Key Terms for MTSS

Framework – intended plan or model for articulating teaching/learning activities, assessment/tests, processes, and desired results that can maximize student achievement. 

• Multi-Tiered Prevention System – a schoolwide framework with systems and resources designed to provide support matched to student need to maximize student achievement and reduce poor behavioral outcomes. 
• Data-Based Decision Making – a process for setting/evaluating goals; the ongoing process of analyzing and evaluating student data to inform educational decisions. 
• At Risk- students who have poor learning and/or behavioral outcomes.  Also, students who are in jeopardy of being retained or students who may not be on track to graduate. 
• Acceleration – interventions that are implemented to increase the speed at which students acquire skills.  

Assessment – the collection of information about student performance in a specific area. 

• Benchmark – measures that are used to determine student progress and to guide instruction.  For example, measures may assess a specific skill such as number of correct words read per minute (reading fluency).
• Screening – conducted to identify students who may need additional instruction or help so that early intervention can occur.  These are typically brief and usually administered with all students at a grade level (Universal Screening).
•  Progress Monitoring – scientifically based practice that is used to assess students’ academic and behavioral performance and evaluate the effectiveness of instruction. 

Best Practices – evidence-based teaching strategies that generate positive student response.

• Evidence-Based Practices – an educational practice or strategy that has factual evidence for results.
• Differentiated Instruction – recognizing and responding to students’ varying interests, readiness levels, and learning needs. 
• Interventions –instruction, supplemental to the general education curriculum, that is based on student need; and is made of evidence-based instructional strategies and techniques. 
• Evidence-Based Intervention – an intervention for which data from scientific, rigorous research studies have demonstrated or validated the results. 
• Fidelity of Implementation – the accurate and consistent delivery of instruction or assessment in the way it was designed or prescribed according to research findings and/or developers’ specifications.