Better Together: Massachusetts Family School Partnership Fundamentals Training Module

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Creating strong partnerships with families isn’t just a good thing to do. It’s a vital strategy for helping students succeed - as impactful as having a strong principal and strong instruction.

The Better Together online training module developed by MA DESE helps educators think about and do family partnership. You will learn about the Massachusetts Family, School, and Community Partnership Fundamentals, hear from family members, and explore strong family partnership practices.

The module also provides a Fundamentals Reflection Process Tool Kit which school and district teams can use to identify the next stage or level of family school partnership in the district.

Resources

Here are a few of the tools you’ll find in the training module:

Source

Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education

Wraparound Replication Cookbook: Recipes for Creating Strong School Culture and Addressing Social Emotional Barriers to Learning

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This cookbook is the result of the Massachusetts Wraparound Zone Initiative - an initiative aimed at helping schools tackle both academic and non-academic barriers to student learning.  A rigorous evaluation of the Massachusetts Wraparound Zone Initiative (5 districts, 30 schools) conducted by the American Institutes of Research found that wraparound strategies made a significant contribution to improved student outcomes, particularly those related to student behavior, student support, and family engagement. This handbook represents the best thinking and strategy "recipes" on how to support the social emotional aspects of learning:

  • Addressing school culture and the social emotional aspects of learning

  • Rethinking systems for holistically identifying and addressing student academic and social emotional needs

  • Creating focused partnerships and coalitions

  • Treating parents as full partners

  • Big district and state takeaways

  • How to get started and how to manage priorities coherently

  • Profiles of six districts and the strategies they used

  • Links to resources, tools, templates and more

Resource Links

Wraparound Zone Cookbook

Individual Recipes

  1. Doing a Welcoming School Walkthrough

  2. Creating a School Culture Team

  3. Rethinking Recess

  4. Students as Culture Builders

  5. Assessing Student Strengths & Needs

  6. Student Success Teams (Student Support Teams, Child Study Teams, Whole Child Support Teams)

  7. Mobilizing around a Tiered System of Supports Framework

  8. Tracking Student Support

  9. Mapping Your Resources

  10. Creating Deep Wraparound Partnerships

  11. Managing Partnership Development at Your School

  12. Organizing as a Coalition of Partners

  13. Academic Parent Teacher Teams

  14. Parent House Parties | Academic Support Parties

  15. Rethinking Parent Academies and Cafes: Pooling Community Resources

Wraparound Video Series - hear Mass educators, students, staff, parents and partners highlight their strategies and the impact

Source

Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education and School & Main Institute

Safe and Supportive Schools Self-Reflection Tool

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Multi-Tiered System of Support Leadership Institute Poster.

Welcome to the revised Safe and Supportive Schools Implementation Guide & Self-Reflection Tool. The goal of the self-reflection Tool is to catalyze a reflective and creative inquiry-based, year-long or multi-year process to create and enhance a school`s work to become more safe and supportive for the entire school community (including but not limited to: students, staff, families, and community partners). This tool is intended to assist with documenting current practices that support students` behavioral health ranging from the whole school community to individual students that require more intensive supports. It also examines the role of various school professionals and staff in providing these supports. This process enables schools to identify their most pressing local priorities and create action plans that can be incorporated into School Improvement Plans to address these priorities. It may be helpful to revisit your school`s responses to this tool on a regular (e.g., quarterly, annual) basis to review progress and continually work towards full implementation on a range of practices that address and remove the barriers to learning.

Resources

Safe and Supportive Schools Self-Reflection Tool

Source

Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education

2019 MTSS Leadership Institute Materials

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Multi-Tiered System of Support Leadership Institute Poster.

Welcome to the September 26 & 27th MTSS Leadership Institute. This professional development opportunity focused on giving district teams the opportunity to learn about the new MTSS blueprint and discuss how to lead within an MTSS framework. Please see below for breakout session material links.

Resource Links

Access all breakout sessions.

Access the keynote speaker and breakout sessions.

Access the MTSS Blueprint.

Source

Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education

 

Conditions for Learning Surveys→

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Sample question from Conditions for Learning Survey.

The Conditions for Learning surveys (CFL) were developed collaboratively and field-tested by districts and Massachusetts Department of Elementary & Secondary Education staff involved in the Urban Leaders Network for School Climate & Student Support. The CFL metric and survey tools focus on the holistic “conditions” (including social emotional learning) students need in order to learn in a school setting. The CFL contains surveys around the following domains: school climate, academic engagement, social emotional learning, parent & family engagement, and systems of student support, with surveys for students, staff, and families. Schools and districts are welcome to utilize these survey tools.

