DESE Instructional Leadership Institute - August 2023

In August 2023, DESE hosted the first ever summer Instructional Leadership Institute. District teams gathered from across Massachusetts to engage in an interactive, learning-centered approach to building the effectiveness of instructional leadership teams towards advancing innovative, high quality instructional practices and equitable student outcomes.

This opportunity was developed in response to requests from school and district leaders for more support with:   

1. deeply examining what relevant, real-world, and interactive grade-level work looks and sounds like within the Massachusetts ELA and Mathematics Curriculum Frameworks,

2. deepening their understanding of how to equitably use high-quality instructional materials to engage all learners at the rigor of the standards, and

3. helping to build the necessary equity-centered routines and rituals for instructional leadership teams to effectively support high-quality instruction across all classroom and drive professional learning.

The Institute materials are now available to any school or district.

Resources

Instructional Leadership Institute materials

Source

Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education and TNTP

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

Building Systems to Support the Whole Child Amid COVID-19

DESE offered a webinar, hosted by the Rennie Center for Education Research & Policy and the Center for Optimized Student Support at Boston College, focused on systems to remotely identify and organize a response to students’ strengths and needs in this moment of crisis. In particular, the webinar focused on successfully closing out the academic year while simultaneously beginning to plan for supporting students through the summer and into the fall. District and school presenters included Somerville Public Schools and the Parker Elementary School in New Bedford.

Resources

Presentation Slides

Source

Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education, Rennie Center for Education Research & Policy, Center for Optimized Student Support at Boston College

2020 MTSS Planning Institute Materials

Welcome to the February 2020 MTSS Planning Institute. This opportunity was developed in response to educator feedback from September’s MTSS Leadership Institute, requesting additional guidance, professional development, tools, resources, and facilitated planning time to help them design, implement, and lead cohesive tiered systems of support.

Resource Links

Access all conference materials.

Breakout Sessions Day 1: MTSS Overview Session

• Getting Started with MTSS

• Moving Beyond MTSS Basics

• Moving from MTSS Theory to Practice

Breakout Sessions Day 1: MTSS Implementation Modules

• Elementary Scheduling

• Secondary Scheduling

• Resource Allocation

• Improving Professional Learning and Coaching

• Selecting High Quality Curricular and Intervention Materials: ELA

• Selecting High Quality Curricular and Intervention Materials: Math

• Selecting High Quality Curricular and Intervention Materials: SEL

• Staffing

Breakout Sessions Day 2: Student Opportunity Act Breakouts

• Researched-based early literacy programs and professional development

• Early college programs serving all students

• Community partnerships for in-school enrichment and wraparound services

• Acceleration Academies to support skill development and accelerate advanced learners

• Dropout prevention and recovery programs

• Parent-teacher home visiting programs

• Inclusion/co-teaching for students with disabilities and English learners

• Recruitment and retention strategies to diversity the educator and administrator workforce

• Increased staff and services to support holistic student needs

• OPTIC (Online Platform for Teaching and Informed Calibration): Calibration Training to Support Effective Instruction & High Quality Feedback Using a Dynamic Professional Learning Platform

Breakout Sessions Day 2: Team Planning Time

• MTSS Self-Assessment

• Calibrating with your Team

• Pause and Reflect on Existing Plans Protocol

Source

Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education

Supporting the SEL and Mental Health Needs of Students and Educators in the COVID-19 Era

DESE partnered with Education Development Center (EDC), Transforming Education, and Walker Cares to offer an optional 90-minute webinar about how districts can address the mental health needs of students and support their social and emotional learning (SEL) needs during the COVID-19 school closures. The partners followed up with a webinar focused on district-systems to support student and educator mental health during COVID-19. In addition to the webinars, the partners organized a set of resources, ideas, and supports for schools and districts.

Access All Resources

Webinars:

Supporting Students’ SEL and Mental Health Needs During COVID-19: Webinar Slides

• Webinar slides with speaker notes

• Watch the webinar recording

Establishing District-Wide Systems to Support the Mental Health Needs of Students and Educators during COVID-19

• Webinar recording on 4/17/20

• Webinar recording on 4/24/20

Massachusetts Resources:

• Mental Health and Wellbeing: Resources from School Districts across the Commonwealth

• Network of Care Massachusetts: Finding Behavioral Health Services

National COVID-19 School Resources:

• Information and Resources for Schools and School Personnel: US Department of Education: COVID-19 (“Coronavirus”)

• Health Crisis Resources: National Association of School Psychologists (NASP)

• COVID-19 Resources: National Center for School Mental Health (NCSMH)

• Talking to kids about Coronavirus: Child Mind Institute

• Creating a PBIS Behavior Teaching Matrix for Remote Instruction: Center on Positive Behavioral Interventions (PBIS)

• 4 Resources to Support Students During the Pandemic through PBIS

• Behavioral Health Care Resources COVID-19: Resources from behavioral health care practitioners across the country

• The Training and Access Project (TAP) is an initiative within Boston Children’s Hospital Neighborhood Partnerships (BCHNP) that offers free online training modules related to addressing students’ social, emotional, behavioral, and mental health needs.

Crisis Support Resources:

• Samaritans: 1-877-870-4673 | https://samaritanshope.org/

• Crisis Text Line – Text “HOME” to 741741

• National Suicide Prevention Lifeline: 1-800-273-8255 | https://suicidepreventionlifeline.org/

• National Sexual Assault Hotline": 1-800-656-4673 | https://www.rainn.org/

• National Domestic Violence Hotline: 1-800-799-7233 | https://www.thehotline.org/

• The Trevor Project: 1-866-488-7386 | https://www.thetrevorproject.org/

• Trans Lifeline: 1-877-565-8860 | https://www.translifeline.org/

Telehealth Resources:

• OCR Issues Bulletin on Civil Rights Laws and HIPAA Flexibilities That Apply During the COVID-19 Emergency

• FERPA and the Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19)

• HIPAA, Civil Rights, and COVID-19 

Source

Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education, Education Development Center (EDC), Transforming Education, and Walker Cares

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

Training: Understanding Trauma and the Impact on Learning

This free online training for educators is part of the Clough Foundation Training and Access Project (TAP) Online series, which offers free courses on social-emotional learning and behavioral health in schools. TAP is a part of the Boston Children’s Hospital Neighborhood Partnerships Program (BCHNP). 

Resource Links

TAP Online Training: Understanding Trauma and the Impact on Learning Part 1: Definitions and Effects on the Brain

Source

Open Pediatrics

Massachusetts Educator Evaluation Training Materials and Modules

Training materials to support use of the Massachusetts educator evaluation framework. Includes facilitator tools, videos, handouts and slides needed to provide educator training workshops.

Resource Link

• Massachusetts Educator Evaluation Training Materials

Source

Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education