This past January, hundreds of educators from across Alaska gathered in Anchorage and online for the 15th annual MTSS-Effective Instruction Conference. Year after year, this event is typically the largest statewide gathering of Alaska educators, bringing together nationally recognized experts and practitioners from across the country alongside the teachers, coaches, and leaders who serve Alaska’s children every day. The conference is hosted by the Alaska Staff Development Network (ASDN), a division of the Alaska Council of School Administrators (ACSA).
Over the years, this event has given Alaskans the opportunity to learn from some of education’s most influential voices right here at home — including Dr. John Hattie, Dr. Judy Elliott, Dr. Anita Archer, Dr. Jan Hasbrouck, Dr. Carol Ann Tomlinson, Dr. Louisa Moats, Dr. Pam Kastner, Dr. Randy Sprick, Dr. Jo Boaler, Dr. Jennifer Bay-Williams, Dr. Karen Karp, Dr. Nancy Frey, Dr. Doug Fisher, Dr. Peter DeWitt, Dr, Jennie Donohoo, Dr. Sarah Brown, and Dr. Stephanie Stoller, among many others. Exceptional practicing educators from Alaska also present and bring important local knowledge and experience to the conversation.
Every year this conference reconnects educators to a sense of shared purpose. But the conference is just one part of an ongoing commitment. Beyond the sessions and keynotes, we continue to support educators through the work of building and sustaining the practices that help every child succeed.
Why MTSS?
A Prevention-First Approach
At its core, MTSS (Multi-Tiered System of Supports) is built on a simple idea: don’t wait for students to struggle before stepping in. Rather than reacting to problems after the fact, MTSS helps educators proactively identify students who need support and connect them with the right help at the right time. Strong core instruction, ongoing data, and research-based interventions work together so that no child falls through the cracks.
Seeing the Whole Child
MTSS grew out of the Response to Intervention (RTI) model, but it goes further by weaving academic and behavioral supports together. Children don’t compartmentalize their challenges — and neither should we. A student acting out in class may be frustrated by content they don’t understand. A child falling behind academically may be carrying unmet social-emotional needs. MTSS gives educators a framework to look at the whole child, not just a test score or a discipline referral.
Building on What Educators Already Do
MTSS isn’t about reinventing the wheel. Educators are already doing much of what MTSS calls for: providing strong instruction to all students, offering targeted support where it’s needed, and collaborating with colleagues around what the data is telling them. What MTSS does is bring those efforts into a coherent, consistent system so that good practices aren’t just happening in individual classrooms, but across the whole school.
Why Return to It Every Year?
Like any system, MTSS needs tending. An annual refresh isn’t about starting over; it’s an opportunity to ask questions: Is what we’re doing still working? Where are students not getting what they need? What could we do better? That reflection is what turns good intentions into results.
Beyond the MTSS Effective Instruction Conference
ASDN offers professional development throughout the school year that supports an MTSS implementation. From 2021 to 2023, ASDN hosted the MTSS Refresh Project. That project was designed to build capacity in districts across the state. Over two years, we partnered with 18 school districts representing diverse regions of Alaska. Leadership teams came together to refine their practice, exchange tools and strategies, strengthen their outreach to families, complete state-mandated plans, and grow the capacity of their teams.
MTSS is also central to implementing the Alaska Reads Act: strengthening Tier 1 instruction, improving intervention systems, and building leadership capacity in evidence-based reading practices all directly support the Science of Reading initiative across the state.
Most recently, the new I-MTSS Consortium, a collaboration among school districts, the new UAA School Psychology Program, and ASDN/ACSA, has begun helping schools inventory, plan, and evaluate their tiered supports across academics, behavior, and mental health.
The Alaska School Leadership Institute, held each May, also will also support school leadership teams to plan systematically around the MTSS framework. This spring, teams will examine practical structures for aligning MTSS, the science of reading, and culturally responsive practices.
The work of MTSS doesn’t begin or end with a single conference. It continues in data meetings, in leadership conversations, and with each teacher who works to ensure every child succeeds.