Collaborative Systems of Support

Garth Larson

Director of Learning for the Winneconne Community School District &

President of FIRST Educational Resources, LLC

June 29, 2016

Staples, MN

#CSSMN

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What Am I Prepared To Do Differently?

What Resonates With Me? Things I Plan To Start Doing?

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Collaborative Systems of Support: Warm-up Activity

Patient A: Male

Age: 33

Height: 5”8’

Weight: 170 pounds

Part 1: Patient A suffers a confirmed heart attack in the middle of the night. You are his doctors, what are the potential causes for this heart attack?

Cause 1: ______________________________________

Cause 2: ______________________________________

Cause: 3: ______________________________________

Cause 4: ______________________________________

Cause 5: ______________________________________

Cause 6: ______________________________________

Part 2: Knowing the information you know at this point, whom else would you consult with on this case?

1. ___________________________________________ 2. ___________________________________________ 3. ___________________________________________ 4. ___________________________________________ 5. ___________________________________________

Part 3: How does this apply to PLC and MTSS?

 

 

 

 

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Key # 1: Purpose/Rationale for CSS

What is the fundamental purpose of schools? Do our policies, practices and procedures match our fundamental purpose? What is our mission and mantra?

Complete this statement using 12 or fewer additions words. (14 maximum) I believe _______________ _______________ _______________ ______________ _______________ _______________ _______________ _______________ _______________ _______________ _______________ _______________ .

“The business of schools is to produce learning that is so compelling that students persist when they experience difficulties and that is so challenging that students have a sense of accomplishment, of satisfaction – indeed of delight, when they successfully accomplish the task assigned (learning).” -Phil Schlechty

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Why Collaborative Systems of Support

• Statistics show students are failing at alarming rates in high schools and colleges.

• Over 3 million high school students drop out of school annually.

• High school dropouts commit 75% of significant U.S. crimes.

• It’s estimated that one out of three students that start college in their freshman year will not make it back for their sophomore year.

• High school dropouts are four times as likely to be unemployed as those who have completed four or more years of college.

• 90% of U.S. jobs require a high school diploma.

• Dropouts are more likely to apply for and receive public assistance than graduates of high school.

• The difference in lifetime income between a high school graduate and a high school dropout is $260,000.

• No longer the need to wait for a student to fail to support him/her.

• Traditional schooling has not worked for years and we now have evidence of best practices in schools.

• Ensures that every student learns and achieves at high levels.

• “Our kids” mentality versus “your kids” or “my kids.”

• Only 15% of students that repeat 9th grade go on to graduate from high school.

(Statistics taken and modified from, Simplifying Response to Intervention, It’s About Time: Planning Interventions and Extensions in Secondary School, RTI Roadmap for School Leaders: Plan and Go, US Department of Labor Bureau, Education World, and National Dropout Prevention Network)

The reauthorization and amendment of IDEA (2004) changed the look at special educational identification. Moving from the discrepancy model to the lack of “Response to Intervention” or RTI as an alternative method. Some states made this the only way students were to be identified. We must intervene early and monitor the extent to which students are responding. Please note there are funding advantages within this framework as well as 15% of flow-through funds may be used. Some schools use RTI (MTSS) as a fast gateway to special education. Some schools use it as a way for teachers to have others “fix the struggling students” and eliminates the accountability of together trying to help a student find success in his/her learning. This is a collective problem. (RTI Roadmap)

 

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Focusing on the Right Questions!

Guiding Question: What are the wrong questions to ask when focusing on improving student achievement for ALL students through the PLC and MTSS process?

Guiding Question: What are the right questions to ask when focusing on improving student achievement for ALL students through this process?

 

4 Critical Questions of PLCs and MTSS Collectively in Action (CSS)

● What are the most important and critical standards and targets our students must learn?

● What types of assessments (formative, summative, and screeners) will we use to have our students demonstrate how they have mastered what they need to know?

