CORONAVIRUS (COVID-19) AND SCSBC’S RESPONSE: Find the lastest updates here for students, faculty and staff.
CORONAVIRUS (COVID-19) AND SCSBC’S RESPONSE: Find the lastest updates here for students, faculty and staff.
Our schools encounter diverse students with unique needs, abilities, and backgrounds. We utilize best practices such as Universal Design for Learning, differentiation, social-emotional learning, trauma-informed practices, and school-wide teaching of behaviour expectations to promote learner readiness within the classroom. Wouldn’t it be great if these school-wide and class-wide strategies engaged students from the beginning? Yet, many students appear disinterested or resistant to learning every year, which can cause frustration. There is a great reward when these students respond with extra support. This article will delve into fostering inclusive learning environments through the lens of layered tiers of support.
Tiered systems of support originated in the 1990s from the healthcare model of providing intervention education and practices for preventing disease and illness among a population of people in a defined geographical area. While primary prevention focuses on preventing illness, secondary intervention focuses on treating identified health issues in the beginning stages. Tertiary intervention was designed to treat those with more severe health concerns and stop any further advancement of the health issue (Madon et al., 2007). At this time in the education system, critics became vocal about using the medical model for education. In the medical model, students were diagnosed with a disability to receive interventions. The students were seen as having deficits that needed to be fixed. This is often referred to as the “wait-to-fail” model, which is not an efficient or effective use of resources to support student learning. As the social model began to be adopted by schools, educators began to promote a whole-school approach to academic intervention and look at how to change the environment to remove barriers to learning. This led the way for response to intervention (RTI) to become part of the educational literature. At the same time, concerns about discipline practices were emerging and the school-wide positive behaviour interventions and supports (SWPBIS) framework appeared as a way to address behavioural concerns proactively instead of reactively. Multi-tiered systems of support (MTSS) integrate both models into the three-tiered system.
Generally, whether your school has formally implemented RTI, SWPBIS, or MTSS, there is merit in looking at supporting students through a three-tiered lens.
Tier 1 focuses on universal supports for all students and is the basis of inclusive education. Tier 1 is implemented to benefit all students in the school and includes a wide range of strategies, including differentiated instruction, universal design for learning, social-emotional learning, and explicit teaching of behavioural expectations. However, despite our best efforts, we will encounter students who struggle to connect with the curriculum or exhibit behaviours that hinder their learning. Disengaged students can be a source of frustration for educators. Yet, it is essential to recognize that the journey towards inclusivity is ongoing, and tier 1 is the foundation upon which additional supports are built.
Tier 2 comprises targeted interventions for at-risk students requiring extra support beyond tier 1. Support for students within tier 2 are proactively identified early through the school’s data collection system. When a student is identified as experiencing behavioural challenges, social-emotional difficulties, or falling behind academically, interventions are implemented to reduce the escalation and need for more intensive resources. The interventions can include small group instruction, a mentor checking with students, class-wide interventions designed to target a few students, and setting-based interventions, to name a few. Addressing barriers to learning early on at the tier 2 level of support is crucial for preventing further academic disengagement, promoting pro-social behaviour, and building resilience and coping skills. Again, despite suitable interventions, it is expected in any school that a small group of students will need more intensive and individualized supports beyond tier 1 and tier 2.
Intensive and individualized support at the tier 3 level consists of interventions that address the unique needs of the student. The goal at this level is to prevent any further escalation of the present needs while building skills. Tier 3 interventions can include specialized instruction, assistive technology, functional behaviour assessments and behaviour support plans, safety plans, replacement curriculum, environmental modifications, etc. At this tier, there is often collaboration with other professionals such as speech therapists, behaviour analysts, counsellors, and occupational therapists. Working with students at the tier 3 level requires significant time, resources, and expertise from outside professionals, educators, and support staff.
This past year, Liz Ullrich, Learning Associate for SCSBC, has offered training at the tier 1 and tier 2 level for whole school staff to reduce and prevent challenging behaviours. This training aligns with the Restraint and Seclusion Policy from the BC Ministry of Education. When there is a student in your school presenting with challenges, it takes many resources to manage those challenges. When the whole school staff is involved at the tier 1 level in speaking the same language and proactively working together, it can be very powerful in creating environmental changes and reducing barriers. In turn, this reduces the number of students at the tier 3 level and fosters an inclusive learning space for all students.
Amanda Broadway
SCSBC Associate Director of Learning / Inclusive Education
