Dr. Michael Doyle
What do all those initials stand for?
BY DR. MICHAEL DOYLE
Sometimes in public education, educators get carried away with initialisms. We mention the letters PBIS, RTI or MTSS, and can leave people wondering what the series of letters mean. What do educators mean when they mention or use such as initialisms?
What do the letters mean when used in education?
So where do we start with some of the current terms used in education? We have PBIS, which stands for Positive Behavioral Interventions and Supports. This is a program that has been around for several years.
What is PBIS? How does PBIS work? It is a framework that has teachers actively engaged in teaching positive behaviors and working to prevent poor behavior in the classroom. Trenton teachers do actively engage students and will use the four tiers of PBIS to help students be successful.
The four tiers start with a tier that will focus on preventing the development of poor behavior. The second tier is when Trenton staff looks at data, and this includes looking at the data as a team to look for patterns among students.
An example could be the number of times the student has had a situation with poor behavior. The third tier of support is for those students with more serious behavior problems. These problems may involve a team of people working together to help get that student headed in the right direction to succeed academically.
Another is RTI which is Response to Intervention. Like PBIS, RTI has tiers. The first tier is having teachers deliver high-quality instruction to all students in Trenton. The purpose is to be sure that students are not in a struggle situation due to poor instruction.
The second tier is to use a research-based system to provide help to students who have been identified by staff as struggling. This is often done in small groups. The final tier of support with RTI is to provide for more frequent, intense, and individualized instruction.
Finally, it is important to mention MTSS. This is a system that is very similar to the first two systems. It is important to mention all three of the systems of support do have overlap. MTSS is Multi-Tiered Systems of Supports and it uses research-based strategies that are designed to meet the individual needs of all Trenton students.
MTSS does vary from state to state. In Michigan, MTSS includes team-based leadership, a tiered delivery system for instruction, interventions for students who are struggling, a system to screen and assess students, and the use of data in making decisions to help with student success.
The purpose here is to help people understand various systems when they are mentioned and to help people gain an understanding of how the systems of intervention and support work in education. Trenton Public Schools are hard at work using proven systems, interventions, and methods of support to help all students be successful.
Dr. Michael Doyle is community liaison director for Trenton Public Schools. Email him at doylem@trentonschools.com.