Attend to the whole child: Addressing non-academic factors in MTSS

We’ve all heard it, and the research clearly supports it. To truly drive student success, districts must adopt educational strategies and programs that cater to the “whole child.” Students’ social and emotional behaviors, as well as their attitudes toward school and academics, are not supplementary to their learning process. On the contrary, these factors are integral to students’ ability to learn and succeed in school—and to their overall wellbeing.

But it’s often difficult to ensure that non-academic and academic measures come together in a way that is valid, reliable, and actionable for educators. How can school and district leaders best address this challenge?

In a recent webinar, we explored the crucial role of non-academic factors in shaping student success within a multi-tiered system of support (MTSS) framework. We also shared effective ways to assess and collaborate on these factors, motivating educators to address them head-on.

In this blog, we’ll share some key takeaways from the webinar—and respond to some of the most common questions we hear from educators about non-academic assessment. 

How non-academic factors impact academic outcomes

As we dive deeper into the non-academic factors affecting learning outcomes, we must start by acknowledging that every student has an individual learning journey. That said, two key points stand out:

1. Students learn at their own pace, regardless of a district’s scope and sequence, curriculum, or other resources.
2. Non-academic factors, such as feelings of anxiety and/or lack of school connectedness, can greatly hinder students’ academic progress.

The COVID-19 pandemic made these feelings even more apparent and underscored educators’ need to equip themselves with strategies and tools to “see every student” and consider the whole child.

Recent data from the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) further highlights this need for educators, particularly when implementing MTSS. NAEP scores for grade 4 students reveal that:

• Only 33 percent are proficient in reading
• Only 36 percent are proficient in math

To put this another way: In any given fourth-grade class, more than 50 percent of the students could be performing below grade level, which can make it overwhelming for a teacher to differentiate instruction effectively.

Academic vs. non-academic assessments in education

Teachers generally have access to a variety of academic assessments—including universal screeners, diagnostic assessments, and progress monitoring tools—to help identify skill gaps in reading and math. Unfortunately, fewer teachers have access to quality non-academic assessments to help them better understand their students’ attitudes and behaviors.

Yet, as we noted earlier, uncovering and addressing non-academic barriers to learning, as well as understanding the combined impact of non-academics and academics, is essential for providing differentiated instruction and targeted supports to drive student success.

Non-academic factors: Early warning systems in MTSS 

You’ve probably heard the saying that schools and districts are “in the diploma business,” and K–12 educators certainly want all of their students to graduate from high school. However, the impact of COVID-19 has manifested in lower graduation rates, eroding pre-COVID gains made in almost every state.

Before the pandemic, school and district leaders often used an “ABC” (Attendance, Behavior, and Course Completion) Early Warning System to identify students at risk of dropping out of high school. This system worked well for the most part, with many states seeing at least some increase in graduation rates. This system has several shortfalls, however:

• Attendance and behavior measures were focused primarily on frequency data (e.g., How often were students absent? How many suspensions or detentions did students receive?) Frequency data is important to look at, but it doesn’t identify the root cause of the issue(s).
• Course completion is not always predictive of future success, due to the lack of universal grading practices. But the assumption was that the higher the student’s GPA, the less likely they were to leave school.

Clearly, the pandemic has forced administrators to broaden their perspective on the factors impacting graduation. Administrators are now looking beyond the ABCs to consider other critical non-academic factors, including:

• Socioeconomic background (e.g., household structure)
• Learner profile (e.g., mobility, English Language Learner status)
• Trauma (e.g., family incarceration or interrupted education)

This shift is crucial for truly understanding what impacts a student’s desire and ability to graduate, reinforcing the need for both a comprehensive assessment system and data management platform that include non-academic data alongside academics.

Even with a sound ABC system, educators must also implement social and emotional learning (SEL) and/or social-emotional behavior (SEB) measures to detect various non-academic factors that might affect students, ensuring a holistic approach to student support.

Non-academic factors and data-driven decision making

How can focusing on non-academic factors impact MTSS and help you to address the whole child? As we noted earlier, MTSS is a framework for seeing every student. When implemented with fidelity, MTSS helps educators to solve a number of common problems, including:

• Uncertainty around individual students’ needs
• Disjointed systems and data
• Overburdened intervention plans

How so? With an MTSS implementation that provides clear assessment and instructional data for every student, educators can:

• Support the whole child by viewing academic data alongside non-academic data
• Leverage resources to strengthen universal instruction and promote proactive early intervention
• Evaluate effectiveness and equitably improve outcomes for all student groups
• Collaborate effectively around data and establish a district-wide infrastructure to meet students’ needs holistically

From a non-academic perspective, MTSS implementation is not just about identifying risks, though. It’s about having access to whole child data, including non-academic factors, at the right time and from a single location. This data also needs to be actionable, driving decisions and producing results.

