Why MTSS Needed Its Own Professional Association

Well, first, I have not done it alone.

There is an incredible founding board that has supported this idea and this movement to bring educators together at all levels from teacher leaders, school, district, state, as well as our researchers, our educator prep folks working in colleges all over.

And we kept it international because so many of us actually have served both in the U.S. public school system as well as international schools overseas.

So while there's no national MTSS association and we thought about that, we wanted to stay inclusive from the very beginning.

But if you look at the board, about half of us have been in leadership, both in the U.S. system as well as overseas.

And then we've also got some incredible scholars.

And we also have our vendors, our partners that are providing access to resources that researchers can't always produce and create themselves and leaders are too busy to make.

So You know, I think from the beginning, we wanted to make sure we were a very open and inclusive organization.

We have, you know, free available membership and open access journal.

The journal really started from, you know, being overseas for so many years.

I was overseas for seven years.

And then coming back to the States, I was really surprised that things were still as siloed as they were.

You know, and you referenced it a little bit, Larissa, like a lot of people see MTSS as just the new RTI.

But really, its intention was always to bridge this divide between sort of the RTI folks and researchers and quality work we were doing on the academic side.

side of the triangle, as I say, but I say it with quotes because we have to move beyond that now.

And I think many people want us to move beyond.

You know, it was good at that time where we, how many of us saw a triangle split in half with two sides? PBIS, RTI, that's how it was back then.

That's when I was doing my doc program work.

And they even told me, you know, you have to choose.

Do you want to focus on behavior or academics? and it's like there's a whole system there actually that system change and school improvement this is a framework for improving your school system and there were a lot of the same concepts that were overlapping but there's also so much good and strength that has come out of the pbis work and there's such incredible work that has come out of the rti work and i think if we can bring our scholars together That's I think really a driving impetus is to bring our scholars together and at the same time mobilize a large group of folks like myself who have been in the leadership role and been at the district and state level trying to do this work.

And we have separate conferences, separate grant sources, separate initiatives.

And we and yet we're responsible for all of it.

And so how are we as school and district leaders expected to have expertise in all these areas when the experts haven't helped us make sense of how this fits together? And so that was just part of it is like if I could just.

If we could build a playground so fun and awesome and engaging where everyone wants to come be in the same sandbox, that's like what we're trying to do.

And I think, you know, it's been so well received.

Well, first, I have not done it alone.

There is an incredible founding board that has supported this idea and this movement to bring educators together at all levels from teacher leaders, school, district, state, as well as our researchers, our educator prep folks working in colleges all over.

And we kept it international because so many of us actually have served both in the U.S. public school system as well as international schools overseas.

So while there's no national MTSS association and we thought about that, we wanted to stay inclusive from the very beginning.

But if you look at the board, about half of us have been in leadership, both in the U.S. system as well as overseas.

And then we've also got some incredible scholars.

And we also have our vendors, our partners that are providing access to resources that researchers can't always produce and create themselves and leaders are too busy to make.

So You know, I think from the beginning, we wanted to make sure we were a very open and inclusive organization.

We have, you know, free available membership and open access journal.

The journal really started from, you know, being overseas for so many years.

I was overseas for seven years.

And then coming back to the States, I was really surprised that things were still as siloed as they were.

You know, and you referenced it a little bit, Larissa, like a lot of people see MTSS as just the new RTI.

But really, its intention was always to bridge this divide between sort of the RTI folks and researchers and quality work we were doing on the academic side.

side of the triangle, as I say, but I say it with quotes because we have to move beyond that now.

And I think many people want us to move beyond.

You know, it was good at that time where we, how many of us saw a triangle split in half with two sides? PBIS, RTI, that's how it was back then.

That's when I was doing my doc program work.

And they even told me, you know, you have to choose.

Do you want to focus on behavior or academics? and it's like there's a whole system there actually that system change and school improvement this is a framework for improving your school system and there were a lot of the same concepts that were overlapping but there's also so much good and strength that has come out of the pbis work and there's such incredible work that has come out of the rti work and i think if we can bring our scholars together That's I think really a driving impetus is to bring our scholars together and at the same time mobilize a large group of folks like myself who have been in the leadership role and been at the district and state level trying to do this work.

And we have separate conferences, separate grant sources, separate initiatives.

And we and yet we're responsible for all of it.

And so how are we as school and district leaders expected to have expertise in all these areas when the experts haven't helped us make sense of how this fits together? And so that was just part of it is like if I could just.

If we could build a playground so fun and awesome and engaging where everyone wants to come be in the same sandbox, that's like what we're trying to do.

And I think, you know, it's been so well received.