● What is our collective response to our students when they experience difficulties in their learning?

● What do we collectively do for students that come to us with pre-existing knowledge and already know what we will be teaching?

 

Guiding Question: Where does your district fall within the 4 critical questions? What has been addressed and what needs to be addressed? Does this fit within your action plan?

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Holistic CSS Framework 

 

 

 

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8  Core Support

● Engaging, differentiated Instruction for ALL students ● Multiple opportunities to respond to the instruction ● Immediate feedback in the learning progression ● Scaffold new practice ● 10-15 minutes of small group supports to homogenous groups based on

need More Support

● More time and supports for students not mastering essential instruction as measured by CFAs and other target based assessments

● Provided during the day during a 30 minute flex time or WIN ● Students group more homogeneously during these flex times and

determined by grade level or content level teams. ● Students not mastering essentials are given extra support in smaller

groups or individually based on numbers and the level of need. ● Other staff/human resources may join during the WIN time to reduce

student to adult ratio during the Flex or WIN time ● Stagger WIN time for better use of staff resources

Specialized Support

● Students not responding to core or more supports ● Students that have been screened in multiple ways and need significant

remediation in their learning (screenings make take place in based on norm or criterion referenced assessments)

● Supports are incredibly targeted toward specific skills ● Does not supplant instruction, rather supports it. ● Occurs flexibly within a student’s day and make happen during other

instructional times within the day (independent time, specials, etc).

It should be noted that Core Support is the most important-Standards/targets driven, well defined, and unwrapped core support informs our entire CSS Framework.

CSS is something you BECOME and NOT something you buy!

Guiding Question: What is your current reality when it comes to your CSS Framework? What is our starting point for today’s discussion?

 

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Key # 2: Culture of Learning and Collective Responsibility

Guiding Question: Do you have a sense of collective responsibility from every staff member in your school? If not, what are some steps you can take to ensure this happens?

Guiding Question: Who is responsible for student learning?

Collective Commitment of High Levels of Learning for ALL Students

In order for us to collectively agree that we will achieve high levels of learning for ALL students, we must be able to define what that means. Effective leaders work with their staff to make sure there is a universal understanding within their buildings of what it means to meet the needs of ALL students. This is based on the following understandings:

● Our students will have the necessary skills and knowledge for post high school success.

● Students will be provided with the additional time and support necessary to become proficient in grade level essential standards.

● We will collectively analyze the results of common formative and summative assessments in grade level and/or content teams

● Our schools will create systems of interventions for students that are struggling to meet grade level essential standards.

● Teachers will not work in isolation to provide the necessary supports for students that are struggling.

● Some students will require support from time to time, while other students will require intense remediation to support learning gaps that exist.

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10  ● Students receiving Tier 2 and Tier 3 Levels of support will receive Tier 1 Core

Instruction, plus supplemental support. ● The time that we provide for additional support must fit within our school

day, as we do not control what happens outside of our normal school hours. ● Interventions are directive, targeted, timely, research-based and delivered by

trained professionals. ● We will refer to our students using Student FIRST Language

Guiding Question: What potential roadblocks exist for your staff with these collective commitments?

    

Creating Cultural Change within a Collaborative System of Support

(Modified from Simplifying Response to Intervention, Mattos and Weber, 2012)

● We must be willing to collectively take responsibility for student learning! ● This is not a “TTSP” initiative. We are here to support learning! ● Are we a building of teaching or a building of learning? ● Do we believe that ALL students can learn at high levels? ● Getting staff "buy in" ● Expect that best and confront the worst (mutual accountability)

Guiding Question: Knowing these cultural changes associated with this process, how would you describe the culture within your school or districts? What are some steps you can take to start shifting the culture in your school or district?         

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Key # 3: Student Centered Collaboration

Guiding Question: What does collaboration currently look like in your school or district?

Guiding Question: How do we make collaboration our highest priority in our school or district?

