As ever, an influx of diverse learners is entering the K–12 system, and the urgency of strengthening equity in education for culturally and linguistically diverse learners cannot be overstated. It is not a “nice to have” approach but a necessity for our educational systems. Equity in education means that each student is afforded the resources and opportunities unique to their needs and necessary for their success while tapping into their rich cultural and linguistic attributes. For culturally and linguistically diverse students, this involves habitually elevating and weaving in their languages and cultures throughout their educational journeys.
Schools strategically adopt structures and frameworks that address long-standing inequities among marginalized populations. A foundational framework widely implemented in recent years is the multi-tiered system of supports (MTSS), which aims to ensure the success of every student. This framework provides a structured system for addressing academic, behavioral, and social–emotional needs through targeted interventions to help all students succeed. MTSS consists of:
- Tier 1: Universal core instruction for all students.
- Tier 2: Targeted interventions for students who need small-group-focused instruction.
- Tier 3: Intensive interventions for individual students with significant needs.
Tier 1 is universal and inclusive of all students in the general education classroom. It provides high-quality, research-based, differentiated instruction and utilizes assessments to identify mastery of grade-level skills, concepts, and remaining academic gaps. Hoover (2013, 2016) suggests approximately 80% of students are expected to achieve academic and behavioral success through robust Tier 1 core instruction. Tier 2 provides targeted intervention to approximately 20% of students identified as being at risk. Tier 3 further intensifies intervention through explicit instruction in a one-to-one setting for, at most, 5% of students.
While this framework offers a structured approach, too often the MTSS framework emphasizes a response to intervention that focuses on students’ skill deficits to close “gaps” identified against norms established by monolingual peers, rather than recognizing and leveraging culturally and linguistically diverse students’ funds of knowledge. The conventional MTSS framework does not explicitly address the distinctive instructional practices fundamental to multilingual learners that differ from those of the English-medium classroom. Hoover et al. (2016) forewarn that although MTSS does support the early identification of struggling learners, it may also leave educators open to misinterpretation of culturally driven behaviors as a need for Tier 2 or 3 intervention. Subsequently, this may also result in an over-identification of multilingual learners for special education. In addition to the negative implications for student success stemming from this misdiagnosis of student needs, it may create an additional, unnecessary burden on special education systems and resources.
It is essential to remember that culture and language acquisition are neither a deficit nor a disability, but rather formidable assets. An equitable MTSS (eMTSS) requires high expectations, an understanding of the needs of students, a goal-oriented mindset, and clear tools to gauge growth (HUGG). This eMTSS with a HUGG is a transformative approach that can uplift students, particularly culturally and linguistically diverse learners. It takes a holistic approach that goes beyond the status quo and integrates an individual’s linguistic repertoire, considerations for language acquisition, identity, and cultural assets. This approach is also mutually beneficial to peers, as this integration of diverse languages and cultures offers expanded knowledge and new learning opportunities.
Overview of eMTSS with a HUGG
To meet the needs of culturally and linguistically diverse students, we must be explicit in providing frequent and ample opportunities for students to lead with their identities, embrace their linguistic repertoires, and connect their multilayered cultures to their learning. McCart and Miller (2020) highlight that the blueprint for success requires educators to identify the what and the why of MTSS as well as to have the ability to put it into practice. eMTSS is a proactive framework that explicitly centers and validates students’ linguistic and cultural diversity as part of an existing MTSS process. HUGG is a tool within this same framework which layers on a continuum of student strengths and language-acquisition supports, allowing educators to incorporate these concepts alongside academic needs or targets.
Figure 1 highlights Tier 1–specific practices. It is important to note that all students fully participate in Tier 1 instruction. For our multilingual learners, this means Tier 1 must include bilingual/dual language education in addition to English as a second language (ESL) and/or English language development (ELD) time. It is not uncommon for the instructional practices of ESL/ELD to be misconstrued as Tier 2 intervention; however, I cannot emphasize strongly enough that multilingualism is not a deficit or disability and should never be treated as such.
