In Rivertown, MTSS emerged as a beacon of hope, guiding the district through the uneven landscape of varying student needs and across wide-ranging student experiences. The core challenge was clear: how can a district provide optimal services tailored to a diverse student body? This question was central to Rivertown’s reopening efforts. Yet, the traditional approach to MTSS drew lines between students, categorizing them by their perceived needs and inadvertently fostering a deficit-based mindset that opposed the district’s desired focus on equity.

While perhaps grounded in a genuine desire to triage support to those most in need, this approach reinforced a narrative that viewed the district’s most vulnerable students through a lens of deficiency. Instead of celebrating each student's strengths, the district’s initial implementation of MTSS focused on what students lacked, where they fell short, and other limiting assumptions prescribed by a deficit gaze. This gaze positioned MTSS not as a tool for teaching and growth but as a mechanism for fixing perceived flaws, particularly among the most vulnerable.

In this post, I want to explore Rivertown’s strategic overhaul of its MTSS model, highlighting how the district transitioned from merely addressing student needs to uplifting and empowering its students by recognizing and nurturing their inherent strengths.

From Supporting Needs to Sustaining Strengths

The MTSS model is an evidence-based approach to schooling that uses data-driven problem-solving to integrate academic and behavioral instruction and intervention. The integrated instruction and intervention are delivered to students in varying intensities (multiple tiers) based on student needs. Thus, “needs-driven” decision-making is employed to ensure that resources reach the appropriate students at the proper levels to accelerate the performance of ALL students to achieve and exceed proficiency.

The idea seems ingenious on paper—to operationalize equity by not treating all students the same (equality) but pursuing fairness by giving students what they need when and how they might need it (equity). The goals remain universal, but the support is targeted in what is known as targeted universalism.

Targeted universalism is a principle-based approach to policy and practice that aims to achieve universal goals through targeted processes. It recognizes that the route to achieving the same ends (universal goals) differs for different groups, depending on their circumstances. The approach sets universal targets and then tailors strategies to meet those targets by acknowledging and addressing the unique challenges and barriers different groups face.

Targeted universalism is at the heart of MTSS. MTSS’s universal goal is to ensure all students achieve academic and behavioral success. To reach this goal, MTSS employs a tiered approach, where interventions become more targeted based on specific student needs identified through continuous monitoring and data analysis.

At Tier 1, MTSS provides universal interventions that all students receive, ensuring that a robust foundation is set for every child’s educational journey. As needs are identified, the support becomes increasingly targeted (Tiers 2 and 3) to address specific challenges individual students or groups face. This approach ensures that resources are allocated not uniformly but equitably—students receive support proportional to their needs.

For instance, in Tier 2, small groups of students not meeting proficiency receive targeted instruction. These students may not benefit from the universal curriculum alone and, hence, are given something extra without being excluded from the universal tier of support. Similarly, Tier 3 involves individualized, intensive interventions for students who face the most significant challenges.

By operationalizing equity in this way, MTSS does not seek to provide equal resources to all students but to allocate resources and design interventions in a way where each student can reach the same high standards—the universal goals. This targeted approach ensures that support is intensive and personalized where necessary, but it doesn’t lose sight of the universal goal: the success of every student. Indeed, MTSS is about holding high expectations and holding the ladder. It is a practical example of targeted universalism at work, as it strives to honor and respond to individual student needs in pursuit of universally high outcomes for all.

When we began working with Rivertown, our team at forwardED was charged with advancing the district’s equity efforts beyond its existing focus on “fixing” students. By this time, MTSS was being fully implemented across the district’s schools. However, many within the district observed that the model tended to reinforce deficit perspectives, perpetuating an educational experience that reproduced the inequities MTSS intended to eliminate.

Since the focus was on need, the MTSS model proved insufficient for advancing a humanizing equity that balanced the needs of students against their strengths. This kind of equity—which, to my mind, is the only kind of equity—was not just about giving students what they needed when they needed it but also about celebrating and focusing attention on what they brought with them into learning spaces as legitimate and valuable resources for advancing education.

