Our Work in the Field: Michigan

NCIL staff and expert coaches are working with several state education agencies and the local education agencies they identify to provide intensive technical assistance.

Our work with Michigan Department of Education’s Office of Special Education through Michigan’s MTSS Technical Assistance Center (MiMTSS), previously Michigan’s Integrated Behavior and Learning Support Initiative (MIBLSI), focuses on intensification of instruction and intervention to comprehensively support the individual needs of students with or at risk for literacy-related disabilities. Work with MiMTSS also includes the integration of family engagement and outreach within the context of supporting individual student needs.

Our Goals

Build capacity among state education agencies (SEAs) and their partner technical assistance agencies to intensify and individualize interventions for students with or at risk for literacy-related disabilities in the context of effectively implemented multi-tiered systems of support (MTSS).
Support state and MiMTSS goals to implement comprehensive, integrated academic and behavior interventions to prevent reading difficulty and ensure that all students are on track to meet grade level reading objectives by the end of 3^rd grade.
Support the intensification of instruction and intervention for students with or at risk for literacy-related disabilities and the integration of family engagement and outreach.

We will address the following areas:

Criteria used to define adequate and insufficient progress within Tier 1, 2, 3, and beyond;
The process the school uses to make decisions (e.g., school-based teams) about which students to support within each tier and how to support them;
How the school determines the content of instruction and intervention in Tiers 1, 2, 3, and beyond, and how that content will be taught (e.g., small groups, explicit instruction, etc.);
How the school determines if literacy content is being taught as planned (i.e., measures of fidelity of implementation) and if the instructional delivery methods can be considered high-quality (e.g., pace of instruction, opportunities for students to participate).
Strategies and approaches to intensify instruction within the system and within the classroom to meet the needs of students with protracted literacy-related difficulties based on current and emerging research evidence.

Technical Assistance

Intensification professional development and training to accompany existing MIBLSI training plans and resources (in progress).

Intensification lesson materials that correspond precisely to students’ individual learning needs (in progress).

Framework to guide the development and implementation of Tier 3 instructional routines for struggling readers. The instructional routines intensify early literacy content and help support cognitive processing (working memory, inhibitory control, attentional flexibility). The intensification framework also emphasizes the strategic integration of lower-order (foundational skills) and higher-order skills (vocabulary/comprehension) to help students transfer and functionally integrate key components of reading (in progress).

Support structures for state and local education agencies to more effectively collaborate with and engage parents and families of students with or at risk for literacy-related disabilities who need intensified instruction and intervention (in progress).

About MiMTSS

MiMTSS partners with school districts to help implement and sustain behavior and learning supports for improved student outcomes through a multi-tiered system of supports (MTSS). MiMTSS utilizes data-based decision making at all levels of implementation and focuses on evidence-based practices implemented with fidelity that are sustainable over time.