Resource Profiles
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Schools on the Move: A Look at High School Transformation in Action
Learn about high school improvement efforts at three Boston schools — East Boston High, 2023 School on the Move Winner, and two finalists, Boston Green Academy and Fenway High.
2019 MTSS Leadership Institute Materials
Session materials from DESE’s 2019 MTSS Leadership Institute. Note: Some materials are based on the 2018 Massachusetts MTSS Blueprint which was updated in 2025.
Welcome to Kindergarten: A Planning Toolkit for Massachusetts' Schools, Families, and Communities
A toolkit to help early childhood care providers, families, and schools support the transition to Kindergarten. Available in English, Cape Verdean Creole, Haitian Creole, Portuguese, Chinese, and Vietnamese.
SchoolHouse Connection - Tools & Resources
A treasure trove of resources for school staff, youth, and families including tip sheets and training tools, webinars, “Know Your Rights” flyers, postsecondary transition support tools, and much more.
Better Together: Massachusetts Family School Partnership Fundamentals Training Module
The Better Together training module helps educators think about and do family partnership. The module is based on the Massachusetts Family, School, and Community Partnership Fundamentals. It includes research, family voice videos, practice spotlights, and a Fundamentals Reflection Process Tool Kit school and district teams can use to identify the next stage or level of their family school partnership.
Wraparound Replication Cookbook: Recipes for Creating Strong School Culture and Addressing Social Emotional Barriers to Learning
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, and includes recipes for strengthening school culture, creating strong student success teams, engaging family members as partners, building community partnerships and coalitions, and much more.
Safe and Supportive Schools Self-Reflection Tool
The revised Safe and Supportive Schools Implementation Guide & Self-Reflection Tool provides an inquiry-based year-long or multi-year process to document current practices that support students` behavioral health ranging from the whole school community to individual students that require more intensive supports.
MA DESE Conditions and Habits of Successful Partnership Guidance
MA DESE conducted research on successful partnerships, including schools with turnaround efforts supported by one or more partner. The interviews, focus groups, and research led to the conclusion that there are necessary conditions at the outset of a partnership, and habits throughout the partnership, that make the difference between successful and unsuccessful relationships. This guidance aims to provide clarity around the necessary conditions, as well as a set of tools for districts and partners.
DESE Sustainable Improvement Video Series
Listen to staff and leadership from schools tell their unique school improvement stories in this video collection, originally created to spotlight successful school turnaround practices. Topics include school culture, data practices, instructional improvement, career pathways, MTSS, family engagement, and more.
The Dual Capacity-Building Framework for Family-School Partnerships
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.