing well in reading.
(30:28):
It's that they didn't learntheir letter sounds.
And when you explain it and youbreak it down to them, then
they go oh, oh, okay.
And then when they ask theschool what can I do to help my
child read, just reading withthe child is not going to help.
Can we just all agree on that?
(30:48):
That?
A child who is struggling inreading, just reading to them
more, is not actually going toteach a child to read.
We have to actually zone in onthe skill that they're missing.
We have to do that.
And what better way to get achild to progress than to get
(31:11):
the parents to help and giveextra help on top of what we're
doing in school.
So instead of when teachershear the parents say, when you
know when they're sitting inconferences, and all that, when
the parent says, well, what canI do to help my child improve?
Instead of giving them awebsite to go to or saying, well
(31:33):
, you could make flashcards orwhat have you, we can pull out
these MTSS data charts and showyour child knows these 20 sight
words right here.
They have to learn these 100sight words in the next nine
weeks.
And here's some flashcardsalready made.
(31:55):
Can you work on these flashcards with your child every
evening or three times a week orwhatever it is.
That is something that a lot ofparents are willing to do
Obviously not all parents.
We know that some parents arenot very involved for a lot of
reasons, and that's not, it'snot blaming.
(32:17):
We know that there are someparents that are getting home
right before bedtime and they'redoing the absolute best they
can no judgment on them at all,none whatsoever.
But a lot of times those kidsare going to after school care
and those parents could requestthat the child be worked with to
(32:38):
work on those flashcards.
We got to start thinkingoutside the box and if we want
to get the kids extra helpoutside of their intervention
time, then we have to startreally including parents so that
they can help support theirchildren or, quite frankly, just
so that they can understand alittle bit more of why their
(33:02):
child is experiencingfrustration.
Maybe they need to understandthat the reason your child
doesn't want to write thegrocery list for you is because
they really can't spell thewords and we're working on
teaching them the letter soundsand so when you want them to
write something down for you,help them.
(33:23):
Help them to sound out theindividual sounds in the word we
can give the parents.
When we work through MTSS andwe're working on very specific
goals, we can give parents veryspecific ideas that they can
work into their lives to helptheir children and, honestly,
(33:43):
that all comes back to helpingparents feel more connected with
the school and the education oftheir children.
There have been a lot of pollsthat have gone out that one of
the biggest complaints thatparents have about schools is
that they don't feel connected.
They don't feel like they knowwhat's going on in the schools.
They don't feel like they knowwhat their children are learning
(34:05):
.
If their children arestruggling and are in MTSS,
they're really sending an excusefor the parents not to know
what we're working on.
That's actually kind offundamental, don't you think?
If a child is struggling,shouldn't we be telling the
parents what they're strugglingwith in the hopes that the
(34:27):
parent can do something and iswilling to do something?
Because I have to believe thatthe vast majority of parents are
willing to help their children,but they don't know how.
At least that's what the pollssay.
So I mean I got to kind ofbelieve that to a certain degree
, and I mean all the parentsthat I have talked to they're
(34:51):
all very willing to work withtheir kiddo, read with their
kiddo and work on flashcards,work on multiplication facts
they're more than willing to dothat, but they need to know what
that foundational skill is thatthey need to be working on to
make the most impact for theirchild.
Because if the parents are athome working on something that
(35:15):
is light years ahead of wherethe child is, all we're doing is
causing frustration for thatchild and the parent.
And finally, when it comes toparents getting some benefit
from MTSS, we want parents tounderstand that their child is
important to us.
I don't even know how manytimes I have sat in meetings or
(35:37):
seen emails from parents ormessages from parents accusing
teachers or counselors orschools in general school
districts that they don't careabout the kids.
We care about the kids, aboutthe kids.
I've been one of the peoplethat has received those emails
(35:59):
and it shocks me, because when Iam working for a school
district, the kids are my numberone focus.
I spend hours, every everyminute of every day, doing
things to try and help thestudents.
Parents don't see that.
(36:20):
They just know that their babyis struggling and their baby
doesn't want to go to schoolbecause their baby is frustrated
, and why wouldn't they be?
Why wouldn't a child befrustrated when they have made
it to the third, fourth, fifth,5th, 8th, 9th, 10th grade and
they can't read?
Why wouldn't they be frustratedwhen they've made it to high
(36:43):
school and they can't spell theword?
Because that's a problem?
And kids aren't dumb.
They know when they can't dosomething that they are expected
to be able to do.
They know that and parents wanttheir kids to be successful and
(37:04):
they need to know that theirchild is important, is a
priority to us as teachers,administrators, whoever you are,
whatever you're doing in theschool district, the parents
need to know that, and involvingthem in MTSS is a huge step in
(37:29):
the right direction.
Imagine a parent who isfrustrated and feeling like
nobody cares that their child isstruggling and they are invited
to a meeting where a panel ofteachers come together and talk
about yes, their child isstruggling in reading.
This is why and here's somestrategies that we can try and
let's talk about, here's someideas.
Maybe this other resource wouldwork better and they see that
(37:51):
and go.
There's a panel of teacherstalking, there's specialists
talking about my kid, there'sadministrators and everybody in
this room is talking about mychild.
That proves to a parent that,no, their child is important.
They are important and we'renot going to sit on our laurels
(38:12):
and just let their child fail.
We're not going to do that.
And that's how we get parentsbacking us up.
That's how we get parents backinvolved in the school culture.
That's how we get back tohaving volunteer parents and all
of that the heyday of educationwhere we had parent support.
(38:34):
We have to get back to that.
Where we had parent support.
We have to get back to that.
Are all parents going to getinvolved?
No, they're not.
But that doesn't mean we can'tchange that.
All of the benefits, whetherit's for students or teachers or
administrators or parents, allof those benefits help all of us
within the education ecosystem,but all of us as a society in
(38:58):
general.
The fact is our schools, asI've talked about for a while,
our schools are failing us.
They're failing our students,they're failing our teachers,
our administrators, our parents,everybody.
But we can turn that around ifwe get our systems in place and
working the way they were meantto work, and we can do this.
(39:22):
If we want the benefits thatwe've talked about today, we
have to put in the hard work ofsetting up a good system so that
our students can benefit.
So next week we're going totalk about what is the rate of
improvement that we should beexpecting for our students when
(39:45):
they are in MTSS.
So I can't wait to talk to younext week and until then, may
your coffee be strong, yourstudents calm and always your
students progressing.
Bye.
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