School Psychology Review

2022, VOL. 51, NO. 4, 387–391

https://doi.org/10.1080/2372966X.2022.2105612

Editorial

Unlocking the Promise of Multitiered Systems of Support (MTSS) for

Linguistically Diverse Students: Advancing Science, Practice, and Equity
Jorge E. Gonzaleza , Lillian Duránb , Sylvia Linan-Thompsonb , and Shane R. Jimersonc
University of Houston; bUniversity of Oregon; cUniversity of California–Santa Barbara
a

ABSTRACT KEYWORDS
With its emphasis on early identification, quality instruction, interventions for students at risk of multitiered systems of support,
educational failure, and use of data on student response to instruction, multitiered systems of culturally and linguistically
support (MTSS) offer numerous advantages over a remedial approach. Leveraging the promise of diverse, language, literacy,
MTSS will rely, however, on equitable distribution of the advantages of this approach, especially mathematics, screening,
curriculum-based assessment,
for culturally and linguistically diverse students (CLD). The articles in this special topic section address
progress monitoring
CLD student contexts and apply this knowledge to culturally responsive explorations of assessment
and instruction with an emphasis on the role of English language proficiency and language of
instruction. Recognizing the importance of early identification and progress monitoring, several
studies focus on the adequacy of screeners and curriculum-based measurement (CBM) tools for
CLD children within MTSS. Across the studies, several important themes emerge in unlocking the
promise of MTSS for CLD students, including (a) the need for validated measures for use with CLD,
especially those sensitive to levels of English proficiency; (b) the importance of English language
proficiency (ELP) in understanding responsiveness to intervention; (c) the language of instruction
holds important relationships to performance on screeners, CBM, and achievement outcomes; and
(d) English language instruction did not appear to impede performance on outcomes. Implications
for advancing practice are also discussed.

IMPACT STATEMENT
This article provides a synthesis of articles in a special topic section focused on MTSS with CLD
students. Key themes across articles highlight the challenges and opportunities to advance the
science of MTSS and invite scholars to further examine challenges of MTSS with CLD, including
implementation and policy implications.

Frameworks for educating children such as multitiered
systems of support (MTSS) are premised on the notion
that prevention of learning and behavioral difficulties is
preferable to and more effective than remediation
(Jimerson et al., 2016). Through the delivery of a data-
based decision-making response to intervention model,
MTSS is implemented in schools via progressively layered
instruction that increases in intensity and duration based
on learner response (Hoover et al., 2020). Successful
implementation of MTSS requires a clear understanding
of the learning needs of all students, especially multilin-
gual learners in the context of data-based decision making
(Gonzales & Tejero Hughes, 2021). In addition to evi-
dence-based assessment and instructional practices, sup-
porting students from culturally and linguistically diverse
(CLD) backgrounds requires the inclusion of responsive
practices in ways that support educators in accurately
identifying their ability levels and learning needs (Albers
et al., 2009; Fallon et al., 2021; Hines et al., 2022; Luevano
& Collins, 2020). With proper resources and structures
situated in schools, MTSS for CLD students holds promise
in ameliorating learning challenges and, quite possibly,
reducing the overidentification of special education needs
(Hoover et al., 2020; Project ELITE2 et al., 2018). This
School Psychology Review special topic brings together
scholars to explore advances, challenges, and opportunities
in the implementation of MTSS with students who have
been historically marginalized and who have experienced
disparities in their educational outcomes due to their cul-
tural and/or linguistic backgrounds.
The population of multilingual students in the United
States continues to grow at an accelerating rate. The per-
centage of CLD public school students was greater in 2017
than in 2010, with Spanish representing the home lan-
guage of 75% of all CLDs and 7.6% of all public K–12
students. Of all CLDs, over 3.8 million or over three-quar-
ters were of Latino descent, with a higher percentage in
the lower grades than the upper grades (Hussar et al.,