Several additional statistics underline the urgency of this initiative. According to 2022 data from the National Center for Education Statistics:

• 87 percent of public schools reported that the pandemic had negatively impacted students’ socio-emotional development; and
• 84 percent of public schools agreed or strongly agreed that students’ behavioral development had been negatively impacted.

Additionally, the CDC recently found that only 61 percent of high school students feel connected to school. This raises the urgency of identifying and supporting the remaining 39 percent—before it’s too late.

While all of these statistics are concerning, there are reasons for hope. Research cited by CASEL demonstrates the significant positive impact when non-academic factors are considered, providing a path for student success:

• 11 to 1 is the return on investment for schools that implement an SEL system that includes valid and reliable screening for non-academic factors.
• Students who participate in a comprehensive SEL program score 11 percentile points higher on academic achievement assessments, as compared to those students who do not participate in an SEL program.

In the webinar, we shared compelling examples of students whose academic achievement was significantly influenced by non-academic factors, which underscores the importance of assessing and understanding these factors. 

Addressing data challenges in MTSS

MTSS can be a challenging initiative to implement. Without thoughtful conversations within the district about assessment, instruction, educator collaboration, and data transparency, MTSS may not be successful.

Following are responses to three common questions we receive from educators about non-academic data within an MTSS framework.

#1: Non-academic assessment in the early grades

While it’s clear how non-academic factors impact middle and high school students’ pathway toward graduation, educators and families may be less clear on how these factors impact younger students. Here, it’s important to highlight the non-academic factors that affect these students’ readiness to learn, including their:

• Feelings about their teacher(s)
• Willingness to interact with peers
• Confidence in their ability to complete new tasks
• And more

Think, for example, of early grades’ students who struggle with reading. They often compare themselves to peers who are already reading chapter books, and they can feel a lot of anxiety as a result. This negative perception of themselves as learners can ultimately affect their performance in other subject areas, showing why it’s so essential to understand these students’ attitudes.

Also, due to the pandemic, we have a number of early grades’ students who didn’t attend preschool or kindergarten, and who missed out on the formative experiences of interacting with other children in a classroom setting. They often need the social-emotional behavior support that an interventionist can provide, to help with self-regulation, cooperation, and other key skills that impact academic achievement.

#2: Non-academic interventions and progress monitoring

As with academic interventions, it’s essential to gather progress monitoring data on non-academic/behavioral interventions in order to:

1. Ensure the intervention is effective for the student.
2. Determine whether the student is on track to achieve the goal that has been set.

Having said that, we acknowledge that progress monitoring is one of the most challenging aspects of an MTSS framework. Whether you’re progress monitoring an academic or a non-academic intervention, it’s important to have an efficient and consistent system that allows for data collection, monitoring, and analysis to support your decision-making process.

#3: Addressing chronic absenteeism

Even the best interventions will fail if students are regularly absent from school and never receive the designated supports. Chronic absenteeism rates have nearly doubled since the 2018–2019 school year, making it critical for educators to identify and address the root cause(s) of absenteeism. These causes fall into four categories:

• Barriers to attendance, such as illness, lack of transportation, or trauma
• Aversion to school, including anxiety or behavior issues
• Disengagement, often caused by lack of support, lack of relationships with adults, etc.
• Misconceptions by students and families about the importance of school attendance

Universal screening for non-academic factors can help to uncover the negative feelings and attitudes that contribute to absenteeism. By reviewing this screening data in tandem with attendance data, you can better identify students who are at risk for attendance issues and intervene early with Tier 2 or Tier 3 supports.

Use non-academic assessments to supercharge your MTSS

If you’re looking to strengthen non-academic data collection and analysis within your MTSS, Renaissance can help. We offer two assessments—available in both English and Spanish—to help identify the non-academic factors that may be hindering your students’ academic success and overall wellbeing:

• Renaissance Fundamentals uncovers non-academic barriers to learning, based on pre-K–12 students’ attitudes. Students take 15 minutes or less to complete a survey about their feelings toward school and themselves as learners. Easy-to-interpret reports then give administrators, counselors, and teachers insights into students’ attitudes, as compared to national norms.

• Renaissance SAEBRS identifies students at risk, assessing not only negative behaviors but also indicators of student resilience and wellbeing. Teachers use SAEBRS to evaluate individual K–12 students. A student-rater companion assessment, mySAEBRS, lets students in grades 2‒12 self-assess their social, academic, and emotional behavior.