All Learners

At MTSS Rhode Island, we help districts and schools build systems to meet students' academic, behavioral, and social-emotional needs. Educators in these districts and schools have a responsibility to teach the students in front of them, and we recognize the unique challenge this poses, given systemic and historical factors.

For more than a century, education providers throughout the United States have strived and struggled to meet the diverse needs of American children and families. A complex system of biases and structural inequities is at play, deeply rooted in our country’s history, culture, and institutions. This system of inequity — which routinely confers advantage and disadvantage based on linguistic background, gender, skin color, and other characteristics — must be clearly understood, directly challenged, and fundamentally transformed. We have come to understand that the results we seek for all our children can never be fully achieved without incorporating an equity and inclusion lens in every facet of our work.

To support educators in adopting a lens dedicated to equity and inclusion, the New York State Education Department has created and shared a framework for culturally responsive-sustaining education. The Culturally Responsive-Sustaining (CR-S) Education Framework ¹ was designed to support education stakeholders in developing and implementing policies that educate all students effectively and equitably, as well as provide appropriate supports and services to promote positive student outcomes (NYSED).

In this framework, culture is defined as the multiple components of one’s identity, including but not limited to: race, economic background, gender, language, sexual orientation, nationality, religion, and ability. Traditionally, educational systems have treated cultural diversity as an obstacle to overcome. This diversity should be celebrated, not ignored.

The four grounding principles of the CR-S Framework represent a shift from treating diversity as a deficit to a strengths-based approach in which diversity is seen as an asset:

• Welcoming and Affirming Environments
• High Expectations and Rigorous Instruction
• Inclusive Curriculum and Assessment
• Ongoing Professional Learning

We believe that the MTSS framework both supports and aligns with the principles of the Culturally Responsive-Sustaining Education Framework. When a multi-tiered system of supports is successfully implemented, all learners are given what they need, when they need it, to be college- and career-ready. All students have equitable access to an evidence-based tiered system of academic, behavioral, and social-emotional supports.

The Four CR-S Principles and MTSS

¹ New York State Education Department. Culturally Responsive-Sustaining Education Framework. Available from http://www.nysed.gov/crs/framework . Accessed February 1, 2020.