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Board hears district MTSS update: aligned teams, new tools and decision rules for tiered supports
Summary
District leaders and special services staff outlined progress on a multi-year MTSS (multi-tiered system of supports) program review completed in 2021 and subsequent implementation steps, including standardized site teams, decision rules, intervention menus, forms in Infinite Campus and plans to adopt EduconorX for data access.
Austin Public Schools administration presented a district-level update on multi-tiered systems of support (MTSS) to the school board on May 20, outlining steps taken since a 2021 program review and a plan for further system alignment.
Executive Director (presenter identified as) Steve Askin and Special Services lead Sherry Roloff described a multi-year process that has moved from review-and-recommendation into district-wide implementation. They said the district established a consistent set of teams at each site — school leadership teams, PLCs (professional learning communities), supplemental support teams (tier 2) and intensive support teams (tier 3) — and created meeting frameworks, FAQ guidance and a resource handbook to support those teams.
Roloff and Askin said the district has developed standardized menus of academic and behavior interventions mapped by tier and subject. They showed examples of reading interventions for grades 1–4 aligned across the five areas of reading and a behavior-intervention chart used at one elementary site; both are tied to decision rules that use progress-monitoring data to move students between tiers.
For intensive supports, staff said they built Infinite Campus forms so teams can track interventions and that the forms migrate with a student across buildings. The presenters also said they are standardizing supplemental forms (developmental histories, EL questionnaires, screening observations) to create consistency across sites.
Askin said the district will deploy a new data tool, EduConorX (presenter pronunciation), to give PLCs easier access to assessment and progress-monitoring data. He said the Read Act and Minnesota MTSS structures influenced some assessment choices and that district teams have prepared FAQ and handbook materials for site teams.
Why it matters: District-level MTSS alignment affects how schools identify students for small-group or intensive supports, how interventions are monitored, and how the district measures progress toward literacy, math proficiency and graduation goals. Presenters said teams are now operational in every site and that the district will continue implementation, training and evaluation.
Board members praised the flowcharts and asked questions about timeline and data tools; presenters said some vision-card metrics — like third-grade reading and eighth-grade math proficiency — show incremental movement but that graduation rate remains a priority for continued work.
