Building an Effective Teacher Support Team

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Building an Effective Teacher Support Team

• MIS Summer Data Conference
• July 31 August 4, 2006

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Thats ME!
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State Board Policy IEI Adopted January 21,
2005 MDE shall require an instructional model
designed to meet the needs of every student. The
model shall consist of three tiers of
instruction. Tier I Quality classroom
instruction based on MS Curriculum
Frameworks Tier II Focused supplemental
instruction Tier III Intensive interventions
specifically designed to meet the individual
needs of students Teachers should use progress
monitoring information to (a) determine if
students are making adequate progress, (b)
identify students as soon as they begin to fall
behind, and (c) modify instruction early enough
to ensure each and every student gains essential
skills. Monitoring of student progress is an
ongoing process that may be measured through
informal classroom assessment, benchmark
assessment instruments and large-scale
assessments. If strategies at Tiers I II are
unsuccessful, students must be referred to the
Teacher Support Team. The TST is the
problem-solving unit responsible for
interventions developed at Tier III. Each school
must have a Teacher Support Team (TST)
implemented in accordance with the process
developed by the Mississippi Department of
Education. The chairperson of the TST shall be
the school principal as the schools
instructional leader or the principals designee.
The designee may not be an individual whose
primary responsibility is special education.
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• Interventions will be
• designed to address the deficit areas
• research based
• implemented as designed by the TST
• supported by data regarding the effectiveness of
  interventions.
• In addition to failure to make adequate progress
  following Tiers I II, students will be referred
  to the TST for interventions as specified in
  guidelines developed by MDE if any of the
  following events occur
• A. Grades 1-3 A student has failed one (1)
  grade
• B. Grades 4-12 A student has failed two (2)
  grades, OR
• C. A student failed either of the preceding two
  grades and has been suspended or expelled for
  more than twenty (20) days in the current school
  year.
• Referrals to the teacher Support Team must be
  made within the first twenty (20) school days of
  a school year if the student failed the preceding
  year resulting in a referral as stated above.

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Why do we need a State Board Policy?

• 108 of 152 districts in the state show
  disproportionality in the number of students
  identified with Specific Learning Disability
  (SLD)
• Previous policy mandated by the state was a
  wait-to-fail model
• State wide inconsistencies exist in efforts to
  help students who are falling behind their peer
  groups academically
• Schools within the same district have different
  models of student support
• Creates a record of instructional interventions
  to track student progress
• Links assessment and instruction to interventions
• Mississippis dropout rate exceeds 40

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What Are Benefits of Successful Teacher Support
Teams?

• Higher graduation rates
• Better test scores
• Fewer student retentions
• Improved attendance for teachers and students
• Lower teacher turnover rate

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What Are Benefits of Successful Teacher Support
Teams?

• Improved discipline
• Increased awareness of specific professional
  development needs
• Increased parent involvement
• Successful inclusion programs

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Lets look at the statistics!

• Elementary School One (K-3)

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Lets look at the statistics!

• Elementary School Two (K-3)

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Lets look at the statistics!

• Middle School One
• (6-8)

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What is the Three-Tier Model ?

• A systematic approach for providing student
  interventions
• Identifies struggling students BEFORE they fall
  behind
• Provides struggling students with support
  throughout the educational process

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What is an intervention?

• Any action that differs from the current
  instruction in the students regular academic
  program

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Interventions are NOT

• Preferential seating
• Shortened assignments
• Parent contacts
• Classroom observations
• Suspension
• Doing MORE of the same / general classroom
  assignments
• Retention
• Peer-tutoring

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Overview of the three tiers
The model has three levels or tiers of
instruction

• Tier I Effective Classroom Instruction
• Tier II Supplemental Instruction (teacher)
• Tier III Intensive Instructional
  Intervention (team)

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Students served by the three tier model
Intensive Instructional Interventions
Approximately 5-10
III
Supplemental Instruction
Approximately20-30
II
Effective Classroom Instruction
All Students
I
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What is the Teacher Support Team?

• A group of education professionals that function
  as Tier III of the Three Tier Instructional
  Model required of all schools.
• A group that analyzes student referral data and
  prescribes appropriate behavioral or
  instructional interventions to help students be
  successful in regular academic classrooms.

