Making the Most of the Rest of the School Year (Copy) (Copy)
If It’s Not on the Calendar, It’s Not in the System!
As co‑author of MTSS for Reading Improvement and creator of the MTSS Data Academy, I spend a lot of time with schools trying to connect the science of reading and MTSS into one coherent system. A significant part of that work is in supporting educators and leaders to be confident in taking action on the high-quality reading data they already have. The very first step is to ensure that meetings are set aside specifically for teams to review their screening and progress monitoring data.
If data conversations only happen when teams have extra time, decisions about screening, interventions, and progress monitoring are inconsistent and often reactive. Students who most need coordinated support are often the ones who slip through the cracks and all educators in a school fail to build the confidence with data that leaders hope they have. This is a great time to review the yearlong calendar of data meetings for grade‑level teams/PLCs, Building Leadership Teams (BLTs), and District Leadership Teams (DLTs), and consider how to use existing teams to maximize the impact of already-existing student data.
In this article, we’ll consider 3 big ideas
Maximize Screening Data Use at all Tiers
Consider Progress Monitoring Data Use
Remember Team Membership Matters
From random acts of improvement to a system
In MTSS for Reading Improvement, Stephanie Stollar and I argue that sustainable gains come from designing “interventions for the system,” not just piling on more interventions for individual students. We wrote the book as a tool kit—with more than 50 practical tools, including meeting agendas, data protocols, and planning templates—to make that work doable for busy school and district leaders.
The MTSS Data Academy builds on that same idea. It’s a research‑based program that brings MTSS, the science of reading, and team data coaching together, with a yearlong sequence of trainings, “Data Use Power Hour” sessions, and ready‑to‑use resources. When schools pair the Academy’s calendar and coaching with the tools from MTSS for Reading Improvement, teams stop relying on ad‑hoc conversations and start running predictable, high‑quality data cycles.
Anchor meetings to screening and progress monitoring
A strong MTSS framework rests on four core components: screening, progress monitoring, a multi‑level prevention system, and data‑based decision making. Your assessment calendar already outlines when universal screening and progress monitoring will happen; your data meetings should sit right next to those dates.
A simple rule I share in MTSS Data Academy sessions is: schedule your key data meetings for the week after each screening window closes. Here’s one pattern you can adapt:
Every one of these meetings can run on a ready‑made agenda from MTSS for Reading Improvement and be supported by MTSS Data Academy protocols, so teams don’t have to start from a blank page.
Different teams, different questions, shared goals
One of the big shifts we make in MTSS for Reading Improvement is moving from case‑by‑case problem solving to structured, team‑based questions at three levels: classroom/PLC, building, and district. The MTSS Data Academy is designed around the same three tiers of teaming.
Grade Level Teams/PLCs: Closest to Instruction
PLCs live where instruction happens, so their data meetings should focus on what needs to change in teaching and intervention for groups of students, not just on creating longer lists of Tier 3 candidates. Use grade‑level protocols from the book to guide questions like:
What does screening tell us about this grade level overall?
Do we need classwide intervention (intensifying Tier 1) because too many students are at risk?
Who needs additional small‑group or intensive support, and what will that look like?
Pair those tools with your MTSS Data Academy PLC agendas so each meeting ends with a concrete action plan, not just data review.
Building Leadership Teams: Interventions for the System
BLTs look across grades and ask, “What in our system is helping or getting in the way of reading success?” In the book, we describe using data to write “interventions for your system”—adjusting schedules, staffing, materials, and coaching based on patterns in the data, then monitoring impact over time.
BLT data meetings can:
Use schoolwide screening and progress monitoring data to spot patterns (for example, early decoding issues in grade 2).
Apply book tools and Data Academy protocols to choose a few high‑leverage changes (protecting K–1 intervention time, aligning core materials, clarifying intervention roles).
Revisit those decisions at winter and spring meetings to see if the “system intervention” worked.
District Leadership Teams: Coherence and Vision
DLTs focus on coherence and sustainability: shared assessment windows, common decision rules, and targeted support for schools. They can:
Ensure every school has a public assessment and data‑meeting calendar and is using a core set of tools from MTSS for Reading Improvement.
Use cross‑school data to decide where to aim MTSS Data Academy coaching, workshops, and follow‑up support.
When PLCs, BLTs, and DLTs all use a shared set of tools and follow a predictable rhythm of meetings, data moves smoothly up the system, and support moves reliably back down.
Remember Progress Monitoring
Universal screening three times a year is not enough to drive MTSS decisions. Students receiving supplemental and intensive interventions need regular progress monitoring—and teams need time set aside to look at those graphs and decide whether to stay the course, intensify, or change course.
In MTSS for Reading Improvement, we emphasize that progress monitoring is only powerful when it actually guides action; the MTSS Data Academy reinforces this with templates and routines for “Data Use Power Hours.” That means:
Building a progress monitoring calendar (for example, every other week for Tier 2, weekly for Tier 3) that aligns with intervention blocks.
Assigning clear ownership so each student’s data is entered and brought to PLC or problem‑solving meetings.
Using structured decision tools from the book so teams know when to adjust dosage, content, or instructional routines instead of guessing.
When progress monitoring is on the calendar and supported by these tools, interventions stop being “try it and hope” and become a purposeful path to accelerated growth.
A simple next step
If your teams are using MTSS for Reading Improvement or participating in the MTSS Data Academy, you already have what you need; the next step is to put it on the calendar.
In the next 30 days:
Publish your universal screening and progress monitoring windows for the year.
Add standing data meetings for PLCs, BLTs, and the DLT in the week after each screening window closes.
Match each meeting to a specific agenda or protocol from MTSS for Reading Improvement and your MTSS Data Academy resource library so teams know exactly how to use their time.
If it’s not on the calendar, it will not happen consistently. When you schedule MTSS data meetings now—anchored by strong tools and a clear purpose—you give your system a real chance to change students’ reading outcomes next year.
