6 Common Mistakes Schools Make When Implementing MTSS with Dr. Sarah Brown and Dr. Stephanie Stollar

Welcome to the Knowledge for Teachers podcast.

My name is Brendan Lee and on this podcast I speak with researchers, teachers and experts about what evidence-informed practice is and the nuances involved with actually implementing effective and sustainable school-based education.

Before we begin, I acknowledge that I am recording this podcast on the unceded lands of the Dharug and Gundagara people in the Lower Blue Mountains and I feel very grateful to live and work on country that holds such deep history and significance.

Thank you very much.

This always was and always will be the land of our First Nations people.

If you have ever looked at a spreadsheet of screening data and felt completely overwhelmed by the sheer number of students needing reading intervention, this episode is going to hit home.

We spend a lot of time in education trying to intervene our way out of Tier 1 problems.

Today we are talking about why that simply does not work.

My guests are Dr. Sarah Brown and Dr. Stephanie Stoller.

They co-authored the book MTSS for Reading Improvement, and today we are breaking down six of the most common traps schools fall into with MTSS.

We cover some incredibly practical ground in this episode.

Sarah completely rethinks how we use the MTSS pyramid.

She explains why categorising children as T3 students leads to complacency, and why we must view the pyramid strictly as a way to allocate our resources, rather than a way to sort kids.

Stephanie shares a crucial warning about the urge to screen to intervene.

Both guests make it clear that if your triangle is upside down, you simply cannot intervene your way out of the problem.

We also talk about the reality of school change.

It is not enough to just train staff and expect them to magically transform their practice.

School leaders have to build the structural support and dedicated time required for teachers to actually look at their data and plan their next steps collaboratively.

If you want to ensure your interventions are actually closing learning gaps and you want to stop feeling overwhelmed by an endless list of students needing help, then this conversation is going to give you a lot of clarity.

Let's get into it.

Welcome to the Knowledge for Teachers podcast.

My name is Brendan Lee and on this podcast I speak with researchers, teachers and experts about what evidence-informed practice is and the nuances involved with actually implementing effective and sustainable school-based education.

Before we begin, I acknowledge that I am recording this podcast on the unceded lands of the Dharug and Gundagara people in the Lower Blue Mountains and I feel very grateful to live and work on country that holds such deep history and significance.

Thank you very much.

This always was and always will be the land of our First Nations people.

If you have ever looked at a spreadsheet of screening data and felt completely overwhelmed by the sheer number of students needing reading intervention, this episode is going to hit home.

We spend a lot of time in education trying to intervene our way out of Tier 1 problems.

Today we are talking about why that simply does not work.

My guests are Dr. Sarah Brown and Dr. Stephanie Stoller.

They co-authored the book MTSS for Reading Improvement, and today we are breaking down six of the most common traps schools fall into with MTSS.

We cover some incredibly practical ground in this episode.

Sarah completely rethinks how we use the MTSS pyramid.

She explains why categorising children as T3 students leads to complacency, and why we must view the pyramid strictly as a way to allocate our resources, rather than a way to sort kids.

Stephanie shares a crucial warning about the urge to screen to intervene.

Both guests make it clear that if your triangle is upside down, you simply cannot intervene your way out of the problem.

We also talk about the reality of school change.

It is not enough to just train staff and expect them to magically transform their practice.

School leaders have to build the structural support and dedicated time required for teachers to actually look at their data and plan their next steps collaboratively.

If you want to ensure your interventions are actually closing learning gaps and you want to stop feeling overwhelmed by an endless list of students needing help, then this conversation is going to give you a lot of clarity.

Let's get into it.