Our collective work led to an innovation, the Multi-Tier System of Sustaining Strengths and Support (MT4S) model, which underscores a critical shift from remediation to celebration, from merely navigating learning barriers to paving pathways for success. MT4S showcases the transformative power of an educational system to intertwine student support with a deep appreciation of student triumphs to craft a narrative of equity that’s about more than what we do to students but what we do with them. It emphasizes collaboration, acceptance, appreciation, and the enhancement of their strengths in the learning environment.

The Fourth Tier

MT4S introduces a fourth tier that centers on the inherent strengths of students. This fourth tier acknowledges that students bring much more than need into their educational journeys. It acknowledges that essential strengths, which are elemental to learning, are often dismissed or ignored for our most vulnerable students. With the fourth tier, the intervention of MTSS becomes the invitation of MT4S, where the first question isn’t what to support but what to sustain. This shift in perspective allows us to move beyond a needs-focused model to a strengths-based one, where education providers can see and nurture students' inherent strengths. This shift in focus will enable us to foster environments where student potential can be celebrated and leveraged for their success.

MT4S doesn’t mean that we don’t provide support to students. Instead, it means we center their strengths first. In introducing the MT4S model, we added the fourth tier to ensure students not only receive support when challenges arise but also experience success as a primary and integral part of their education experience.

In developing the MT4S, we sought to address two related questions: What does it mean to initiate learning and the fundamental relationship one has to schooling from a place of strength? What does it mean for success to be realized in the introductory experience of learning as the foundation of a powerful relationship designed to sustain the learner?

As we began to address these questions, we understood immediately that MT4S had to go beyond basic intervention and support. It could not be another needs-based program but required a paradigm shift that changed the narrative from a deficit (what is wrong) to a strength (what is strong).

 The intent was to make the educational experience more holistic, focusing on fostering the critical abilities that students naturally bring into the learning environment. The approach we developed aligned with positive psychology and its emphasis on cultivating positive emotions, engagement, relationships, meaning, and accomplishment (PERMA).

There is substantial evidence suggesting that the likelihood of success increases when students’ strengths are identified and nurtured. For example, a study by Elmore and Oyserman (2015) in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology found that when students’ individual strengths were acknowledged and incorporated into the learning process, they showed higher levels of motivation and academic achievement.

MT4S also underscores the importance of sustaining systems that work well. Instead of constantly being in reactive mode, MT4S encourages proactive strategies that maintain and enhance what is already functioning effectively. For instance, in a school where peer mentorship has led to improved social skills among students, MT4S would spotlight this success and invest more in its development.

Education should balance support and sustainability, helping students overcome their challenges while empowering them to build on their successes. It should be about creating environments where students thrive, not just survive. The fourth tier is, thus, about ensuring that all students get to experience success as part of (as opposed to apart from) their educational experience. The success experience is essential not only to building life-long and curious learners but also to shaping the success identity that is a critical part of seeing one’s self as a learner. The experience of success is tied to the situating of education in the strengths that students bring with them into all learning situations. This is seen in the work of researchers such as Carol Dweck, who emphasizes the role of mindset in education. A strengths-based mindset can encourage resilience and a love of learning, traits that are essential for long-term success.

Putting MT4S In Practice

In practice, MT4S might involve teachers incorporating strengths assessment into their curriculum planning to tailor the learning experiences to their students’ strengths. Schools could also implement strength-based programs where students can lead projects or activities based on their interests and talents.

To illustrate, let us consider a scenario where a student excels in visual arts but needs help with traditional math instruction. Under MT4S, a teacher might integrate art into math lessons, thereby leveraging the student’s artistic talents to help them grasp mathematical concepts more effectively. This helps the student learn math and sustains and enriches their interest in art, reinforcing their confidence and engagement with school.

