Tier 1 Done Right: Let's Take a Look at What's 'Under the Hood'
Dr. Stephanie Stollar is a nationally respected literacy leader, researcher, and consultant known for her ability to translate reading science into clear, actionable practice. She is the founder of The Reading Science Academy and co-founder of MTSS Collective, online memberships for implementing evidence-based practices.
Dr. Stollar has served as a university professor, a school psychologist, and the Vice President for Professional Learning at Acadience Learning. She has trained thousands of educators in MTSS, assessment, prevention‑focused intervention, and evidence‑aligned early literacy instruction. Her work is grounded in decades of research and hands‑on experience supporting schools in building effective systems that meet the needs of all learners.
Widely admired for her clarity, depth of knowledge, and unwavering commitment to prevention, Dr. Stollar is recognized as one of the field’s most trusted voices. Her presentations consistently empower educators with the tools and understanding they need to create meaningful, lasting change in literacy outcomes.
Multi-Tiered System of Supports (MTSS) is the framework for using data to efficiently match students to a coherent and aligned system of support that promotes academic and social-emotional well-being. The MTSS framework involves organizing resources to meet the needs of all students — students who are on track, advanced readers, students who are at risk of or have reading disabilities, and English learners.
Although they go by different terms in different states and districts, the core components of MTSS include leadership, teaming, assessments, data-based decision making, evidence-based instruction, and tiered supports.
Tiered supports are grounded in the following principles:
- Because schools have limited resources, the reading instruction all students receive during English Language Arts (ELA) needs to be maximally effective so the number of students who need intervention is reduced and the provided interventions can accelerate progress and get students to grade level.
- Most reading problems can be prevented with effective classroom reading instruction and interventions in kindergarten and first grade.
- Universal screening, diagnostic, and progress monitoring data inform what and how reading should be taught in each tier.
- Students make progress faster when their instruction is aligned across tiers.
What is Tier 1?
Tier 1 is the system of support around teachers as they deliver daily reading instruction in the ELA block. The Tier 1 time of the day is when students receive most of their minutes of reading instruction. The Tier system includes the curriculum, instruction, environment, materials, time/schedule, and grouping practices. How these variables are designed and implemented depends on the students in each grade and will vary across grades and schools. Based on screening, diagnostic and progress monitoring data, some grades may need to schedule more time for Tier 1, some may use the time to teach below-, on-, or above-grade-level skills, some may spend more time teaching some skills than others, and some may do more whole group or small group instruction. Therefore, Tier 1 will not look the same across grades within a school or across schools within a district, and mandates to implement a program with fidelity, expose all students to the same Tier 1, and stick to a pacing guide are not aligned with the goals of Tier 1 instruction.
What Tier 1 is Not
Tier 1 is not a core reading program. Programs are one component of an effective Tier 1 system. Tier 1 is not the sole responsibility of classroom teachers. Interventionists, special educators, Multilingual Learner (MLL) staff, gifted staff, and related service personnel (such as Speech-Language Pathologists (SLPs)) can provide instruction and intervention during the Tier 1 block. Tier 1 is not always, only, whole group instruction. Decisions about group size should be based on student data. Tier 1 is not a rigid set of practices that students must fit into. Instead, Tier 1 should be built to meet the needs of the students.
Why is Tier 1 So Important
Too many students fail to read at grade level, which means they need reading intervention. The time allocated for reading intervention is often insufficient to accelerate progress and close the gap. The goal of Tier 1 instruction is to reduce the number of students who need intervention to a manageable number, something like 20 percent. Without Tier 1 instruction that is aligned to students' skills, the available interventions will become overwhelmed and ineffective. When Tier 1 isn't aligned to students' needs, more and more students will need intervention each year, making it difficult to provide effective interventions.
How to Design, Implement and Evaluate Effective Tier 1
Universal screening data reflects the health and effectiveness of the Tier 1 system of support. Tier 1 is considered effective when it causes the vast majority (around 80 percent) of the students in the grade to reach screening expectations through Tier 1 instruction alone — without any intervention — so the Tier 2 and 3 intervention systems can get the remaining students to grade-level expectations.
Designing, implementing and evaluating Tier 1 includes the following steps:
Step 1: Review the percent on track on screening in each grade
Step 2: Identify the component skills with which students need support
Step 3: Form skill-based groups
Step 4: Assign adults to groups
Step 5: Plan aligned intervention
Step 6: Consider your capacity
Step 7: Create an action plan for improving Tier 1
Step 8: Evaluate your action plan and repeat Steps 1–7
During the EDVIEW360 webinar Effective Tier 1 Literacy in the Primary Grades, I elaborate on these steps and provide actions for you to consider to match your Tier 1 reading instruction to the needs of your students. Explore the key aspects of effective Tier 1 instruction and learn how small changes can lead to big gains for students.