MaineTAC Academics

Maine's Official Multi-Tiered Systems of Support (MTSS; RTI) Technical Assistance Center

What is MTSS? | CBMs | School Tools | RTI-A Certification (USM) | Planning Documents

MTSS is a three-tiered approach for supporting academic progress and achievement. The first tier, Tier 1, includes systems and practices for all students in the district/school. Tiers 2 and 3 offer small group or intensive, individual intervention, respectively.

The first step in any MTSS implementation is to focus on Tier 1 to ensure that an evidence-based academic curriculum is available to ALL students. This encompasses assessing academic achievement with curriculum-based measurements to gauge whether 80% of the students are successfully responding to the existing instructional methods. Without Tier 1 MTSS implemented universally (for ALL students), it is difficult to determine if a student's challenges are a function of his or her skill deficits or a lack of appropriate instruction.