CONTACT Jorge E. Gonzalez Jegonz24@central.uh.edu University of Houston, 3657 Cullen Boulevard, Room 491, Houston, TX 77204-5029, USA.
© 2022 National Association of School Psychologists
388 School Psychology Review, 2022, Volume 51, No. 4DOI: 10.1080/2372966X.2022.2105612
2020). Public schools have grappled with meeting the edu-
cational needs of these students with emerging English
skills while they are simultaneously required to learn con-
tent in English, which results in gaps in educational attain-
ment and disparities in academic outcomes (Gonzales &
Tejero Hughes, 2021; Harris & Sullivan, 2017).
MTSS provides a welcome shift in practice and policy
that moves the focus of educational practices to the pre-
vention of academic failure. MTSS refers to a cycle of uni-
versal screening for all students and tiered interventions
for those who have been identified with learning needs in
academic content areas or behavior. Data-based decisions
drive instruction and ongoing assessment to monitor
progress. MTSS models include three tiers of instructional
supports. Tier 1 consists of high-quality common core
instruction and universal screening of all children in the
general education classroom. Students identified through
universal screening as needing more intense support to
meet academic or behavioral benchmarks are provided
with Tier 2 support. Students who continue to struggle are
provided individualized or small group interventions to
accelerate their learning rate in Tier 3. Across all tiers,
progress is monitored closely to determine students’ learn-
ing rate and level of performance (Trainor & Robertson,
2022). MTSS has great potential utility for determining
responsiveness to instruction and specifying service deliv-
ery for students who have unmet needs and preventing
academic failure.
Despite the welcome shift in policy and practice ush-
ered in by MTSS, it has not fulfilled its promise for CLD
students. Typical supports provided in most schools seem
not to lead to meaningful improvements in CLD students’
academic, socioemotional, or behavioral outcomes (Harris
& Sullivan, 2017). Often, this is because few programs
address their home language as well as English develop-
ment and provide culturally responsive instruction. The
challenges are also in part due to the fragmented nature
of evidence-based intervention research for these CLD
students. Educators also need professional development
opportunities to become more familiar with second lan-
guage acquisition and effective strategies to meet the needs
of CLDs in the classroom (Bialystok, 2018).
To address the continuing shift in the cultural and lin-
guistic composition of the student population, educators
must understand diverse student contexts and incorporate
this knowledge in culturally responsive ways in the cur-
riculum, instruction, and assessment in the classroom.
Both home and school language exposure influence the
language development of CLDs, and the amount of English
and their home language that they are exposed to varies
in the population. Language and culture are inextricably
linked, and children should see themselves reflected in the
classroom in authentic ways that honor their identities and
experiences.
In MTSS assessment, data-based decision making and
instruction should address students’ changing linguistic
and learning needs. Most state and local education agen-
cies have implemented MTSS approaches; however, they
are often challenged with how to develop processes for
CLD students that are culturally and linguistically respon-
sive. Consideration of students’ English language use and
development is an essential process in the implementation
of MTSS because language proficiency impacts their abil-
ity to understand the language of instruction and acquire
academic skills. Students’ language development is
impacted by the quality of the instruction they receive, the
language scaffolding provided, and the language or lan-
guages of instruction. Additionally, there is considerable
evidence that providing instruction in the student’s home
language improves their academic outcomes (Bialystok,
2018). Assessing students in their home language in addi-
tion to English also provides more accurate estimates of
their ability levels and reduces the risk of underestimating
their knowledge (Baker et al., 2022). Therefore, in some
cases, their performance on home language (e.g., Spanish)
assessments will need to be considered when making data-
based decisions (Haager, 2007).
This special issue on MTSS with CLD brings together
scholars who investigate both the adequacy of universal
screening and progress monitoring with CLDs and under-
standing and serving the needs of CLD students within
MTSS frameworks. There is considerable need in the field
to better understand (a) the role of a child’s social/cultural
context, (b) the challenges in preparing quality teaching
personnel to work with linguistically diverse students, (c)
research on core service delivery components with linguis-
tically diverse students, (d) the need for technically ade-
quate assessment tools in languages other than English,
(e) data-based decision-making criteria, and (f) the devel-
opment of evidence-based interventions in English and
other languages that target the learning needs of these
students and build on their strengths as multilingual
learners.
The articles in this special issue address a number of
issues in the implementation of an MTSS framework with
CLDs. Using best practices in teaching CLDs, several con-
cept papers have identified practices that can enhance
instruction for students from diverse backgrounds when
implementing MTSS. Linan-Thompson et al. (2022)
describe the assessment and data-based decision-making
practices used in five schools and the facilitators and bar-
riers to integrating culturally and linguistically responsive
practices into existing MTSS policies and practices. They
found that practices related to language assessment and

