Unatego MTSS (RTI/AIS)
Unatego Central School District organizes its academic and behavioral interventions by leveraging MTSS (Multi-Tiered System of Support) as the overarching umbrella that integrates both RTI and AIS.
Unatego defines its Multi-Tiered System of Support (MTSS) as a comprehensive, data-informed framework designed to address both academic and social-emotional/behavioral student needs. The objective of MTSS is to ensure that the vast majority of students succeed within the core general education instruction, while systematically using data to match at-risk or advanced students with the appropriate focus and intensity of support. The district formally structures this prevention framework into three distinct tiers of increasingly intensive instructional and behavioral intervention (see pages 9-10 of the district MTSS plan).
Underneath the MTSS umbrella, Response to Intervention (RTI) serves as Unatego’s core operational strategy to identify and monitor students who fall behind academically. RTI includes:
- Data-Driven Adjustments: The district utilizes RTI to screen students, closely track their rate of learning, and deliver evidence-based interventions.
- Flexibility: Instruction is dynamically modified, increasing or decreasing in intensity based on how responsively a student reacts to the intervention.
- Special Education: It acts as a critical mechanism for the district to properly differentiate between general learning gaps and formally identifying students with underlying learning disabilities.
Working in tandem with RTI under the MTSS umbrella, Academic Intervention Services (AIS) provide supplemental instruction to help students achieve New York State learning standards. Unatego has specifically reinforced its AIS infrastructure by employing dedicated Academic Instructional Support (AIS) teachers across each school building and prioritizing direct teacher contact within general education settings to provide targeted, individualized remediation in core competencies like literacy and mathematics.