Oct 16, 2026 · 19 min · 10 segments
Today our guest is Marelenise Phillips-Roberts, a District Leader of MTSS. Marelenise shares how she thinks about professional development for MTSS not as a one-time training event but as a continuous…
So when in my work, when we think of MTSS, we always naturally go to universal screening or the multi-level prevention system with the tiers or intervention data, progress monitoring systems.
But what I've learned is that you can have a beautifully designed professional development system on paper and still not get the outcomes you want.
So people respond to implementing that system when they feel supported, because systems don't support students, but people using those systems support students.
So what you put in that professional development learning experience is essential.
Uh, we talk a lot in education about whether students feel connected, known, and supported at school, and we 100% should do those things.
But I think we have to ask, do our teachers, do the adults responsible for supporting those students feel connected, known, and supported? Because we can't ask, uh, campuses to create a culture of support- If they don't feel supported themselves.
Well, in professional development, I think of what we model in MTSS is how we should support our adults in professional development.
So if MTSS fundamentally is about identifying the needs and responding to the appropriate supports, then I believe that's exactly what we have to do for our adult learners.
We have to identify the need and be intentional when we are designing those professional learning opportunities.
We can't provide one professional development session and say, "Okay, go do MTSS."
"Go do whatever you expected them to do it." No, that's, that's not realistic.
And I actually, in all of my professional development sessions, I tell my participants, "Okay, at the end of the session, I'm not going to tell you, 'Go do it 100%.' But we're gonna talk about what is the one thing you can do, and then if you get stuck, how are you gonna get support?" Which brings me to my next piece.
People, participants, they need to know that there are opportunities to learn, to practice, collaborate, ask questions, receive feedback, reflect, and then return to the learning.
That's what I think about professional learning as continuous rather than episodic.
Right? Providing quality professional development for MTSS, I think of how we have our beginning of the year, we do our campus coaching visits.
Uh, there are multiple opportunities for checkpoints, uh, and just collaborative opportunities, not just for on the campus, but internally with departments as well.
There must be vertical and horizontal, not just hor- at the campus level but at the district level, about what this works, work really looks like and how it can be supportive for, uh, a supportive culture, culture for our d- for our adults.
So when in my work, when we think of MTSS, we always naturally go to universal screening or the multi-level prevention system with the tiers or intervention data, progress monitoring systems.
But what I've learned is that you can have a beautifully designed professional development system on paper and still not get the outcomes you want.
So people respond to implementing that system when they feel supported, because systems don't support students, but people using those systems support students.
So what you put in that professional development learning experience is essential.
Uh, we talk a lot in education about whether students feel connected, known, and supported at school, and we 100% should do those things.
But I think we have to ask, do our teachers, do the adults responsible for supporting those students feel connected, known, and supported? Because we can't ask, uh, campuses to create a culture of support- If they don't feel supported themselves.
Well, in professional development, I think of what we model in MTSS is how we should support our adults in professional development.
So if MTSS fundamentally is about identifying the needs and responding to the appropriate supports, then I believe that's exactly what we have to do for our adult learners.
We have to identify the need and be intentional when we are designing those professional learning opportunities.
We can't provide one professional development session and say, "Okay, go do MTSS."
"Go do whatever you expected them to do it." No, that's, that's not realistic.
And I actually, in all of my professional development sessions, I tell my participants, "Okay, at the end of the session, I'm not going to tell you, 'Go do it 100%.' But we're gonna talk about what is the one thing you can do, and then if you get stuck, how are you gonna get support?" Which brings me to my next piece.
People, participants, they need to know that there are opportunities to learn, to practice, collaborate, ask questions, receive feedback, reflect, and then return to the learning.
That's what I think about professional learning as continuous rather than episodic.
Right? Providing quality professional development for MTSS, I think of how we have our beginning of the year, we do our campus coaching visits.
Uh, there are multiple opportunities for checkpoints, uh, and just collaborative opportunities, not just for on the campus, but internally with departments as well.
There must be vertical and horizontal, not just hor- at the campus level but at the district level, about what this works, work really looks like and how it can be supportive for, uh, a supportive culture, culture for our d- for our adults.
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