Example Job Description
Director of Multi-Tiered Systems of Support
A leader who connects district MTSS design, universal supports, intervention processes, team learning, and improvement across academic, behavioral, and social-emotional domains with trustworthy evidence, equitable opportunity, and accountable action.
Interview Planning Resource
Possible Interview Q&A: Director of Multi-Tiered Systems of Support
How to use this resource: Select questions that measure competencies established through the district’s current job analysis. Ask candidates the same predetermined questions under comparable conditions and evaluate responses against the same job-related criteria.
The indicators below describe evidence a strong response may contain; they are not required scripts or the only acceptable answers.
- Screening flags more students than available intervention places. How would you respond?
Strong response indicators: Checks tool validity and coverage, combines evidence, reviews universal instruction and equitable capacity, uses transparent prioritization, and safeguards required evaluation and services.
- An intervention has high enrollment but little progress. What would you examine?
Strong response indicators: Checks actual delivery, attendance, dosage, implementation, fit, measurement conditions and comparison evidence; adjusts supports with teams rather than assuming student nonresponse.
- A school requires completion of every MTSS tier before a disability referral. How would you respond?
Strong response indicators: Recognizes that MTSS cannot delay or deny required evaluation, contacts authorized special education staff promptly, corrects the practice and monitors follow-through.
- How would you detect unequal referral patterns?
Strong response indicators: Compares eligible populations, referral sources, screening coverage, subgroup error patterns and access to universal supports; combines student experience with quantitative evidence.
- How would you integrate academic and behavioral information responsibly?
Strong response indicators: Defines a clear support purpose, minimizes sensitive information, verifies definitions and permissions, and avoids treating behavior codes or risk scores as diagnoses.
- What would demonstrate that MTSS implementation is improving?
Strong response indicators: Tracks universal support quality, timely access, actual service delivery, student experience, progress and sustained outcomes, with explicit baselines and review dates.
- The intervention tracking platform disagrees with source records. How would you resolve this?
Strong response indicators: Checks populations, dates, definitions, refreshes, joins and corrections for screening coverage, intervention delivery and student progress; reconciles with accountable owners, documents fixes and adds preventive checks.
- What evidence would you require before recommending a district intervention redesign?
Strong response indicators: Defines educational need, baseline, access and implementation measures, alternatives, cost and capacity; uses appropriate comparisons and uncertainty and specifies a review or exit decision.
- How would you protect sensitive records while helping teams act on screening coverage, intervention delivery and student progress?
Strong response indicators: Defines purpose and authorized access, minimizes disclosure, protects small groups, uses approved systems and retention rules, and consults responsible privacy and legal owners.
- A vendor proposes AI to automate recommendations in this portfolio. How would you assess it?
Strong response indicators: Tests the proposed use against district MTSS design, universal supports, intervention processes, team learning, and improvement across academic, behavioral, and social-emotional domains; reviews accuracy, subgroup errors, privacy, security, accessibility and cost, and preserves authorized human decisions and challenge procedures.
- How would you build staff capability to use screening coverage, intervention delivery and student progress well?
Strong response indicators: Uses authentic cases, verifies sources and denominators, explains missingness and uncertainty, coaches interpretation and checks whether evidence leads to useful changes in practice.
- What would your first 90 days as Director of Multi-Tiered Systems of Support include?
Strong response indicators: Listens to affected students, families, staff and partners; maps authority and obligations, validates screening coverage, intervention delivery and student progress, identifies urgent gaps and proposes a focused plan with owners and review dates.
Position Description
The Director of Multi-Tiered Systems of Support leads district MTSS design, universal supports, intervention processes, team learning, and improvement across academic, behavioral, and social-emotional domains. The district or employing agency should define the final portfolio, delegated authority, and relationships with other program owners.
The position builds coherent screening, referral, intervention, and progress-monitoring routines; evaluates access, service delivery, and effectiveness while preserving student rights and team judgment.
Reports To
Illustrative reporting relationship: Assistant Superintendent of Educational Services, Student Services, or other designated administrator. Confirm the locally approved structure and delegated authority.
Required Education and Credentials
Required
- Illustrative district qualification for review: master's degree in education, school psychology, educational leadership, or a related field; confirm the local degree requirement and permitted equivalents.
- Hold a valid California Administrative Services Credential or other authorization appropriate to the actual assignment. District HR must verify current authorization and any additional credential requirements against the final duties.
- Complete district-required employment clearances and training in student privacy, nondiscrimination, accessibility, records, safety, and responsible use of technology.
Preferred
- Graduate coursework or sustained professional learning in applied statistics, program evaluation, improvement science, education data systems, or responsible AI for educational decision-making.
- Advanced preparation in education, school psychology, educational leadership, or a related field, inclusive leadership, family partnership, and coaching adults to use evidence effectively.
Required / Desired Experience
Required Experience
- Illustrative minimum for local review: five years of successful instructional or student-support leadership and implementation of tiered supports across schools; confirm experience thresholds and permitted equivalents.