Guiding Question: How we create both technical change and cultural change to support collaboration in our buildings?

Team Structures in a CSS Framework

● Teacher teams meet weekly to complete their established data teams tasks ● Discuss students they are concerned about ● Keep their notes in some software (Google Docs)

Guiding Question: What does your team structure currently look like in your buildings?

● Grade Level/Content Teams? ● Building Leadership Team? ● Student Opportunity/Problem Solving Team?

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12  Student Opportunity /Problem Solving Team

● Responsible for supporting specialized levels of support and More support in some instances.

● Diagnose causes of the student’s that are struggling with Core Instruction and in some instances, More supports .

● Review data from universal screening to identify students that need Specialized Levels of support.

● Make recommendations on the most appropriate interventions to best meet students’ needs.

● Review intervention(s) when students are not responding to current interventions.

● Lead the problem solving team process/OTM process. ● Must meet every other week, should meet weekly (set a calendar of meeting

times at the start of the year to ensure all members can make these meetings).

● Determine when special education identifying/referral is appropriate. ● Should consist of Principal, Counselor, Psychologist, and Assistant

Principal. ● Others to include if applicable: Social Worker, Speech/Language

Pathologist, Nurse, Special Education Teacher, Reading Specialist, Math Specialist, Liaison Officer, Director of Instruction, and Director of Pupil Services.

 

Guiding Question: Do you have an Opportunity Team/Problem Solving Team in place in your building? How do the roles of this team differ from the roles and responsibilities identified above? What are some steps you can take to ensure this team has a pivotal role in supporting ALL students?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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 Key # 4: Guaranteed Essential Instruction

  

Guiding Question: Have we identified what is ESSENTIAL for ALL students to know in all content areas? If yes, does every staff member understand the importance of ensuring that ALL students master what is essential?

If schools and districts have not identified what is essential for their students to learn, the CSS process can be incredibly difficult. When must have a common understanding of our priority targets/standards, we then must make a collective commitment that ALL of our students will be proficient in those standards and will do whatever it takes to ensure this happens.

Identifying what is Essential? (From Doug Reeves)

Endurance: Will this standard (or target) provide students with knowledge and skills that are valuable beyond a single test date?

Leverage: Will it provide knowledge and skills that are valuable in multiple disciplines?

Readiness: Will it provide students with the knowledge and skills essential for success in the next grade or level of instruction?

 

Guiding Question: How does this tie to Standards/Target Based Grading? 

 

 

 

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Key # 5: Common Assessments and Universal Screening

Guiding Question: How do you currently use your assessments in your school or district?

Discussion Question: Do you have a process of creating common formative and summative assessments tied to priority standards and targets and do you collectively analyze the data? If not, how do we get this process moving?

Discussion Question: Who reviews and makes decisions regarding the data you get from your universal screeners? How soon are decisions made?

Important: Having staff members use common formative assessments tied to their priority standards and targets is a key component of this process. When staff members begin to discuss the results of those common formative assessments, the opportunity begins for putting More support in place to guarantee that all students master those essential learning standards and targets.

 

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Key # 6: Opportunity Team Process

Guiding Question: What does your current problem solving team process look like in your school or district? How can you improve your process to better support student learning?

Guiding Question: Who currently serves on your building CSS teams? When do you meet? Do you have established team norms?

 

 

 

Common Questions Regarding Problem Solving Team Meetings

1. How often do Problem Solving Team’s meet? Problem solving team meetings occur based on student need. They are for students that are not responding to a variety of Core and More instructional supports that a teacher or grade level team has put in place for a student. When a teacher has an elevated level of academic or behavioral concerns about a student, he/she can request a problem solving team meeting with the Student Intervention Team. This can happen multiple times in a week or on scheduled days that Problem Solving Team meetings occur.

