MTSS:
How is Everything Connected? The work of becoming a Multi-Tiered System of Support (MTSS) school is not new to Newton—we’ve been engaged in this work for decades. At its core, being an MTSS school means ensuring that every student receives the support and attention they need, exactly when they need it, no matter how they enter the building each day. And yet, only those working in public education in 2025 truly understand how complex it is to make that seemingly simple goal a reality for all students. To help make sense of this work, it can be useful to think of MTSS through three key “buckets”: Instructional practices – the daily teaching moves we make as educators; Structures and systems – the ways we organize our schools, including the educator communication pathways that create the conditions for success; Culture and climate – the trust and sense of belonging that fuel meaningful relationships and learning. So where does this work fit within your school’s improvement plan or our district’s strategic plan? Simply put: MTSS is the umbrella that encompasses all of our instructional strategic goals. Every initiative we take on can be viewed through one or more of these three lenses. For example: Implementing the EL curriculum primarily lives in the instructional bucket. Intervention and extension blocks fall at least initially under structures and systems. Psychological safety among GLDs connects strongly to culture and climate. Other priorities, like culturally responsive instruction (CRI), span all three. While CRI includes key instructional moves, fully living our CRI commitments also requires examining the structures (like discipline policies) and how they impact students, as well as whether our culture fosters belonging—for students and staff alike. What excites me most about MTSS work is that it recognizes the deep challenges public schools face and gives us a concrete framework to understand and address them. It helps us name the barriers our students and educators experience—and work to remove them. MTSS work looks different at each level, and it should. The barriers facing high schoolers aren’t the same as those faced by elementary students, and the solutions must reflect that. But across all levels, MTSS is how we close achievement gaps. One of the measures of success in my role is the closing of these gaps across student identity markers. That’s not because a Director of MTSS could ever be fully responsible for instruction, but because the process of using data to inform decisions—and acting within those three MTSS buckets—is how we shift student outcomes. We’ve already seen really exciting progress at the elementary level in several schools, showing that Newton can be a place where a student’s academic achievement and well-being is not predictable based on their race, gender, disability/neurodiversity, or primary language. I’m deeply grateful for the collaboration with so many of you this year! I hope you enjoy a restful summer—and I look forward to continuing this important work with you in the fall. Maria Kolbe
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MTSS DIRECTOR
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