School psychologists and researchers trained in school mental health, are worried about undergraduate and graduate students. Even pre-COVID-19, college mental health issues had already risen to crisis levels (Becker, 2020); reports early in the pandemic only further demonstrated elevated levels of stress, anxiety, depression, and a need to…

Teachers and clinicians report feeling underprepared to implement evidence-based behavior supports. As such, effective models of professional development that lead to improved outcomes for all individuals are required. Critical components of high-quality professional development include explicit instruction, modeling, practice, direct feedback,…

Current literature exists centered on Multi-Tiered Systems of Support (MTSS) framework, its components, and ways in which MTSS is intended to support all students. Yet, there is a gap in the literature that examines how elementary schools are implementing it. This dissertation study sought to understand what the MTSS framework implementation at…

This mixed methodology phenomenological case study, which included an explanatory sequential research design, explored the behaviors principals employ when promoting fidelity to universal Multi-Tiered Systems of Support for Behavior (MTSS-B), otherwise known as Positive Behavior Interventions and Supports (PBIS). The target population consisted of…

Check-In/Check-Out (CICO) is a widely implemented, evidence-based Tier 2 behavior intervention used primarily in schools implementing Positive Behavioral Interventions and Supports (PBIS). The purpose of this national extant study was to examine implementation patterns using an extant database of 24,425 students within 1,766 schools across 40 U.S.…

Thirteen per cent of all 16-24-year-olds in the UK are not in education, employment or training (NEET). This equates to nearly one million young people who are not currently learning or earning. The long-term scarring impact of being NEET for a sustained period of time on young people, society, and the economy, is well known. It is therefore of…

One successful approach for proactively reducing problem behavior is the use of a multitiered system of supports (MTSS). MTSS is usually comprised of three tiers, with an increasing intensity of support at each tier to meet student needs. Tier 1 includes preventive strategies staff implement with all students. Typically, Tier 2 behavioral…

This article describes the development of the Multi-Tiered System of Supports-Interventionist Beliefs Scale (MTSS-IBS). The introduction reviews the importance between practitioner beliefs and MTSS success. Because there is no measure to assess the MTSS beliefs of school interventionists for the success of all students, we used a principal…

Ongoing evaluation of student progress is a key practice within tiered systems of supports. This study evaluated whether selecting an intervention influenced the number of observations participants requested before determining whether an intervention was working or a change was needed. It was hypothesized that participants who selected the…

The current study investigated the effects of the concrete-representational-abstract integrated sequence (CRA-I) for teaching fifth grade students receiving tier two interventions within a multi-tiered system of support (MTSS). The research questions addressed the following: the extent to which students' rational number skills changed as a result…

Schools in the United States are becoming increasingly diverse, and more culturally and linguistically competent school psychologists are needed to ensure all students receive the services they need to succeed. As schools in the United States grow increasingly diverse, effective interventions are essential for meeting the needs of emergent…

In 2018, the elementary school where I serve as an instructional interventionist adopted a data-based multi-tiered system of supports (MTSS). Although our process has evolved over the years, I saw room for improvement. Therefore, the purpose of this action research study was to improve the MTSS process at my school, specifically by addressing…

This study aimed to examine elementary teachers' perspectives on implementing Tier III instruction within the multitiered system of supports-Response to Intervention (MTSS-RtI) and how the perception of efficacy influences the effectiveness of their instruction. The mixed-method interpretive phenomenology study took place in a public school…

Despite the fact that schools remain incredibly safe spaces for children and youth to spend time, the occurrence of mass school shootings, although rare, is a pressing issue for our society. In this paper we discuss the importance of action, advocacy, and research related to mass school shootings. Specifically, we discuss research-based actions…

Multitiered support for professional development (MTS-PD) is emerging as a research-supported, three-tiered framework to support teachers' classroom management skills through targeted training and ongoing coaching. In this study, we applied MTS-PD to increase elementary general education teachers' treatment fidelity of a targeted behavioral…