Seeing the whole child: Strengthening MTSS for multilingual learners

As educators, we want to create environments where every student is seen, supported, and given the opportunity to thrive. But when we rely solely on numbers, charts, and test scores, we risk overlooking the full story, especially for multilingual and multicultural learners (Snyder & Witmer, 2025).

Why is this the case?

Traditional data points can tell us how a student performed on a specific measure at a specific point in time. But such data points rarely capture the “why.” Was the score in line with what we expected? Was it higher or lower than we’d anticipated? And, most importantly, what factors contributed to this result?

Without these insights, interventions risk being incomplete or mismatched to the student’s needs, and the student’s potential can remain hidden.

A multi-tiered system of support (MTSS) can help to close these gaps. But for MTSS to truly work for every student, it needs to be more than a compliance checklist. It must become a framework that honors a student’s identity, values cultural and linguistic diversity, and supports growth in ways that are both rigorous and affirming (Fuchs et al., 2017).

In this blog, we’ll explain why this transformation begins with how we collect, interpret, and act on student assessment data. We’ll also highlight recent work at Renaissance to support effective MTSS frameworks for multilingual learners.

Reframing assessment data: From sorting learners to seeing them

Student assessment data is an essential tool for guiding instruction and allocating both academic and non-academic resources. However, if we primarily use our data to sort students into categories—such as “At Grade Level,” “Needs Support,” or “Advanced”—we reduce children to labels that may reflect neither their actual needs nor their full potential.

Transforming how we use data requires us to widen our lens, so we move beyond merely labeling students to truly seeing them. This involves pairing quantitative measures, such as test scores and school attendance rates, with narrative, contextual, and cultural information so that we better understand the whole child.

MTSS platforms like eduCLIMBER from Renaissance make this possible by visualizing student performance data alongside qualitative insights such as teacher observations and surveys about students’ interests and attitudes toward learning. When we see not just the test scores but the patterns, stories, and supports behind them, our instructional decisions change (Coburn & Turner, 2011).

The key lies in the questions we ask about the data. Instead of “How far behind is this student?,” we might ask, “What strengths can we build on to accelerate this student’s growth?” This reframing doesn’t lower expectations, however. Instead, it pairs rigor with human connection, making space for every student’s unique abilities and context.

As an example, consider the case of a multilingual learner in a math classroom where English is the language of instruction. Because the student scores below benchmark on the English-only math screener, he’s likely to be labeled as “Underperforming.” Yet classroom observations show that the student uses visual reasoning, gestures, and peer collaboration to solve complex problems, revealing a strong mathematical understanding that’s not reflected by his assessment score.

Thankfully, his teacher recognized his true math abilities. Such is the importance of qualitative data.

Learners’ language, culture, and identity in MTSS

At its best, MTSS meets all students’ needs across multiple levels of support. But too often in practice, those supports focus narrowly on deficits and remediation, overlooking the cultural and linguistic assets students already bring to the table.

For multilingual learners, affirming identity and leveraging the home language are not simply enrichment activities. Instead, they are central to effective teaching and learning (de Jong, 2011; García & Kleifgen, 2018). For this reason, a culturally and linguistically responsive MTSS framework integrates these elements into each instructional tier:

• Tier 1 provides core instruction that reflects and values students’ cultures and languages, woven into the daily curriculum.
• Tier 2 provides targeted interventions that build on language strengths rather than replacing them.
• Tier 3 provides intensive supports co-designed with families and informed by students’ cultural backgrounds.

What does this framework look like in practice?

Effective teaching for multilingual learners

The new Biliteracy Report in Star Assessments offers a concrete example of how data tools can embed students’ language, culture, and identity into MTSS in ways that directly inform teaching and learning. Designed for students in Spanish-English dual language instruction—and as a screening option for students whose current instruction is in English but who have previously received instruction in Spanish—the report provides a means of truly understanding what a student already knows.

The report is based on reading assessments in both Spanish (Star Lectura) and English (Star Reading), and it also generates instructional planning reports in each language. These planning reports are where the connection to effective teaching happens, helping educators to design instruction that builds on strengths and addresses needs in ways that respect both languages.

Additionally, these reports identify both Focus Skills and transferable skills:

1. Focus Skills are the essentials skills that students must learn at each grade level in order to read proficiently in Spanish and in English. Focus Skills are a powerful resource for concentrating instruction on the skills that have the greatest impact on student learning.
2. Transferable skills are skills that transfer between languages, such as word-picture association, making inferences about a text, or making predictions while reading. Students who have learned these skills in Spanish can, with support, transfer them to their reading in English, and vice versa.

