Grow Your Mind
Three Rooms, One Argument
When a student isn't succeeding in math, what do we change first?
Most systems answer that question the same way. We change the student's placement: a new group, a new program, a new tier, more minutes of the same thing delivered more slowly. It happens with the very best of intentions, and it rarely works, because it treats the student as the variable when the variable is almost always the design.
When the Numbers Don’t Add Up
When 40–60% of students are receiving supplemental support, the problem usually isn’t a lack of intervention—it’s a signal that something is breaking down in Tier 1. In this post, Naomi Church challenges a common MTSS misconception, explains why tiers describe resources rather than students, and explores what an "inverted pyramid" reveals about the health of a school's instructional system. Before adding more intervention, it may be time to examine the foundation.
The Question We Only Ask Too Late
I taught first grade in a storage room. Twenty-one six-year-olds, no windows, and students with significant learning needs I had no training to address. That experience sent me on a path I'm still walking — and it keeps bringing me back to one question: why do we only ask the most important diagnostic question in math after a student has already been found eligible for special education? That question belongs earlier. For every student. Before the referral. Before the label.
Why T.R.U.E. Diagnostic Assessments Matter in Math
Not all math assessments labeled “diagnostic” actually diagnose anything. In this post, I unpack what true math diagnostic assessments are, how they fit within MTSS, and why clarity matters when instructional decisions are on the line - plus a practical reference to support teams doing this work well.
Every Student, Every Tier: Making MTSS Work in Elementary Math
MTSS isn’t just for reading. When applied to K–5 math with intention and clarity, it becomes a powerful system to reach every learner—right where they are. In this post, I break down how Tier 1, 2, and 3 supports work in math and share a free white paper for deeper implementation support.
Reteaching vs. Remediation
In working with schools over the past couple of years I see a lot of words used interchangeably that do not really mean the same thing: words like reteaching, remediation, intervention, etc. These words are not synonyms and their application in classrooms is quite different.