2. Who should attend the Problem Solving Team meeting? Problem solving teams may be flexible in regard to who can attend. However, most problem solving team meetings will include: Principal, School Counselor, School Psychologist, Director of Instruction, Director of Pupil Services, Social Worker, School Liaison Officer, Requesting teacher, and other staff/specialist as deemed necessary.

3. How much time should be set aside for a Problem Solving Team meeting to occur? An initial problem-solving meeting should not exceed 30 minutes. As long as the appropriate documentation is completed prior to the meeting, ALL Problem Solving

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4. How many Problem Solving Team Meetings can occur in a year? In our schools, we believe that we will do everything we can to ensure the success of ALL students. Therefore, we do not put a cap on the number of meetings that can occur; Problem Solving Team meetings occur based on student need.

5. Once a Student Intervention Plan is place, how long should it be before the Problem Solving Team reviews the progress of the plan? After the initial Student Intervention Plan is created, the Problem Solving Team should meet every 4-6 weeks to review how the student is responding to the plan. During those meetings, additional decisions may be made on how to best support the students by adjusting the Student Intervention Plan or continuing the plan that is in place based on how the student is responding to the support the plan offers. Grade level and/or content level teams should be reviewing the data on a weekly basis.

6. What are the criteria for a student to no longer be on a Student Intervention Plan? Once a student is no longer needs academic support or no longer needs behavior interventions, the Student Intervention Plan is no longer used. The plans we put in place for our students are based on student need and if the student no longer needs to plan, we will not continue to provide the supplemental support. If the student begins to struggle again through our normal monitoring, supplemental support may be put back in place.

 

What is the Process at the Problem Solving Team Meeting?

• Principal facilitates the discuss and takes notes

• All Problem Solving Team meetings cannot go beyond 30 minutes (someone needs to be a time keeper)

• Teacher identifies strengths of the child FIRST

• Teacher identifies concerns regarding academics and/or behavior

• Each member of the team can offer information (limited to a minute or two)

• Parents (if attending) can add their strengths and concerns

• Student Intervention Plan is Formed, including what interventions and supports will be provided

• Sometimes the Student Intervention Team will ask for additional assessments to occur to gather more data on the student

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Key # 7: Creating Systems of Interventions and Supports

Schools must be prepared to provide additional time and support for students that struggle to learn. Schools must build a toolbox of effective interventions and time must be made available during the day for these interventions to occur.

Guiding Question: What is an intervention?

*If ALL kids receive it, it’s a part core support and not considered an intervention.

Must be specific to the student’s needs.

● This can be a practice, method, strategy, or program ● Cannot be “more of the same” ● Cannot be a “what program can we buy” mentality ● Medical analogy: not every student struggles for the same reasons.

Guiding Question: What interventions are you currently using for more support and specialized support? How were they selected and how do you measure their effectiveness?

 

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Creating TIME for Support

As we have learned throughout our own educational experiences, both as students and as professionals, not every student learns the same way, nor do they learn at the same speed. If we can all agree to that in our own experiences, we must collectively understand that the students in our schools are not going to learn things exactly the same way or at the same time. With that being said, we must find time to allow this process of learning to occur.

Targeted Instruction of Essential Targets + Time to Ensure ALL students meet those targets = LEARNING

In order to guarantee that ALL students meet our essential learning targets, TIME must become a variable and not a constant in our schedules. Teachers need to be flexible in their approach to TIME and must be willing to change what they are doing to ensure TIME is available to the students that need it.

Guiding Question: Is TIME in your school currently a constant or a variable? How do you find TIME for students that need additional support?

Guiding Question: Do you have a consistent time for students to receive additional support for very targeted interventions?

Guiding Question: What are some ways you can create time in your schedule to allow for targeted intervention to occur?

