Centering Equity and Educational Justice: Exploring Implementation Challenges within Multi-tiered Systems of Support for Reading

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Abstract

Objectives
This presentation explores how foundational literacy development functions as a national equity issue, and how implementation of Multi-Tiered Systems of Support for Reading (MTSS-R) through effective data-based decision-making can be leveraged to address disparities in early reading outcomes. This session will:

1. Highlight how foundational literacy outcomes reflect broader systemic inequities, positioning early reading proficiency as a national educational justice concern.

2. Discuss interacting activity systems within MTSS-R illustrating how school-level tensions highlight challenges and guide solutions for implementation fidelity.

3. Introduce a student literacy joy measure developed to assess students’ perceptions of joy related to high-quality reading interventions for foundational literacy development.

Perspectives/Theoretical Framework
Using Cultural-Historical Activity Theory (CHAT; Engeström, 1987, 2001), this study will examine how administrative data-based decision-making for Tier 3 literacy interventions shapes teacher time use and student engagement within an MTSS-R framework. The CHAT framework provides a process to examine educational practices and inclusive education, while providing a lens into the complex factors influencing instruction and learning (Barrett-Tatum, 2015; Hancock & Miller, 2018).

Methods/Data Sources
This mixed methods study will investigate the activity systems of MTSS-R implementation in four K-2 classrooms, and with school-level administrators, from two different Midwest U.S. public-school districts. Surveys, focus groups, and interviews with administrators and teachers will collect participant perceptions of MTSS-R implementation practices. The Quality of Explicit Instruction instrument will rate explicitness of intervention quality for the five critical areas of beginning reading instruction (QEI; Nelson et al., 2013), the Ratings of Classroom Management and Instructional Support (RICMS; Doabler & Nelson-Walker, 2009) will rate teachers’ use of evidence-based instructional practices, and the Classroom Observations of Student-Teacher Interactions (COSTI) tool will measure the frequency of explicit instructional interactions between teachers and students to assess student engagement (Smolkowski & Gunn, 2012). Lastly, a student literacy joy measure will assess individual students’ perceptions of joy related to their high-quality reading interventions. Using CHAT for analysis, tensions and contradictions among the systems will be explored (e.g., data demands vs. teacher capacity vs. student engagement) enabling exploration of participants’ experiences, and what influences their decisions and behaviors within their contexts of MTSS-R implementation.

Substantiated Conclusions
Prior research does not illuminate how specific systems-level activities interact to shape Tier 3 literacy instruction within an MTSS-R framework. By offering insights to enhance intervention quality and coordination of MTSS-R implementation from study findings, potential strategies to increase effective integration of literacy interventions into the school day will be highlighted, in turn, equipping school leaders with additional equity centered supports to meet the diverse needs of students and staff.

Scholarly Significance
With national attention on reading proficiency and achievement gaps, an urgent need exists to strengthen Tier 3 literacy instruction to support students with, and without, learning disabilities within MTSS-R for equitable access to early literacy skill development. Thus, this study is timely and seeks to recommend equity-forward strategies for MTSS-R implementation with a goal toward improving fidelity, responsiveness, and sustainability.

Author

• Ayana Bass, Boston University