Designing an Observation Protocol to Assess Tiered Instruction: An Exploratory Study

Accurately measuring high-leverage practices (e.g., HLP 16: explicit instruction) within multitiered system of support (MTSS) instruction is imperative for assessing the efficacy of teacher efforts designed to improve it, yet intricacies associated with assessing such instruction make it difficult. In response to the need for assessments for this purpose, we modified a researcher-developed observation protocol to measure general and special educators’ implementation of HLPs in tiered instruction and explored how teachers implement HLPs across Tiers 1, 2, and 3 using generalizability theory and multifaceted Rasch model analyses. Our results indicate that there was some variability in teaching quality between teachers across tier settings. These findings illustrate how the observation tool and procedures can inform future professional development (PD) research by identifying (a) which HLPs require greater emphasis in PD sessions and (b) how the observation protocol can be improved to better achieve its intended purpose.