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Movement through the three tiers
Tier I
Students requiring more than core classroom
instruction
Successful interventions
Tier II
Students requiring more intensive instruction are
referred to the Teacher Support Team and begin
Tier III intervention(s)
Tier III
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Think in Terms of a Medical Emergency
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The Five Stages of the Teacher Support Team
Process
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Stage I Request for Assistance

• Student referrals may be reviewed by the TST
  when
• Tier I and Tier II Interventions fail to resolve
  a problem.
• Multiple grade level retentions meet Policy IEI
  requirements for referral.
• Referral request is made by a teacher or other
  stakeholder and delivered to an assigned member
  of the TST team who schedules the team agendas.

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Who can request a student be referred to the TST?

• The students teacher
• Another teacher
• A parent
• The student
• An other interested party

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How is a request to the TST made?

• A request to the TST is made by completing
  form TST-1. This form is available on the web at
  http//www.mde.k12.ms.us/acad/id/curriculum/tst/Re
  quest.doc
• A representative from the TST should sign and
  date the form.

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Stage II Consultation

• An informal analysis is made regarding what
  strategies have been utilized and determining the
  level of support services that may be necessary.

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What happens next?

• The teacher begins to complete the student data
  sheet.
• A teacher interview may be conducted.
• A date is established for the first TST meeting.

Remember the clock is ticking. The TST must meet
within the next two weeks.
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What kinds of data might be needed?

• Attendance data (absences, tardies)
• Test data (State level, classroom level)
• Class performance data (other assignments)
• Behavioral data (office referrals, frequency of
  behaviors, time of day)
• Health data (allergies, medications)
• Any recent significant changes?

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Stage III Problem Identification

• Clarify the concern
• Review available data from a variety of sources
• Attendance
• Grades
• Testing Information
• Strategies used to date and evaluation of results
• Develop baseline data format
• Define the issue specifically and not generically

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The team must develop a clear statement of the
problem.

• Jennifer just wont do her work.
• Mary cant read.
• Eleanor has difficulty in making subjects and
  verbs agree when she is talking and/or writing.

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The Robins Nest There was a robins nest
outside our kitchen window. The nest was in a
tall bush. The mother robin sat in the nest all
day long. One day when I was watching, the
mother bird flew away. I saw the eggs she was
sitting on. There were four blue eggs.
sc
sc
sc
sc
25 wpm
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The Robins Nest There was a robins nest
outside our kitchen window. The nest was in a
tall bush. The mother robin sat in the nest all
day long. One day when I was watching, the
mother bird flew away. I saw the eggs she was
sitting on. There were four blue eggs.
25 wpm
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What can data tell us?

• Although the scores were the same these two
  students have different problems.
• Student One would benefit from practice with oral
  reading fluency.
• Student Two would benefit from work with decoding
  unfamiliar words.

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Stage IV Development of the Intervention

• A detailed plan of intervention is developed and
  documented.
• Resources necessary for implementation of the
  intervention are identified and secured.
• A timeline for the intervention is established.
• Future meeting dates are scheduled.

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What should the intervention statement tell us?

• What specific remedial techniques will be
  employed?
• What resources are needed?
• Who will do what and when?
• What do baseline data and progress data indicate?
  

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Interventions should be specific and measurable.

• Alexander will spend thirty minutes three days
  each week working with the subtraction portion of
  the Academy of Mathematics software program. In
  two weeks, Matthew should be able to correctly
  answer 8 out of 10 two-digit subtraction problems
  without regrouping correctly.

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Stage V Evaluate the Intervention

• The TST meets at a predetermined time to analyze
  student progress monitoring data.
• The TST determines if and to what degree the
  intervention is successful.
• The TST modifies the intervention if necessary to
  optimize student achievement.
• The TST determines whether or not the
  intervention has been successful.

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Alexanders Progress
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We may also want to compare a students
performance to other students.
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Another comparison
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TST Timeline for Interventions

• Develop and begin implementation within two weeks
  of referral to TST
• TST and students teacher must conduct a
  documented review within eight weeks of
  implementation
• Final review is due at the end of sixteen weeks
  of implementation of intervention

18 weeks TOTAL
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Who is on the team?

