Adult MTSS: A Tiered System for Real Professional Growth

“Systems produce exactly the results they’re designed to produce.” - W. Edwards Deming

“If we want different outcomes, we need different systems.” — Peter Senge

We design tiered interventions for students because we know they learn at different rates and in different ways. But when it comes to teachers, we often revert to one-size-fits-all support: everyone gets the same PD day, the same meeting, the same follow-up, regardless of their needs or expertise.

We would never teach students this way.

We talk about teacher efficacy and equity. We promote the idea of personalized learning. But if we truly believe in differentiated support for students, we need to build systems that do the same for adults.

That starts by designing a coherent, tiered professional learning system; one that aligns with the school’s improvement goals, uses focused data to target support, and builds teacher capacity through sustained, small shifts. 

In other words, we need to bring MTSS to adult learning.

Personal Experience: The Beginning

In the last two blogs, we told the story of a school leader planning PD for the year. Her goal was straightforward: help teachers implement the district’s new reading curriculum. But when we started mapping out everything on her plate (new tech rollouts, behavior system updates, SIP goals, district trainings), the list quickly ballooned.

We worked together to simplify the calendar and align efforts. We reduced the noise and created coherence.

But she wasn’t done yet. Next we started to design a system that promoted differentiated support for teachers based on their needs. This system included whole group professional learning, effective teacher teams, and individual coaching.

The next challenge became clear: how do we identify which teachers need which level of support? How do we take the idea of coherence and create a system that is truly aligned to our school improvement plan?

How to Build an Adult MTSS That Actually Works

1️⃣ Use Data to Identify Teacher Support Needs (Aligned to Goals)

In MTSS for students, we use screeners to understand needs. For teachers, we need the same, but laser-focused on the specific priorities in the school improvement plan.

You can’t improve everything at once. If your 90-day plan focuses on academic discourse and small-group reading instruction, your data should focus there too.

Examples:

• Walkthroughs noting student talk time during reading instruction

• Lesson plans that include differentiated questioning

• Coaching notes and reflections tied to instructional focus

• Formative student data linked to the new strategies

📌 Tip: Choose 1–2 simple data sources you can collect frequently and reliably. Your system should help you focus, not create more complexity. 

2️⃣ Assign Tiered Supports Based on Need

Tier	Support Type	Who It’s For	Examples
Tier I	Universal Supports	All teachers	Whole-staff PD, PLCs, instructional rounds, access to core materials and coaching
Tier II	Targeted, Small-Group Supports	Teachers with specific growth needs tied to SIP goals	Coaching PLCs, small-group PD sessions, peer modeling, co-planning
Tier III	Intensive, Individualized Supports	Teachers with persistent challenges or high-need assignments	One-on-one coaching cycles, weekly check-ins, modeling, scripting and feedback, side-by-side planning

Tiered supports are not about labeling teachers. They’re about recognizing that just like students, teachers need the right level of support at the right time.

3️⃣ Align With Quarterly (90-Day) Improvement Cycles

Annual plans often fail because they’re too broad, too slow, and too disconnected from daily reality. A better approach?

💡 Use 90-day planning cycles.

↝ Set a narrow instructional focus (based on data + SIP goals)

🧭 Map Tier I, II, and III supports for staff

📈 Monitor progress using short-cycle data

↶Adjust supports based on real-time results

This builds momentum and helps people see improvement fast, which builds buy-in.

4️⃣ Monitor Progress With Leading Indicators

Don’t wait until state test results or end-of-year surveys. You need real-time indicators that help you pivot fast.

Look at:

• Coaching logs and feedback loops

• Walkthrough trends tied to your SIP focus

• PLC notes and shared plans

• Student engagement snapshots

• Teacher self-assessments and reflections

The goal isn’t just data - it’s using it to decide who needs what, when.

5️⃣ Coherence Is What Makes It a System

Random PD sessions chosen for convenience or compliance alone don’t work. Neither do disconnected coaching cycles, or evaluation rubrics no one looks at until March.

Coherence means:

• Your SIP goals are visible in your PD sessions

• Your coaching supports what’s in the SIP

• Your evaluation tools reflect the skills you’re building

• Teachers see how everything connects

When systems align, teachers stop feeling like they’re being pulled in a dozen directions. Instead, they feel like they’re part of something purposeful.

6️⃣ Focus on Micro-Movements That Build Efficacy

Don’t overpromise transformational change. Instead, look for micro-movements:

• One teacher increases student talk in small group

• A team uses a new planning template consistently

• A small PLC shows growth on an internal rubric

Celebrate those wins. Momentum doesn’t come from mandates. It comes from progress you can see and feel.

And when teachers start to believe they are driving that progress? That’s efficacy and sustainability.

Full Circle: Back to the Story

Returning to our overwhelmed school leader - with clarity around her reading instruction focus, we helped her build a full Adult MTSS plan:

• Tier I: Everyone received two days of launch training and a shared planning protocol in PLCs

• Tier II: A group of 6 teachers struggling with implementation joined a coaching PLC with bi-weekly support

• Tier III: Two teachers were paired with an instructional coach for side-by-side lesson planning and weekly classroom modeling

We used walkthrough data every other week, focused on one look-for: Are students engaged in structured partner talk using academic language? Within the first six weeks, the Tier III teachers began using the strategy daily. One had never used structured partner talk before. The coaching logs told the story, and so did the kids’ voices.

She didn’t need a whole new initiative. She just needed a system that matched the way people actually grow.

Discussion Question

What would it look like if your professional learning system treated teachers like learners with different needs, different starting points, and the same high expectations?