We put this model to work in Rivertown. The district is known for its diversity and the significant achievement disparities between its highest- and lowest-performing students. In Rivertown, the MT4S model transformed the student experience in three important ways:

1. Lower Suspension Rates. Rivertown’s MT4S strongly emphasized positive behavioral interventions and supports (PBIS) within its Tier 1 strategies, focusing on reinforcing good behavior rather than merely punishing the bad. By implementing Tier 4, where students’ personal and interpersonal strengths were identified and nurtured, students at Rivertown began to feel more valued and understood. This tier’s focus on success meant students were often engaged in projects and activities where they could excel, leading to improved self-esteem and better behavior. As a result, students who might previously have acted out due to frustration or lack of engagement found new outlets for expression and recognition, which significantly lowered disciplinary interactions.

2. Increasing Academic Performance. Rivertown used data-driven methods to identify not just the areas where students struggled but, importantly, where they excelled. Teachers received training in differentiating instruction and creating strength-based learning opportunities so that every student was promised to experience success as part of their education journeys. For example, a student strong in verbal skills but weaker in traditional math was given the opportunity to explain mathematical concepts in a storytelling format, thus leveraging their verbal strengths to bolster their numerical understanding. Such creative, strengths-based approaches led to more engaged students and improved academic performance across subjects.

3. Improving the Overall Student Experience. The most significant transformation was in the overall student experience. The inclusion of Tier 4 meant that students were regularly given opportunities to showcase their strengths. A student talented in art contributed to the design of a community mural, while a student with a knack for mechanics led a robotics club. By valuing these strengths, students felt a sense of belonging and purpose, which fostered a positive school culture.

Rivertown’s MT4S model emphasized the importance of student voice. Students were invited to participate in decision-making processes, particularly in areas that directly impact their learning and school environment. This not only empowered students but also gave educators valuable insights into how to make the district a more inclusive and supportive place for everyone.

Conclusion

The MT4S model advances equity in education in ways that traditional MTSS models do not. In districts we have worked with, such as Rivertown, MT4S has also led to continuous reflection and evolution of teaching practices. Educators became learners alongside their students, constantly adapting and adopting practices that promoted both academic and personal growth.

By recognizing and sustaining the positives, districts like Rivertown not only changed specific outcomes such as suspension rates; they also transformed the educational paradigm within the district, making school a place where every student had the opportunity to succeed and feel valued. They became positioned to focus on more than what students needed (a relationship that always implies power and dependency) but also on what students could give (a relationship that invites equality and collaboration).

While MTSS provides a solid foundation for supporting students, MT4S represents an evolution of this framework, as it emphasizes the significance of sustaining and leveraging students’ innate strengths first and foremost. It encourages educators to look beyond academic and behavioral interventions to foster environments where success is a shared and celebrated experience and education is a journey of growth built upon each student’s unique capabilities. This shift transforms schools into spaces where every student’s potential is recognized and nurtured, ensuring that education becomes a powerful tool for personal and collective empowerment and a catalyst for genuine change.

References

Dweck, C. S. (2006). Mindset: The new psychology of success. Random House.

Elmore, K. C., & Oyserman, D. (2015). When helping helps: Autonomous motivation as a mediator of the effects of feedback on effort. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 108 (3), 353-374. https://doi.org/10.1037/pspa0000025

Powell, J. A., Menendian, S., & Ake, W. (2019). Targeted universalism: Policy and practice. Haas Institute for a Fair and Inclusive Society, University of California, Berkeley.

Seligman, M. E. P. (2011). Flourish: A visionary new understanding of happiness and well-being. Free Press.

Sugai, G., & Horner, R. H. (2009). Responsiveness-to-Intervention and School-Wide Positive Behavior Supports: Integration of Multi-Tiered System Approaches. Exceptionality, 17 (4), 223-237. https://doi.org/10.1080/09362830903235375

David E. Kirkland, PhD, is the founder and CEO of forwardED. He is a nationally renowned scholar of education equity. He can be reached via email at: david@forward-ed.com. This post originally appeared on the forwardED website. You can follow Dr. Kirkland’s work on Twitter @forwardED_LLC.