Equitable Tier 1 as a nonnegotiable for multilingual learners is no less than the enactment of the educational and civil rights of culturally and linguistically diverse learners.
Although the concepts of the continuum are not new, layering it within the HUGG approach provides an actionable and insightful lens. This allows educators to see the whole culturally and linguistically diverse child and to leverage an improved understanding of language proficiency to make teaching and learning more comprehensible to this population.
This increased understanding is only one advantage of the eMTSS with a HUGG system. It promotes students’ sense of belonging and identity and improves their learning experience, ultimately resulting in stronger academic outcomes. The eMTSS with a HUGG approach does not stop at the classroom level, however. By offering systems-level pedagogical tools, it allows building, district, and even state educational entity staff a way to recognize and leverage students’ assets to transform ideas about what education can look like for all learners. Tier 1 is core instruction and is more complex for multilingual learners. Researchers call attention to the fact that literacy instructional frameworks developed for monolingual learners may not be suitable for biliteracy development and suggest that educators need to understand which linguistic elements do not transfer in order to provide targeted instruction to meet specific needs (Klingner et al., 2016).
Educators play a crucial role in strategically creating these cultural and linguistic connections in ways that help students feel valued and integral to the learning process. Hamayan et al. (2023) identified seven integral factors for understanding a multilingual learner. These seven factors comprehensively understand a student’s past education and home environment, creating a detailed image of their experiences.
Consider, for instance, a newcomer from Nicaragua’s Pacific coast who has recently enrolled in a fifth-grade classroom. As the school team gears up to gather background information about the student’s seven integral factors, the learning in the classroom is in full swing; material may need to be simultaneously supplemented to create engagement opportunities for the newcomer. For example, the student has never experienced snowfall, but the curriculum utilizes a mentor text about a family ski trip to Colorado. eMTSS Tier 1 would call for the instructional plan to draw cultural parallels between the sport of skiing in Colorado and the rich history of surfing on Nicaragua’s Emerald Coast. Even if the student has never surfed the waves of the Pacific Ocean, they would have background knowledge due to the country’s profound coastal history of the sport over the last 40 years, allowing them to connect to the cultural concept of skiing, which is necessary for them to access learning. Instruction may become more linguistically responsive through thoroughly understanding language proficiency levels in Spanish and English. The team may engage in strategic planning that leads to instruction and delivery of the lesson using rich, authentic texts in Spanish. In this manner, Tier 1 addresses the student’s cultural connections and linguistic needs while adhering to the school’s curricular requirements.
A Holistic Framework
Consider Figure 2, the eMTSS with a HUGG framework. On one end of the continuum, Tier 2 and Tier 3 are followed by special education; however, this should not be construed as a deficit. In this image, special education solely represents how culturally and linguistically diverse students may still be referred for eligibility for an individualized education plan (IEP). On the other end of the continuum, Tiers 2 and 3 are followed by gifted education. Gifted education falls under the umbrella of special education;
however, this figure relates to how culturally and linguistically diverse students may also be referred to as challenging educational opportunities. It recognizes that culture and language are incredible assets, symbolizing the necessary shifting and expansion of mindsets and perspectives to acknowledge the full scope of all students. eMTSS with a HUGG exemplifies how individuals have a range of needs, and that offering tailored supports does not preclude engaging educational extensions.
Hollie (2018) states that being culturally and linguistically responsive is not something you do but something intentional and intense in everything we do. Moreover, eMTSS with a HUGG reaffirms Tier 1 as the grounding core for all students. The figure represents that, when our work is rooted in equity and delivered through a culturally and linguistically responsive approach, all students flourish and succeed. These roots represent an understanding of the varying attributes of individual cultures, multilingual proficiencies, what motivates learners, and the assets and experiences they possess. When educators work to understand the depths and breadths of our culturally and linguistically diverse students, we strengthen relationships, cultivate learning, and engage students in leading their educational journeys.