By highlighting essential Focus Skills alongside transferable skills, the instructional planning reports enable teachers to target instruction where it’s most needed, build on what students already know, and reinforce learning in ways that benefit the whole child.

Comparison to students’ linguistic and instructional peers

The true strength of the Star Biliteracy Report is that it also allows educators to see how their students in dual language instruction are performing compared to other students across the country who are linguistically and instructionally similar. By reporting on biliteracy development in both languages, the report provides a holistic—that is, richer and more accurate—picture of student growth. It also helps to ensure that instruction is grounded in a complete understanding of a student’s language abilities, an approach whose benefit is well documented (see, e.g., Howard et al., 2018).

This shift moves conversations away from “What’s missing?” toward “What’s developing?” In turn, this perspective inspires new instructional strategies, strengthens family partnerships, and supports learning goals that matter to students.

When MTSS integrates language and identity at every level, it evolves from a compliance exercise into an engine for greater equity.

Translating insight into action: Steps for MTSS success

Collecting better student assessment data is only the first step, however. Real transformation happens when equity-focused practices become part of the system itself.

When tools like eduCLIMBER and the Star Biliteracy Report are aligned, they reveal patterns in multilingual learners’ engagement, growth, and classroom conditions that would otherwise go unnoticed. Leaders can see not only which students need additional support, but also which environments help students thrive, so they can replicate those conditions across the system.

Furthermore, embedding equity in MTSS means making deliberate choices at every level:

• In team meetings: Reviewing quantitative and qualitative data side-by-side.
• In professional learning: Ensuring every educator understands and applies culturally responsive practices.
• In communications: Using shared language that frames multilingualism as an asset.
• In decision making: Inviting families to be active partners, not just recipients of updates.
• In accountability: Setting measurable equity goals and monitoring them alongside academic data.

In short, the goal is not to add an “equity lens” on top of MTSS, but to make equity the way the system naturally functions.

Data that honors students—and systems that uplift

The most important question for any district looking to enhance its MTSS framework is this: What would it take to move from using data to sort students to instead using data to truly see them?

The answer will vary. It might start with a single pilot program. It might mean redesigning intervention plans. It could be as straightforward (and challenging) as changing how data is discussed during team meetings.

Whatever the starting point, the destination is the same: systems where every student’s story is honored, their strengths are recognized, and their identity is celebrated as a source of learning power. For multilingual learners, this means documenting growth in ways that reflect the whole child and ensuring that every tier of support builds on the assets they bring.

From systems to practice to impact, the journey from data to student growth is both necessary and possible. It begins with a commitment to equity, a willingness to rethink the role of data, and the courage to redesign systems that work for every learner—not just in theory, but in practice, every day.

This work begins with all of us.

For more insights on the Star Biliteracy Report and the power of seeing every student, we invite you to watch our recent webinar, co-presented with author and biliteracy expert Dr. Kathy Escamilla. We also invite you to download the companion whitepaper, explaining the work we’re doing at Renaissance to support biliteracy trajectories in Star Assessments.

References

Coburn, C. E., & Turner, E. O. (2011). Research on data use: A framework and analysis. Measurement: Interdisciplinary Research and Perspectives, 9(4), 173–206. https://doi.org/10.1080/15366367.2011.626729

de Jong, E. J. (2011). Foundations for multilingualism in education: From principles to practice. Philadelphia: Caslon Publishing.

Fuchs, L.S., Fuchs, D., & Malone, A. (2017). The taxonomy of intervention intensity. Teaching Exceptional Children, 50(1), 35–43. https://doi.org/10.1177/0040059917703962

García, O., & Kleifgen, J. A. (2018). Educating emergent bilinguals: Policies, programs, and practices for English learners. 2nd ed. New York: Teachers College Press.

Howard, E. R., Lindholm-Leary, K. J., Rogers, D., Olague, N., Medina, J., Kennedy, B., Sugarman, J., & Christian, D. (2018). Guiding principles for dual language education. 3rd ed. Washington, DC: Center for Applied Linguistics.

Snyder, E., & Witmer, S. E. (2025). Including English learners in multi-tiered systems of support (MTSS) in reading: A CHAT-informed mixed methods investigation. Preventing School Failure: Alternative Education for Children and Youth, 69(1), 34–44. https://doi.org/10.1080/1045988X.2024.2302145