Shennago is committed to ensuring that all children receive an appropriate public education, regardless of race, culture and background, language, socioeconomic status, or educational need. Shenango maintains that all students learn best in inclusive environments that implement high-quality, evidence-based instruction. Inclusive programs are those in which students with and without disabilities receive appropriate instruction and related services in age-appropriate general-education settings. Furthermore, an optimal service delivery system is one that is aligned with a multitiered system of support (MTSS) in which evidence-based instruction is delivered along a continuum, based on student need, includes both academics and behavior, and uses data to guide instructional decision-making.
Assessment and intervention activities must always link directly to the needs of students. Shennago supports an integrated MTSS as an effective approach for meeting the learning needs of all students. MTSS incorporates multiple tiers of instruction for academic and behavior skill development (Tier 1, Tier 2, Tier 3). Providing a multitiered continuum of prevention and intervention services that are evidence-based and data-driven.
MTSS Structure
Tier 1 – Classroom teachers deliver quality core instruction and use a variety of strategies within the curriculum to address an individual’s needs. These needs could be academic, behavioral, social and/or emotional in nature.
Tier 2 – Based on assessment data, students in need of additional support will be provided additional research-based interventions. These supplemental supports will be layered onto ongoing Tier 1 efforts and will be documented in the student’s intervention plan.
Tier 3 – Based on continual review of the intervention plans, students showing insufficient progress within Tier 2 will receive more intensive interventions.
Specific features of a MTSS System include the following:
- Comprehensive Tier 1 core instructional programs
- Clearly stated learning expectations and goals
- Explicit instruction
- Strategies to enhance student engagement
- Scaffolding and support for learners to move from acquisition through fluency, building to mastery, and generalization
- Frequent corrective feedback
- Early identification of student needs through implementation of universal screening measures completed with the entire school population
- Identification of appropriate interventions of increasing intensity
- Evidence-based, reliable, valid, and sensitive assessments used to monitor how students are responding to instruction and to make changes, as necessary, based on data
For more information on the MTSS process click here