- Experience supervising assigned staff, coordinating partners, managing resources, and implementing improvement across the assigned portfolio.
- Demonstrated use of screening coverage, intervention delivery and student progress to investigate needs, verify records, evaluate action, and explain findings and limitations.
Desired Experience
- Experience with California district or regional program requirements, implementation monitoring, and improvement with diverse communities.
- Experience with an intervention tracking platform, approved spreadsheets and tools such as Excel, Google Sheets, Power BI, Tableau, or equivalents; applied data-science literacy sufficient to collaborate with analysts.
Essential Duties and Responsibilities
Coherent Support Design
- Lead a district framework connecting strong universal instruction, school climate, targeted supports, and intensive individualized assistance.
- Define team roles, referral pathways, intervention entry and exit criteria, and escalation processes with curriculum, student services, CWA, health, and special education owners.
- Build school capacity through coaching, protected collaboration, and usable protocols; maintain continuity during student transitions.
Screening and Intervention Analysis
- Review screening coverage, validity, accessibility, and error patterns; combine measures with student strengths, classroom evidence, and family input.
- Track referral-to-service time, intervention dosage, delivery, progress, and exits in approved systems; distinguish scheduled support from actual participation.
- Evaluate universal and targeted supports using implementation evidence, appropriate comparisons, subgroup access, and uncertainty; revise ineffective approaches.
Rights and Responsible Systems
- Ensure MTSS processes do not delay or deny required disability evaluation, services, or other protected rights; route concerns promptly to authorized teams.
- Validate cross-system student identity, measures, access permissions, and referral records with data owners; protect sensitive health and behavioral information.
- Review predictive-risk and AI products for validity, subgroup errors, privacy, accessibility, and human oversight; prohibit automatic consequential placement decisions.
Capacity and Continuous Improvement
- Align assigned staff, budgets, training, and intervention capacity to documented needs and feasible implementation plans.
- Coach teams to interpret growth, response variability, missing progress checks, and resource constraints without treating labels as diagnoses.
- Report implementation, outcomes, unresolved barriers and corrective actions, and perform related duties within the classification.
Required Skills and Abilities
Knowledge of
- Universal instruction, tiered interventions, implementation science, collaborative problem solving, and student development.
- Screening quality, sensitivity and specificity, progress monitoring, intervention dosage, selection bias, and evaluation limits.
- Disability referral and evaluation rights, confidentiality, accessibility, nondiscrimination, and program boundaries within the assignment.
- Assessment, intervention and case-management systems, secure dashboards, and responsible predictive analytics and AI.
Ability to
- Translate priorities in district MTSS design, universal supports, intervention processes, team learning, and improvement across academic, behavioral, and social-emotional domains into feasible plans, clear responsibilities and measurable follow-through.
- Validate screening coverage, intervention delivery and student progress using accurate sources, definitions, populations and denominators before making decisions.
- Evaluate implementation and outcomes, examine subgroup opportunity, and distinguish association from causation with qualified analytical support.
- Use approved modern systems and accessible visualizations; partner with data specialists on complex linkage, statistical methods or reproducible analysis.
- Protect confidential information, document consequential decisions, maintain professional judgment and escalate unresolved legal or policy questions.
- Lead staff and partnerships, communicate evidence and uncertainty clearly, and revise ineffective practices with affected communities.
Work Environment
- Work is performed in district offices, classrooms, school grounds, meeting rooms, and other professional settings, with remote participation as authorized.
- The position involves computer use, school visits, observation, facilitation, and detailed review of records, dashboards, assessments, reports, and communications.
- Work requires frequent coordination with school and district leaders, program specialists, students and families as appropriate, data and technology teams, fiscal and legal owners, and external partners.
- The employee encounters interruptions, competing priorities, sensitive student and personnel matters, and urgent concerns requiring calm, documented judgment.
- Workload may increase during planning and budget cycles, program transitions, monitoring and reporting reviews, public meetings, and urgent service concerns.
Other Requirements
- Successfully complete required criminal-record, fingerprint, and employment clearances.
- Complete a tuberculosis risk assessment and any examination required by applicable law or district policy.
- Maintain required credentials and complete district-assigned training in privacy, cybersecurity, accessibility, nondiscrimination, mandated reporting, and workplace safety.
- Protect confidential student and employee records; follow approved access, sharing, retention, incident-reporting, and records-request procedures.
- Travel between district offices, schools, professional-learning locations, and community meetings as assigned.
- Possess a valid California driver's license and maintain insurability when driving is an essential function; confirm the district's actual travel requirements.
- Occasionally work evenings, weekends, or extended hours for school events, public meetings, reporting deadlines, or urgent student and operational matters.
- Perform office and school-based activities involving sitting, standing, walking, communication, and computer use; confirm any role-specific lifting or other physical requirements through local job analysis.
- Perform the essential functions of the position with or without reasonable accommodation.