Educators who navigate Multi-Tiered System of Supports (MTSS) and Response to Intervention (RTI) frameworks often face a common challenge: integrating solutions that effectively address the diverse literacy needs of their students. Research-based, student- centered solutions can and should provide educators with the tools they need to deliver tailored instruction and intervention, measure impact, and drive continuous improvement across all grades and tiers.
Deeply Aligning Solutions with MTSS and RTI
To align effectively with MTSS and RTI, programs must work seamlessly together to support educators in addressing the full spectrum of literacy needs. This includes building the foundational skills essential for early reading, closing literacy skill gaps that are inhibiting growth, and strengthening the advanced comprehension and vocabulary skills necessary for lifelong reading proficiency.
Truly comprehensive solutions should enhance Tier 1 instruction for all students while equipping teachers with Tier 2 and Tier 3 interventions to help striving readers advance “up and out” of intervention on their paths to proficiency. Equally important, these approaches must integrate assessment, instruction and intervention, and practice into a cohesive solution that drives meaningful and lasting progress. Success is further amplified when built upon a robust professional learning program and a data-informed system for measuring progress and course-correcting along the way.
Addressing the Varied Needs of Elementary and Secondary Students
Striving readers across grade levels require interventions tailored to their specific stages of literacy development. Some students, whether in elementary or secondary grades, need to establish or strengthen foundational reading skills. These learners benefit from age-appropriate, Structured Literacy interventions that address all five pillars of reading: phonemic awareness, phonics, fluency, vocabulary, and comprehension. Based on student need, the intensive intervention of SPIRE or the targeted intervention of Reading Accelerator is a strong choice.
To build reading mastery, students need targeted practice to reinforce skills; ample time reading complex, connected text; and ongoing assessment to guide instruction and ensure progress. EPS Learning’s AI-driven Reading Assistant—used as a complement to teacher-directed literacy instruction—is particularly powerful for these purposes.
Once students have crossed the decoding threshold, they are ready to focus on more advanced literacy development. For these students, instruction and intervention should emphasize vocabulary expansion, morphology, comprehension strategies, text analysis, and critical thinking to deepen engagement with increasingly complex texts. During this stage of literacy development, programs such as SPIRE Next, Megawords, or Wordly Wise 3000 are appropriate.
The flexible system of our SPIRE Literacy Suite integrates tailored instruction and intervention, practice, and assessment so that educators can meet students where they are on their literacy journeys, fostering growth at every level. Supplemental Tier 1 solutions enhance and deepen core literacy instruction for all students. Additionally, by equipping teachers to address the diverse needs of striving readers in Tier 2, Tier 3, and special education, students of all ages and abilities can transition from learning to read to reading to learn and can continue to find success throughout their journeys as readers and learners.
Partnership: A Key Ingredient to Success
Achieving meaningful and lasting literacy outcomes requires close collaboration between solution providers and education leaders. By aligning with a district’s vision and literacy action plan, solution providers can play a pivotal role, offering strategically focused planning, tailoring professional learning to meet the needs of both novice and experienced educators, and ensuring all educators feel confident and supported throughout implementation. Through collaborative partnership with the EPS Learning team, all stakeholders can join forces to build a powerful pathway to literacy success, empowering students to reach critical milestones and equipping educators with tools to reach every learner.
The SPIRE Literacy Suite: Comprehensive, Connected Solutions
The SPIRE Literacy Suite empowers educators and students with proven products, rooted in the science of reading, that connect across tiers through common pedagogy and a unified digital platform. Designed for teacher ease and student engagement, EPS Learning's products have proven efficacy and are strengthened by dedicated customer success services, driving transformative outcomes for every learner.