Resource Links

Conditions for Learning Surveys

Source

Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education with School & Main Institute

 

MTSS Introduction Videos and Facilitation Guide

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Table of contents from MTSS Video Facilitation Guide.

This resource contains seven videos that introduce the viewer to the key drivers, foundational frameworks, and focus of the MTSS Blueprint. The videos are embedded in the MTSS Mobilization Guide (see pages 10-17 for Video Facilitation Guide) to support learning and team collaboration.

Resource Links

MTSS Videos

Source

Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education with Novak Educational Consulting and Rodriguez Educational Consulting Agency

 

MTSS Tiered Resource Map

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Picture of resource map template.

This resource mapping template will help you inventory the Curriculum & Instruction/ Interventions, Assessments, and Data-Based Decision practices you are currently using (or have the goal of using) at each tier. Please note that this template should not be used in place of the MTSS Self-Assessment, which helps teams unpack where they have strengths and needs relative to the systems needed to effectively implement MTSS. Map away!

Resource Link

MTSS Tiered Resource Map (word document)

Source

Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education with Novak Educational Consulting and Rodriguez Educational Consulting Agency

 

MTSS Diagnostic

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First page of MTSS DIAGNOSTIC Assessment.

The MTSS Diagnostic assessment is intended to be used to determine current understanding of the research and theory behind the design and delivery of effective multi-tiered systems of support (MTSS). This assessment can be used by individuals or teams to determine prior knowledge, uncover variability, and introduce learners to the MTSS Blueprint.

Resource Link

MTSS Diagnostic

Source

Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education with Novak Educational Consulting and Rodriguez Educational Consulting Agency

 

MTSS Self-Assessment

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Cover page of MTSS Self-Assessment.

The MTSS Self-Assessment is designed to help district teams assess the systems and structures that they have (or do not have) in place to foster an effective multi-tiered system of support (MTSS). The results of the self-assessment will help illuminate current gaps and strengths and can be used for prioritization and planning purposes. This tool was designed to give a district-level perspective and should be used by a team consisting of a range of stakeholders (i.e., representation from different departments, roles, etc.). The self-assessment is aligned to the 2018 MTSS Blueprint redesign.

Resource Link

MTSS Self-Assessment

Source

Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education with Novak Educational Consulting and Rodriguez Educational Consulting Agency.

 

MTSS Mobilization Guide

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Cover page for MTSS Mobilization Guide.

All students are capable of success. A Multi-Tiered Systems of Support (MTSS) is a framework for how school districts can build the necessary systems to ensure that each and every student receives a high quality educational experience. In order to support implementation of the MTSS Blueprint, the Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education welcomes educators and leaders to use MTSS Mobilization Guide to help understand the most current research on MTSS and how to get started building a system that will address the needs of all students.

Resource Links

MTSS Mobilization Guide

Source

Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education with Novak Educational Consulting and Rodriguez Educational Consulting Agency

 

MTSS Blueprint

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MTSS Blueprint Imagine.

All students are capable of success. A Multi-Tiered System of Support (MTSS) is a framework for how school districts can build the necessary systems to ensure that each and every student receives a high quality educational experience. It is designed to support schools with proactively identifying and addressing the strengths and needs of all students by optimizing data-driven decision-making, progress monitoring, and the use of evidence-based supports and strategies with increasing intensity to sustain student growth. In 2018, Massachusetts updated its MTSS Blueprint to reflect the most current research and enhance the user experience. The current blueprint more explicitly focuses on equitable access and universal design for learning (UDL) and fully integrates social emotional, behavioral, and academic learning.

Resource Links

MTSS Blueprint

Source

Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education with Novak Educational Consulting and Rodriguez Educational Consulting Agency

 

The Dual Capacity-Building Framework for Family-School Partnerships

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Based in existing research and best-practices, this guide provides a compass for the development of family engagement strategies, policies, and programs using a "dual capacity" approach that recognizes the roles and needs of both partners - parents and staff. For those doing family engagement work, this is one of the main go-to frameworks for thinking about this work.

Resource Links

A Dual Capacity-Building Framework for Family-School Partnerships

Source

SEDL:  Advancing Research Improving Education, U.S. Department of Education