The tree’s trunk represents how we deliver deeply rooted instruction.
This framework helps educators foster students’ assets while targeting required learning through making genuine connections to their experiences. Through culturally and linguistically responsive delivery, we provide tailored instruction, support, and enrichment. As we cultivate this into practice, the tree flourishes; however, when a student displays observable behaviors that lean toward either side of the continuum, then the HUGG layer of the framework comes into play.
When strong Tier 1 practices, as shown in Figure 1, are in place and a multilingual learner needs support or supplementation that is beyond differentiation but is not quite Tier 2, we provide a HUGG:
- High expectations
- Understand their needs
- Goal-oriented
- Gauge growth
Observing and providing explicit differentiation for a culturally and linguistically diverse student who may need additional support or supplementation is essential. Before identifying Tier 2 and Tier 3 intervention or enrichment, we must:
Maintain high expectations through questions such as:
- Is instruction grade-level appropriate?
- How do we make it more comprehensible?
- Select and use instructional practices (strategies and materials) that produce comprehensible input and make cultural connections for learners.
- Ensure accessibility.
- Cultivate engagement and motivation to learn by incorporating student interests.
Understand the unique needs of the student by:
- Weighing their strengths as much as their targets.
- Taking into account their entire cultural and linguistic repertoire.
- This means understanding their language-acquisition pathways and utilizing their language-proficiency levels to meet students where they are and plan for where they are going.
- Keeping the goal specific and observable.
- Incorporating pre-assessments and previous evidence of work to strategically build the HUGG based on the student’s unique needs.
Be goal oriented
- Create a Tier 1 goal that:
- Maintains high expectations! We do not lower the bar!
- Is achievable
- Identify the targeted instruction and linguistic supports provided in each language.
- Align to the four language domains.
- Set a language-based goal aligned to academic content.
- Consider the behavioral and social–emotional outcomes of the student.
Gauge the growth
- Identify the EL-based strategies you will use to support the student.
- Identify the tool to monitor progress.
- Set a date for monitoring the progress and discuss it as a grade-level team.
When we explicitly co-create goals for our students, we can address their needs, thoroughly describe observed learning behaviors, and monitor gains related to the unique complexities of multilingual learners. As a team gets to know the student through the integral factors, the HUGG shifts to further align with the student’s academic, behavioral, and social–emotional needs based on multiple data points and historical context. If the student is placed in Tier 2 or 3, the HUGG hones in on the skills, strategies, and tools that align with the overarching Tier 1 HUGG goal.
In short, the eMTSS with a HUGG framework offers an inclusive approach that integrates students’ linguistic and cultural assets, fosters a sense of belonging, builds meaning through a personally relevant lens, and ultimately leads to improved academic outcomes. By acknowledging and fostering the strengths of culturally and linguistically diverse learners, we can address educational inequities and disparities, establishing a holistic and safe learning environment where every student is uplifted and celebrated and can flourish. We must be instrumental in advocating, addressing existing disparities, and guaranteeing that culturally and linguistically diverse students have opportunities to maximize their potential and enrich the classrooms they are part of in the process.
References available at www.languagemagazine.com/references-mainstreaming-multilingualism
Muriel Ortiz is an experienced educator and administrator in K–12 public education. She is a dedicated educational consultant at Adelante Educational Specialists Group and coordinator at Smarter Balanced, a nonprofit assessment consortium through the University of California. She has a proven track record of consulting, developing, and coaching district and school leaders on dual language and EL program design, implementation, and evaluation, as well as culturally and linguistically responsive MTSS, biliteracy instruction, and second language acquisition.
Muriel is passionate about disrupting the status quo and creating an equitable, innovative, and engaging learning environment for multilingual learners. She holds multiple certifications and endorsements in bilingual and special education and is pursuing a PhD at DePaul University.