Putting an MTSS Lens on Mathematics

What if every student received the instruction they needed to be successful and confident mathematics learners?

That’s the core motivation behind the work of EDC’s Amy Brodesky and Emily Fagan. Brodesky and Fagan work with school/district leaders and teachers in upper elementary and middle schools to strengthen mathematics intervention classes, as part of school-based Multi-Tiered Systems of Support (MTSS) for mathematics.

Over the past 10 years, Brodesky and Fagan have conducted a national survey, developed professional development for teachers, created engaging and hands-on student activities that incorporate effective strategies, and collaborated with school and district teams to better support students who struggle with mathematics. From these efforts, they developed a free resource, Strengthening Math Intervention: Guide for Leaders and created a Math Intervention Toolkit (forthcoming) on evidence-based strategies.

With more districts using MTSS to promote students’ academic success and well-being, Brodesky and Fagan sat down to share their expertise and suggest ways to make the most of math intervention as part of MTSS. The following conversation has been edited for clarity.

How does mathematics education fit into the MTSS framework?

Fagan: MTSS is a three-tiered framework that provides support tailored to meet each student’s needs and promote their success. In math education, Tier 1 is high-quality math instruction for all learners—the foundation for successful mathematics learning. Next, there’s Tier 2, which is small-group instruction for students who need focused instruction and support. Then you have Tier 3—intensive, individualized instruction for students who experience persistent challenges.

Brodesky: Tier 2 instruction is provided in addition to Tier 1, so students do not miss core instruction. The goal for Tier 2 is to provide additional support on high-priority math topics, such as number and operations topics. Our work has focused on strengthening instruction in Tiers 1 and 2 to increase support for students with math difficulties and disabilities.

What should educators consider about implementing math interventions in MTSS?

Brodesky: Students in math intervention classes should do as much math as possible, talk about math, and build confidence as math thinkers and doers. Intervention classes work best when teachers build communities of learners where students feel comfortable sharing ideas, asking questions, and taking risks in their learning. The nice thing about small intervention classes is that students have more opportunities to engage in hands-on activities with manipulatives that build their understanding. And teachers benefit from being able to formatively assess students’ strengths and challenges to tailor instruction.

What kind of support do math intervention teachers need?

Fagan: It’s important for leaders to provide math intervention teachers with planning time, support, and professional learning.  It’s a myth that because intervention classes are small, they’re easy to teach. They can be quite challenging to teach. Students may have a wide range of math learning needs and may also have anxiety about doing math. Teachers may need support to strengthen their use of evidence-based instructional strategies for planning and teaching effective intervention lessons. We created a Math Intervention Toolkit (forthcoming) with free resources for districts to implement a professional development course for teachers.

Brodesky: Another common challenge is that there’s too much content to address in the limited intervention time. It’s really important for math leaders and teachers to work together to set clear goals, build a shared vision, and identify high-priority math topics to focus on.

What are some ideas for school/district leaders, math coaches, and teams who want to strengthen their mathematics instruction, using an MTSS lens?

Brodesky: In our Strengthening Mathematics Intervention work, we led a series of forums that engaged district teams in goal-setting activities, which helped districts clarify their vision of math intervention by discussing what math intervention is and what it is not. Forum participants said these activities really helped them. These activities are included in our free Strengthening Math Intervention guide, and we encourage leaders to use them.

Fagan: It’s also really important to use data. A key message for leaders is, if you want a Tier 1, Tier 2, or Tier 3 intervention to be effective, it needs to be planful and proactive. We recommend gathering and analyzing data on student learning from a variety of sources, not just state assessments. This helps educators determine how well the tiers in their math MTSS program fit together to support all students and plan effective ways to make improvements.

What is your advice for districts that are using math intervention in Tier 2 MTSS?

Brodesky: We have four suggestions. To start, reaffirm your goals and vision for Tier 2 math intervention to get everyone on the same page. Next, as we mentioned, it’s important to set and clarify math content priorities. Then, get buy-in from students by doing engaging math activities and building a supportive learning community. Finally, use evidence-based strategies and formative assessment (such as our fraction probes) to provide targeted instruction that makes the most of intervention class time (learn more about using formative assessment math probes to identify student misconceptions).

Additional Resources

We invite you to explore Cheryl Tobey’s and Emily Fagan’s books on formative assessment in Grades K-2 and Grades 3-5, and learn more about EDC’s Strengthening Mathematics Intervention, Transition to Algebra, Math For All, Young Mathematicians, Visual Access to Mathematics and Massachusetts Multi-Tiered Systems of Academy initiatives.

The Strengthening Mathematics Intervention work described in this article was supported by the National Science Foundation under Grant No. 1621294. Any opinions, findings, conclusions, or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation.