Reimagining MTSS: Interventions That Honor All Students

Phenomenal Teaching with PEBC

Kids helping other kids get unstuck! After recognizing that the “old ways” weren’t working for kids or teachers, the leadership team at Cherokee Trail High School embarked on developing an MTSS structure that was more about meeting the needs of kids and less about being convenient for adults. When asked, students reported that they wanted a place to go where they could get help from other students, and so the Cougar Resource Center was born. The Cougar Resource Center is a student-led tutoring center that supports all students, including those who are identified as in need of Tier 2 academic support. Students crafted the mission, “Create a sense of belonging where students feel comfortable asking for and receiving support,” provide tutoring for students who drop in during their off blocks, recruit new tutors, and strive to make CTHS a better place. The CRC is wildly popular with students (with 3000 visits last semester) and has made a significant impact on student academic performance, culture, and community at CTHS. Listen in as the Director of the CRC, Molly Robbins, shares the story of how one large high school developed an MTSS structure that is making a big difference. Molly shares the philosophy and the day to day details that make the CRC such a success. This episode connects to the ways in which the PEBC Teaching Framework highlights the importance of creating schools and systems that value community and the use of data to foster student agency, equity and understanding.Click here to learn more about the PEBC Teaching Framework.

Molly has served students and teachers in many ways over the years as an English and English as a Second Language Teacher, an Instructional Coach, a Staff Developer and currently as the MTSS Coordinator at Cherokee Trail High School in Aurora, Colorado. When Molly isn’t working on finding ways to empower kids she enjoys traveling the world.

The "Phenomenal Teaching Podcast" is brought to you by Public Education & Business Coalition (PEBC) and is intended to elevate the strands of the PEBC Teaching Framework which is illustrated in Wendy Ward Hoffer's book, Phenomenal Teaching. Thank you for joining us this season as we strive to share the stories of educators who are making schools and classrooms more phenomenal than ever before by implementing community, planning, workshop, thinking strategies, discourse, and assessment strategies that promote agency, equity, and understanding.