Better Together: Massachusetts Family School Partnership Fundamentals Training Module

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

• Better Together: Family School Partnership Fundamentals Online Training Module

• Massachusetts Family, School, and Community Partnership Fundamentals (self-assessment tool)

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

• Better Together: Family School Partnership Mindset Summary

• Better Together: Family School Partnership is Everyone’s Job

• Better Together: Why Family Partnership Matters - Research Nuggets & Sources

• Family School Partnership Fundamentals Reflection Process Tool Kit

Source

Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education

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.  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

• Why Wraparound Works

• School Culture and the Social Emotional Aspects of Learning

• Understanding and Supporting Student Strengths and Needs

• Focused Partnerships & Coalitions

• Parents as Full Partners

Source

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

2019 MTSS Leadership Institute Materials

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

Leading with Access & Equity 2018 Conference Materials

Welcome to the November 1, 2018 Leading with Access & Equity Conference! This annual professional development opportunity focuses on systems and strategies to meet students’ holistic needs and ensure that every child has equitable access to a world-class education. The event represents a collaboration across multiple offices and initiatives at DESE and focuses on topics including, but not limited to: creating a pipeline of diverse educators, developing multi-tiered systems of support, equitable access to high quality curriculum, bilingual education, ensuring racial and cultural equity, effectively engaging families, student mobility, approaches to addressing students’ mental health needs, integrating social emotional and academic learning, and more. Please see below for breakout session material links.

Resource Links

Access all breakout session materials.

Access the 2019 Leading with Access & Equity Conference materials.

Source

Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education

Leading with Access & Equity 2019 Conference Materials

Welcome to the October 24, 2019 Leading with Access & Equity Conference! Please see below for breakout session material links.

View the incredible performance from the Springfield High School of Science and Technology (SciTech) Band!

Resource Links

Breakout Session Materials:

• Session A2:  Building a Prenatal through Post-Secondary Family Engagement Framework:  An Opportunity for Communities to Strengthen and Align Family Engagement Practices

• Session B2:  Drafting and Implementing a Revised District Code of Conduct

• Session C2:  Reducing Anxiety and Increasing Engagement in the Classroom

• Session D2:  Six Components of Integrating Social-Emotional Learning into Daily Classroom Practice

• Session E2:  Using Psychosocial and Behavioral Data to Support Multi-Tiered Systems of Support

• Session A1: A Diagnostic Approach in an Integrated Public Preschool: A Framework for Assessing English Learners

• Session B1: Advancing Racial Equity in the Commonwealth

• Session C1:  Building a Multi-Tiered System of Support 

• Session D1:  Building a Prenatal through Post-Secondary Family Engagement Framework:  An Opportunity for  Communities to Strengthen and Align Family Engagement Practices -  One hour version

• Session E1:  Building an Alternative School 

• Session F1:  College and Career Advising and My Career and Academic Plan:  A Whole School Plan for Student Success 

• Session G1:  Culturally Responsive Teams:  4 Strategies to Strengthen Family-School Partnerships on 504 and Special Education Teams 

• Session H1: Deeper Dive into Supporting Students in Foster Care or Experiencing Homelessness

• Session I1:  Educational Equality in Opportunities and Outcomes for ELs:  Bilingual Education Programs 

• Session J1:  Embedding Social and Emotional Learning in Secondary Classrooms 

• Session K1:  Equity and Literacy: Reaching the Brilliant and the Bored - Centering the Literacy Lives of Young People of Color in Our Classrooms

• Session L1:  Hiring for Equity: Disrupting Bias in the Interview and Selection Process 

• Session M1: Impact of Today’s Poverty, Trauma, and Stress on Learning

• Session N1:  Leveraging Prep Partnerships to Diversity the Workforce 

• Session O1:  Promoting Culturally Responsive Education

• Session P1:  School and Youth-Serving Agencies Together to Create Flexible Solutions for "Potentially" Suspended Students 

• Session Q1:  Strengthening and Diversifying Existing Teacher Recruitment and Retention Programs

• Session R1:  Supporting Students in Foster Care or Experiencing Homelessness 101

• Session S1:  Supporting Transgender and Gender Nonconforming Students

• Session T1:  The CURATE (CUrriculum RAtings by TEachers) Project:  Broadening Access to High-Quality Curriculum in Massachusetts

• Session U1: The Power of Play in New Bedford Public Schools

• Session V1:  Thinking About Student and Teacher Assignment Strategically

• Session W1:  Tier II Mental Health Services:  Implementing a Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) Group Programs 

• Session X1:  What Does Equitable Access in Math and Science Classrooms Look Like? 

• Session Y1:  Where Equity and SEL Collide:  Adult Self-Care 

Access all breakout sessions.

Access general conference materials.

Access 2018 convening materials.

Source

Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education

Conditions for Learning Surveys→

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

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

• Introduction to the MTSS Visual

• Introduction to Implementation Science

• Unpacking the Leadership Drivers

• Unpacking the Competency Drivers

• Unpacking the Implementation Drivers

• Universal Design for Learning & Equitable Access

• Tiers are Not Locations

Source

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

MTSS Tiered Resource Map

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

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

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

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

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 School Climate Survey Suite→

The School Climate Survey Suite is a set of four multidimensional surveys to measure student, teacher, administrator, faculty, and family perceptions of school climate. The surveys are brief, reliable, and valid for assessing perceived school climate among students in Grades 3-12. Teams can use each survey separately or in combination to assess perceptions. Each survey includes a set of demographic questions about the participant and a number of questions related to school climate with Likert-scale response option.

Resource Links

School Climate Survey Suite

Source

OSEP Technical Assistance Center on Positive Behavioral Interventions and Supports, University of Oregon

Family Guides to the Standards→

Family-friendly guides to learning standards for each grade level, designed to structure and strengthen school-family partnerships.

Resource Links

Family Guides to the Standards

Source

Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education Curriculum & Instruction

Parent and Educator Guide to School Climate Resources

Produced jointly by the Department’s Office of Elementary and Secondary Education (OESE) and Office for Special Education and Rehabilitative Services (OSERS), this guide provides best practices and resources that parents and educators can utilize as they work to achieve a positive school climate, lower disciplinary issues, and enhance school safety.

Resource Links

Parent and Educator Guide to School Climate Resources

Source

United States Department of Education Office of Elementary and Secondary Education

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.

Resource Links

A Dual Capacity-Building Framework for Family-School Partnerships

Source

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

Academic Parent Teacher Teams (APTT) Model

Learn how to shift from traditional parent-teacher open house and curriculum nights to teacher-facilitated sessions designed to help parents support their child's academic success:  Academic Parent-Teacher Teams (APTT).

Resource Links

• Lynn APTT Initiative - Mass Wraparound Replication Cookbook

• The Power of Academic Parent-Teacher Teams - Edutopia

Sources

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