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Sample Schedules

Secondary Elementary (5th Grade)

Hour 1 7:53 - 8:44

Hour 2: 8:48 – 9:39

Hour 3 9:43 - 10:34

Hour 4 10:38 - 11:29

5A Lunch 11:29 - 11:56

5A Class 12:00 - 12:51

5B Class 11:33 - 12:24

5B Lunch 12:24 - 12:51

Hour 6 12:55 - 1:46

Hour 7 1:50 - 2:41

Focus Time 2:45 - 3:15

3:15 Dismiss

8:00-9:30 Literacy Block

9:35-10:05 WIN Time

10:10-10:55 Writer’s Workshop

10:55-11:10 PBIS Cool Tools Lesson

11:10-11:40 Physical Education

11:40-12:10 Lunch

12:10-12:30 Recess

12:35-1:05 Science/Social Studies

1:05-2:20 Math Block

2:25-3:10 Art

3:15 Dismiss

Guiding Question: Please look at the schedules above. How does the schedule in your building look in comparison to these examples? What challenges do you face when it comes to creating a schedule that allows you to provide the necessary time and support for students to learn at high levels?

 

 

 

 

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Key # 8: Progress Monitoring and Data Based Decision Making  

 

Guiding Questions: How do you currently monitor the progress of students in your school or district? What does your data-based decision making entail?

Guiding Question: What criteria are you using to determine whether a student still needs additional support? How does progress monitoring differ between More Support and Specialized Support?

 

Guiding Question: After reviewing the information covered throughout today, how do we communicate these elements Collaborative Systems of Support to key stakeholders across the district?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Collaborative Systems of Support Action Steps Audit

Core Support

Current Status

Priority?

Next Steps

More Support

Current Status

Priority?

Next Steps

 Specialized Support

Current Status

Priority?

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Next Steps

 Collaborative Systems of Support Action Steps Audit

Purpose for CSS

Current Status

Priority?

Next Steps

Culture of Learning and Collective Responsibility

Current Status

Priority?

Next Steps

Student Centered Collaboration

Current Status

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Priority?

Next Steps

Collaborative Systems of Support Action Steps Audit

Guaranteed Essential Instruction

Current Status

Priority?

Next Steps

Common Assessments and Universal Screening

Current Status

Priority?

Next Steps

Opportunity Team Process

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Current Status

Priority?

Next Steps

Collaborative Systems of Support Action Steps Audit

Creating Systems of Interventions and Supports

Current Status

Priority?

Next Steps

Progress Monitoring and Data-Based Decision Making

Current Status

Priority?

Next Steps

Guiding Question: What are the first three elements from this workshop that you want to take back to your district or team?

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1. _____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

2. _____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

3. _____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Start, Start, and Continue List

Desired Result:

Behaviors to Start:

1

2

3

4

Behaviors to Stop:

1

2

3

4

Behaviors to Continue:

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1

2

3

4

References and Resources

Buffum, A., Mattos, M., & Weber, C. (2012). Simplifying response to intervention:

four essential guiding principles. Bloomington, IN: Solution Tree Press.

Buffum, A., Mattos, M., Weber, C., & Hierck, T. (2015). Uniting Academic and

Behavior Interventions: Solving the Skill or Will Dilemma. Bloomington, IN:

Solution Tree Press.

DuFour, R., DuFour, R., Eaker, R., & Many, T. (2010). Learning by doing: A handbook

for professional learning communities at work (Second ed.). Bloomington, IN:

Solution Tree Press.

Hattie, J. (2009). Visible learning: A synthesis of over 800 meta-analyses relating

to achievement. New York, NY: Routledge Taylor & Francis Group.

Hierck, T., & Weber, C. (2014). RTI roadmap for school leaders: Plan and go.

Englewood, CO: The Leadership and Learning Center.

Hierck, T., & Williams, K., (2015). Starting a Movement: Building Culture From the

Inside Outin Professional Learning Communities. Bloomington, IN: Solution

Tree Press.

Mattos, M., &Buffum, A. (2015). It's about time: planning interventions and

extensions in secondary school. Bloomington, IN: Solution Tree Press.

 

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