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

Safe and Supportive Schools Self-Reflection Tool

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

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.

Assessing Your Curriculum Landscape→

A “quick reference guide” to evaluating systems and structures supporting curriculum at the school or district level.

Resource Links

Assessing Your Curriculum Landscape

Source

Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education Curriculum & Instruction