The Newfields School Board received a staff presentation on the district’s Multi-Tiered System of Supports (MTSS) and the fall academic screening results for reading and math.

Why it matters: Presentations by faculty aimed to show how district‑level screening and diagnostic tools help identify students for universal, targeted and intensive interventions under MTSS and to provide the board an early view of current-year student placement compared with the prior fall.

The presenters were Melissa Toby, the district reading specialist, and Jody (classroom or specialist staff). Melissa opened the presentation with a brief definition: “MTSS stands for multi tiered system of support,” and explained how the district uses tiers to distinguish universal instruction (Tier 1), targeted small-group intervention (Tier 2) and individualized long-term intervention (Tier 3). She said enrichment is also treated as an intervention option.

Reading assessment: Melissa described the I-Ready diagnostic, which the district uses as a universal screener for grades 1–5. She showed sample items (multiple choice, drag-and-drop, highlight-for-text-evidence and oral‑reading passages) and explained that I-Ready is adaptive: correct answers raise challenge levels and incorrect answers reduce them. Melissa said the district treats yellow and above on the fall I-Ready placement as a positive baseline; a yellow placement often corresponds to performance roughly a grade level below but, early in the school year, does not signal cause for alarm because students have not had full-year instruction in their current grade.

Math assessment: Jody described the district’s universal screener for number sense (K–5), which is an interview-style, one‑on‑one assessment administered in fall, winter and spring. The screener examines counting, number identification and mental number sense; skills become more complex through grade 2. Jody noted that the screener is not computer-based in the fall and typically takes five to ten minutes per student.

Benchmarking and follow-up: For kindergarten and students flagged as at-risk, staff use Acadience (benchmarking) and short supplemental screeners such as the Phonological Awareness Screening Test (PAST), Quick Phonological Screener (QPS) and Rapid Automatized Naming (RAN) activities to pin down specific intervention needs (letter-sound correspondence, decoding, fluency and comprehension). Jody described how oral reading fluency and maze tasks are used at higher grades to check comprehension as well as decoding.

Results and interpretation: Presenters showed district fall placements and compared the current fall to the prior fall. They reported a higher proportion of students in the green category this year and a reduced yellow share, which presenters interpreted as indicating retention of last year’s learning into fall. Presenters cautioned that fall diagnostic data are an early baseline and that one‑on‑one screener data remain important for individualized instructional decisions.

Board response: Board members praised the presentation and asked for the slides to be posted with meeting materials. The presenters and board agreed the district will continue to use multiple assessments to triangulate needs and to guide intervention planning.

Follow-up: Staff said they will share the presentation slides with the board and post them with the meeting minutes so community members can review sample items and screening details.