monitoring were the least used. One reason for the lack of
assessment in students’ home language is the scarcity of
appropriate measures in languages other than English. In
the Basaraba et al. (2022), another language-related issue
in the challenges in implementation of MTSS is the role
of English language proficiency.
Students learning in a second language have learning
trajectories that may differ from those of English mono-
lingual students. Basaraba et al. (2022) describe how
English language proficiency data can be used to better
understand the reading progress of English language
learners. In this study, the Istation Indicators of Progress
Espańol (ISIP Espańol) are examined for technical ade-
quacy of the for use with Grades 4–5 primarily for emer-
gent bilinguals in bilingual education programs. Findings
demonstrated that the predictive and concurrent ISIP
Espańol correlations were comparable in magnitude for
English and Spanish criterion assessments—evidence of
their validity not only in identifying students who struggle
with Spanish literacy skills but also those skills that have
been mastered that can support English learning.
The long-term predictive validity and diagnostic of
Acadience Reading, formerly known as Dynamic
Indicators of Basic Early Literacy Skills (Good et al., 2002)
with native English-speaking and English learners (EL) is
explored in Landry et al. (2022). The authors found that
Acadience Reading was predictive of third grade statewide
reading assessment with no main effect of EL status among
EL students in early exit transitional bilingual programs.
Findings support the predictive and diagnostic utility of
early screeners with ELs as part of multiple data sources
within an MTSS framework. Hall, Markham, et al. (2022)
also note the importance of multiple data points and con-
sider the constructs underlying each measure in their
study of the predictive utility of using CBMs alone among
ELs. The authors found that English language proficiency
(ELP) explained a significant proportion of variability over
and above mathematics computation (M-COMP) and
reading fluency (R-CBM) alone. Implications suggest that
although CBM is an efficient system for screening among
non-ELs, it is necessary to consider a student’s ELP levels
when making decisions within an MTSS/response to inter-
vention framework.
Using the English Individual Growth and Development
(IGDIs) and the Spanish complement, the IGDI-Espańol,
the article by Wackerle-Hollman et al. (2022) explores the
role language of instruction, home language exposure, and
distinct language profiles in children’s early literacy skills
among dual language learners within an MTSS framework.
Consistent with prior research demonstrating that Spanish
language supports does not impede English development,
the authors found that Spanish-predominant instruction
MTSS for Linguistically Diverse Students 389
produced growth as strong as English instruction on most
measures.
Marrs et al. (2022) present a case study to illustrate the
challenges of supporting the instructional needs of English
language learners who require additional support.
Universal screening and progress monitoring of academic
skills data within an MTSS framework are used to assist
education personnel in making decisions more efficiently
about students whose primary language is Spanish and
learning English as a second language suspected of a read-
ing disability. Data on oral reading fluency, when exam-
ined by English proficiency levels, was used to assist school
teams ensure programming for diverse students in need
of further intervention or evaluation.
Addressing the need for more research on the impact
of mathematics curricula on CLD mathematics achieve-
ment, Hall, Schaefer, et al. (2022) examine the effect of a
standards-based mathematics curriculum on CLD fifth-­
graders’ annual gains in mathematics achievement com-
pared to previous school district efforts with other curric-
ula to boost understanding of CLD needs. Using a
quasi-experimental design, as in other studies in this spe-
cial issue, Hall, Schaefer, et al. (2022) they found that both
ELP and English-proficient students benefited equally
from the core math curriculum. The authors also point
out that quasi-experimental designs are important in eval-
uation of evidence-based education curricula due to their
feasibility and real-world instruction and changes in core
curricula.
Given the relative paucity of studies on emotional and
behavioral risk among ELs and the lack of measures vali-
dated for use ELs (Cook, 2022; Kim et al., 2022), Murrieta
and Eklund (2022) use a brief behavior rating scale to
examine teacher-rated universal screening for emotional
and behavioral risk (EBR) levels among elementary-aged
non-ELs and ELs. In contrast to previous findings, the
results of this study demonstrated no relationship between
students’ EL status or language classification and the iden-
tification of EBR. EBR identification rates for ELs were
similar to that of the overall sample. Moreover, as in the
general sample, for ELs, gender, reading ability, and age
were statistically significant in predicting whether students
would be identified as at risk for emotional and behavioral
concerns.
CONCLUSION
Advancing equity by creating equitable educational expe-
riences for all children requires consideration of the cul-
tural and linguistic appropriateness of the learning and
assessment environments in schools. Engaging in respon-
