This project is supporting educators in the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands (CNMI) Public School System (PSS) in improving their data-driven decision making when assigning students to Tier 2 reading interventions, as well as identifying potential areas of improvement for Tier 1 literacy instruction. By the end of this project, CNMI PSS central office staff and principals will develop and launch a plan to address early literacy intervention, while building their knowledge of evidence-based data practices within a multi-tiered system of supports (MTSS) to support early literacy. This project will comprise six sessions taking place from October 2022 to November 2023.

In this applied research study, REL Pacific will conduct a systematic review of the research literature on Tier 2 literacy interventions. The study products will include an evidence and gap map of existing evaluation research on Tier 2 literacy interventions for students in grades K–3, a supplemental matrix of intervention strategies, and an evidence memo for CNMI PSS and other stakeholders. The results of this study will inform current training and coaching projects that focus on data-driven decision making as well as the descriptive study of early warning system (EWS) implementation and Tier 2 reading interventions. This study will be published in December 2023.