MTSS Lead Weekly Updates

Schools will provide Home Literacy Reports, following administration of the universal reading screener, to K-3 students scoring below the 15th percentile and are recommended for 16th-40th percentile.

These reports provide reading proficiency guidance, reading activities to use at home, and information on specific reading interventions and supports being provided as outlined in TCA 49-1-905(d). Please be sure that the iReady Diagnostic Reports are sent home to parents along with this letter to inform parents of their student's scores. Keeping parents informed of their child's progress is extremely important when students are struggling.

Schools are highly encouraged to meet with these parents during the January parent conferences.

Now that the Winter Universal Screener has ended, many schools see an increase in the number of ILP-Ds that need to be renewed, exited, and/or created. If you are uncertain of what to do, please take time to review the most recently recorded videos from TDOE, but also know that MSCS will host open office hours this week to support you with specific questions.

In the fall, many interventionists reported the percentile found when hovering over the icons for ELA and Math next to the students' names in MTSS was inaccurate. PCG shared this update on Friday. Percentile’ and ‘Scale Score’ with non-numeric values from 2025 are removed from student K-8 profile page. Also, the hover values for the EWS plans display most recent score values.

Please ensure that the student MTSS Plans are updated by January 30 based on school data team decisions and that the information in those plans matches current deficit area as well as aimswebPlus.

Progress Monitoring is not required when students have holidays or snow days. You will not have out of compliance in PowerBi due to snow days but may have this message for other reasons.

Did you know Reading Horizons has premade PowerPoints for Reading Horizons Elevate Lessons? Login to rhaccelerate.com, from the dashboard, scroll to the bottom to locate them. There are so many resources on RH Accelerate. Take a moment to explore the site.

If you have duplicate students in both platforms or if you have students rostered who no longer have an ILPD, please email the student name, id number and the platform that should be removed to RTI2@scsk12.org so that updates can be made. Please note that this may take 72 hours to complete and is not immediate.

Students can access iReady at home via Clever.

1. www.edugoodies.com/scs

2. click on Clever

3. use student login credentials for Clever used at school

4. click on iReady

While iReady is not available on the iPhone, Android phones in desktop mode will allow access to iReady. Tablets, laptops, and desktops with audio are recommended.

This week Latosha Wiseman visit Craigmont Middle to observe a Reading Horizons Elevate lesson in action. Veronica White effectively used sound-to-symbol mapping to explicitly connect phonemes to their corresponding graphemes, with targeted instruction on the sounds for /c/ and /k/, through clear modeling and guided student practice. Ms. White’s use of guided blending and segmenting supported students in accurately decoding and encoding words by breaking them into individual sounds. The word-building activities allowed students to manipulate sounds and letters, strengthening their understanding of phonics patterns and orthographic mapping. Ms. White also incorporated syllable type instruction to help students apply syllable patterns when decoding multisyllabic words.

Dictation activities reinforced the reading–spelling connection as students spelled and then read back sounds, words, and sentences. Immediate error correction was consistently provided, ensuring misconceptions were addressed in the moment through modeling and student repetition. Additionally, Ms. White’s use of both choral and individual responses kept students actively engaged and provided multiple opportunities for accurate practice of targeted skills.

This week, John Dodd visited Alcy Elementary School for a Greatness in the Gaps Direct Fidelity Check. He observed a highly organized system for managing RTI materials and resources to support both interventionists and students. Each interventionist maintained a yellow folder that displayed the state‑mandated time and frequency requirements for Tier 2 and Tier 3 interventions on the front cover. Inside, the folder included the RTI Direct Teaching Model and key classroom essentials for each instructional group.

The school had a designated area where manipulatives and supplemental materials were neatly arranged by skill‑deficit category, allowing interventionists to easily borrow what they needed. Another section provided access to copies of all ORF passages and M‑CAP probes for instructional use.

Dr. Whitelaw and Deputy CAO Kiner visited Sharpe Elementary last week where they observed students actively engaging in the use of iReady Learning Games to boost fluency on the Promethean Board.

This section is provided by SMORE newsletter but offers tips and suggestions you can share with students and parents during snow days. Everyone needs something to do when it is so cold outside.