This guide covers important guiding principles and overarching tips as well as specific conversation starters teachers can use.

CreativeGround is a project of the New England Foundation for the Arts (NEFA.) It provides a dynamic regional directory of New England's creative people and places. Search by type of organization, activity, or state to find potential creative partners; for example, organizations that support curriculum development, summer learning, etc.

This short, thoughtful resource provides a great reminder of the role arts can play in your school community. Each of the 10 dimensions includes examples of practices you might see or feel.

The guide addresses a critical gap in traditional school models: the tendency to misidentify language acquisition as a learning disability and over-refer MLs for special education services. It advocates for a culturally and linguistically-aligned lens to ensure that multilingual learners receive support that respects their primary language and cultural background.

This helpful tool illustrates how educators can crosswalk UDL 3.0 guidelines to research-backed practices for supporting multilingual learners. it’s not an exhaustive look but is a great jumping off point which teachers can customize for their students and content area.

This great round up of resources compiled by Katie Novak, a UDL leader in Massachusetts and beyond, covers a huge amount of territory: UDL basics and video explainers, common misconceptions, a UDL implementation rubric, a UDL assessment flowchart, what to look for to evaluate UDL implementation in classrooms, recommended books and much more.

This resource focuses on implementing early warning systems, with a focus on the “ABCs” (absenteeism, behavior referrals, and course failure) which are highly predictive indicators for dropping out. Includes staffing, scheduling, and other resource shift examples, and highlights “do now” and “build toward” practices.

This guide focuses on ways high schools can provide additional instructional time and targeted attention for students who need more intensive support. It focuses on two of four primary models — flex blocks and “double dose” courses — with concrete examples of scheduling, staffing, and resource allocation strategies for the two featured approaches. The guide also provides links to resources on two other promising practices — acceleration academies and high dosage tutoring.

This robust new teacher support resource collection includes a Growing Teachers Playbook with five models for sheltering and developing rookie teachers, a video featuring teachers talking about their first year as a teacher, a tool to assess if your school has established the conditions for growing great teachers, case studies, and much more.

This guidebook helps elementary school leaders and teams create a schedule that supports the school’s values and priorities. It focuses on 4 key decision points and provides a variety of scheduling examples.

This practical resource compares the costs of different coaching models and options for shifting and prioritizing coaching investments.

This ERS resource helps leaders navigate the complex school funding landscape and identify strategic, targeted budget reductions while addressing legacy cost structures that make take more time to address.

Youth MOVE is a youth-driven, chapter membership organization focused on improving systems and services that support positive growth and development. This includes training and professional development for mental health workers, with a focus on strengthening youth voice, peer support, and leadership in systems of care. Other tools and resources are designed specifically for young people, to use themselves or in their role as a peer supporter or advocate.

These tools provide an orientation to different mental health and social emotional/behavioral assessment screeners schools can use to identify students who may need targeted or intensive support. The SHAPE library is free to use but requires users to register for an account.

Tools to help educator preparation and district partnerships develop systems for placing and supporting student teachers with the goal of improving student outcomes and building a pipeline from student teaching to employment.

A quick reference guide focused on ensuring instruction aligns across classrooms and tiers in ways that maximize student learning.

This collection of short, user-friendly tip sheets and tools help schools think about the infrastructure and supports they need for a strong multi-tiered system of support.

OpenSciEd is a Next Generation Science standards-aligned curriculum for elementary, middle, and high school students and is designed for how students learn science best. From 2018 to 2025, Massachusetts contributed to the development of these open-source K–12 science instructional materials through collaboration on scope and sequence, design specifications, and the instructional model of the curricular materials. The curriculum is available to download for free from the OpenSciEd website.

In 2023, MA DESE released an updated Comprehensive Health and Physical Education (CHPE) Curriculum Framework that provides standards and guidance for effective CHPE programs. This guide is intended to provide districts with an overview of how available CHPE curricula align with the CHPE Framework.

Access session materials from the February 2020 MTSS Planning Institute opportunity, developed as a follow-up to the September 2019 MTSS Leadership Institute based on educator requests for additional learning opportunities and facilitated planning time.

Note: The Massachusetts MTSS Blueprint was updated in 2025. Many tools from the 2020 institute are aligned to older 2018 version of the Blueprint.