sive practices that support educators in accurately
390 School Psychology Review, 2022, Volume 51, No. 4DOI: 10.1080/2372966X.2022.2105612
identifying the ability levels and learning needs of CLD
students holds promise in reducing learning challenges
for CLD children and youth, yet typical supports in schools
have failed to do so. MTSS provides a welcome opportu-
nity to shift educational practices to prevention of achieve-
ment failure.
Several themes emerge across the studies in this the
special topic section focusing on unlocking the promise
of MTSS for CLD. To begin with, best practices in assess-
ment dictate that assessment instruments consider the
target population. Several articles highlight the need for
validated measures for use with CLD, especially those sen-
sitive to levels of English proficiency. A second theme is
the importance of ELP data as essential to understanding
responsiveness to intervention. Third, and related, data on
the language of instruction hold important relationships
to performance on screeners, CBM, and achievement out-
comes and must be considered in both assessment and
intervention. Finally, consistent with an emerging research
base on the impact of English instruction, several studies
found that English language instruction did not impede
performance on outcomes. This must, however, be inter-
preted with caution because the samples were either exit-
ing bilingual education or heterogenous in terms of
English proficiency.
This special topic section holds promise for charting a
path toward equitable implementation of MTSS. School
psychologists, as members of multidisciplinary teams in
schools or engaging in systems-level consultation, can
leverage findings in this issue toward unlocking the prom-
ise of MTSS.
DISCLOSURE
The authors have no conflicts of interest to report.
ORCID
Jorge E. Gonzalez http://orcid.org/0000-0003-4783-4742
Lillian Durán http://orcid.org/0000-0003-4364-6445
Sylvia Linan-Thompson http://orcid.org/0000-0002-2141-9922
Shane R. Jimerson http://orcid.org/0000-0003-2685-7486
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AUTHOR BIOGRAPHICAL STATEMENTS
Jorge E. Gonzalez is a professor at the University of Houston.
His scholarship focuses on the causes and correlates of early
oral language and literacy difficulties in young children with an
MTSS for Linguistically Diverse Students 391
emphasis on adult–child interactive reading at the intersection
of dual language learning and culture. His publication sources
include Early Childhood Research Quarterly, Bilingual Research
Journal, Journal of Educational Effectiveness, Early Education
and Development, Journal of Special Education, Journal of
Learning Disabilities, Journal of Emotional and Behavioral
Disorders, and Journal of Early Intervention. He has previously
been the lead investigator on IES Goal 2 and 3 development and
efficacy grants titled Words of Oral Reading and Language
Development (WORLD) as well as a Goal 2 development grant
titled Families4College. Twitter: @jgonz_37
Lillian Durán, PhD, is an associate professor in the Department
of Special Education and Clinical Sciences at the University of
Oregon and is associated with the Center on Teaching and
Learning. Her research is focused on improving instructional
and assessment practices with multilingual learners. Dr. Durán
specializes in the development of Spanish language and literacy
screening measures and equitable practices in the assessment of
multilingual learners. She provides presentations and consults
nationally on the topic of evidence-based practices in assess-
ment and intervention with young CLDs with and without
identified disabilities. Dr. Durán has received four federal mea-
surement grants through the Institute of Education Sciences as
well as three federal Office of Special Education preservice and
leadership grants. Prior to Dr. Durán’s work in higher educa-
tion, she worked for 9 years as an early childhood special edu-
cation teacher.
Sylvia Linan-Thompson, PhD, is an associate professor in the
Department of Special Education and Clinical Sciences at the
University of Oregon and is associated with the Center on
Teaching and Learning. Her research is focused on the instruc-
tional needs of ELs. She has been PI or co-PI of longitudinal
intervention research projects that developed and examined
reading interventions for struggling readers who are monolin-
gual English speakers, English learners, and bilingual students
acquiring Spanish literacy in elementary and middle school.
She is currently examining the English writing development of
ELs with and without learning disabilities. She has also studied
the efficacy of response to instruction frameworks in dual-lan-
guage schools serving a high percentage of ELs.
Shane R. Jimerson, PhD, is a professor in the Department of
Counseling, Clinical, and School Psychology at the University
of California–Santa Barbara. His scholarship has focused on
promoting the social, cognitive, and behavioral development
of children. With over 400 publications across his career,
including more than 30 books, his research has been widely
disseminated. He is the PI on a U.S. Department of Education,
Office of Special Education Programs (Senior Editor, School
Psychology Review) focused on advancing equity in promoting
multitiered systems of support and addressing social, emo-
tional, and behavioral challenges among culturally and lin-
guistically diverse learners.
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