An effective and efficient data system is essential for successful implementation of a multi-tiered system of support (MTSS). However, prior to selecting an appropriate system, schools and districts must identify what its staff and community need and what resources the district or school has to support an MTSS data system. This two-step tool can help teams to consider both what their needs are and to evaluate available tools against those needs. Step 1 can help your team systematically identify and document your MTSS data system needs and current context and step 2 focuses on selecting and evaluating a data system for conducting screening and progress monitoring within a tiered system of support based on the identified needs and context from step 1

The National Center on Intensive Intervention (NCII) has been working intensively with Michigan's MTSS (MiMTSS) Technical Assistance Center since 2017 to create coherence and support local-level implementation of intensive intervention in Michigan. 

The MTSS Fidelity of Implementation Rubric and Summary Sheet are for use by individuals responsible for monitoring the school-level fidelity of MTSS implementation.

Successful implementation of intensive intervention using data-based individualization (DBI) is more likely to occur in schools that have a well-functioning tiered system of support, commonly called a multi-tiered system of supports (MTSS), response to intervention (RTI), or positive behavioral interventions and supports (PBIS), depending on your location and area of focus. Intensive intervention is considered the most intense level of intervention and also may be known as Tier 3.

Teams are a vital part of an effective multi-tiered system of supports (MTSS) across both academics and behavior as well as special education. Making connections across the across the various teams used in MTSS and special education can be challenging. This resource from NCII and the PBIS Center, provides information about how DBI can support IEP implementation and provides a table with key considerations for teams working across the MTSS system.

In this Voices From the Field piece, the National Center on Intensive Intervention (NCII) talks with Justyn Poulos, director of MTSS at the Office of the Superintendent of Public Education (OSPI), about how he and his team shifted their annual MTSS Fest conference from a face-to-face event to a virtual event in less than 3 weeks due to COVID-19 restrictions. Justyn shares how his team modified their event plans and what they learned from the experience about how to engage participants in the future.

Within a multi-tiered system of supports (MTSS), intensive intervention, also known as Tier 3, is designed to support students with the most severe and persistent learning and/or behavior difficulties. This document highlights some common misconceptions about intensive academic and behavior interventions that experts from the Center on Positive Behavioral Interventions and Supports and NCII have observed in supporting the implementation of intensive intervention within the context of MTSS.

These documents are intended to illustrate how college- and career-ready standards can be addressed across levels of a multi-tiered system of support (MTSS) or response to intervention framework in reading and mathematics. They provide examples of how to apply standards relevant instruction across core instruction (Tier 1), secondary intervention (Tier 2), intensive intervention (Tier 3) and for to support students with significant cognitive challenges.

In this video, Dr. Rebecca Zumeta Edmonds, Co-Director of NCII discusses the differences between the terms “multi-tiered system of supports (MTSS)” and “Response to Intervention (RtI).”

Rhode Island's Intensive Intervention Implementation Story Since 2012, RIDE has learned alongside local education agency personnel (at both district and school levels) about what it takes to implement data-based individualization (DBI) within a multi-tiered system of supports (MTSS). Early on in the work, two LEAs were deeply engaged in DBI implementation: Bristol Warren Regional School District and Coventry School District. After witnessing positive student outcomes for learners with severe and persistent academic and/or behavioral needs through DBI implementation, RIDE opted to invest more deeply in scaling both MTSS and DBI through the following initiatives: State Systemic Improvement Plan and BRIDGE-RI (the Home of MTSS in Rhode Island).