• Staffing is determined by the needs of the
  students.
• A minimum of 3 professionals and a maximum of 7
  are recommended.
• The instructional leader of the school should
  head the team.
• The team should have core members and
  floating/alternate members.

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Who is on the team?

• CORE TEAM
• Principal as instructional leader
• and
• Instructional specialist and/or
• Counselor
• and/or
• Respected classroom teacher

• ADDITIONAL MEMBERS
• Referring teacher
• and
• Behavioral specialist / School psychologist
• and/or
• Social worker
• and/or
• Other teachers or educational stakeholders (who
  have expertise and/or knowledge of the student)
• and/or
• Nurse

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Team members must be

• Committed to the schools instructional goals
• Willing to accept responsibility of at-risk
  students progress
• Knowledgeable of multiple teaching strategies
• A respected staff member who is considered
  approachable by other staff
• Experienced in interpreting data
• Organized and capable of mapping a course of
  improvement
• Confidential concerning student data and outcomes
  discussed in the team setting

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The team functions to

• Clarify students area of difficulty in specific
  and measurable terms
• Collect and analyze data concerning deficiency
• Design or redefine intervention processes that
  address problem areas
• Provide immediate and accessible support to
  referring teacher
• Assign support personnel to observe the fidelity
  of the selected intervention

Collaborative Problem-Solving
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Suggested Team Organization
RECORD KEEPER
TIME KEEPER
DATA MANAGER
CASE MANAGER
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Job Descriptions

• Chair team leader (principal or designee)
• Leads the determination of needs
• Coordinates the deliberation of intervention
• Brings team to consensus on the identification of
  an intervention
• Delegates duties to team members

• Manager Manages gatekeeper function
• Develops timeframes and schedules for meetings
• Liaison with referring teachers, parents, etc.
• Responsible for training new members
• Ensures fidelity in intervention processes

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Job Descriptions

• Record Keeper responsible for scripting and
  documenting meetings. This person will document
  all ideas generated, keep a brief synopsis of
  discussion, and complete the TST accountability
  form and intervention plan forms.
• Time Keeper responsible for keeping the group
  on task and seeing that all meetings are held
  within the allotted amount of time.
• Data Manager gathers information, organizes the
  presentation of data, manages reports on
  interventions, plots student progress
• Case Manager responsible for interviewing
  referring individuals, assembling information on
  assigned students, presenting the case to the
  team, and monitoring progress of the intervention

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Who receives interventions prescribed by the
teacher support team?

• Students will be populated on the screen in
  August according to the following criteria
• Grades 1-3 A student has failed one grade (the
  previous school year)
• Grades 4-12 A student has failed two grades (the
  previous school year plus one other year prior)
• A student failed either of the preceding two
  grades and has been suspended or expelled for
  more than twenty days in the current school year.
• Students who do not make adequate progress
  following Tiers I II should be referred to TST
  and can be pulled into the screens by the
  district users

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Criteria 1 and 2 Students

• For the first two criteria
• Grades 1-3 A student has failed one grade
• Grades 4-12 A student has failed two grades
• MSIS will pull from Month 9 of the previous
  school year any student who has met the criteria
  above IF their SPED Indicator is set to N (new
  exception to this rule is the Language Speech
  ONLY students are populated or pulled into the
  screen if they met the criteria)
• MSIS will populate these students at the
  beginning of each school year
• Users have 20 school days from the beginning of
  school to refer these students to TST for
  intervention

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Criteria 3 Students

• For the third criteria
• A student failed either of the two preceding
  grades and has been suspended or expelled for
  more than twenty days in the current school year.
• MSIS will run a procedure each weekend to check
  for any suspensions or expulsions to populate
  these students to the screen
• Users should check at the beginning of each week
  for any of these students
• Wont see any of these students before the 20th
  day school is in session (theoretically)

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Intervention Screen Select District/School

• Launch MSIS
• Go to Modules -gt Students-gt Student Intervention
  Screen
• Select School

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Intervention Screen Select Students
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Select Students Tab Intervention Students

• For Intervention Students
• MSIS will populate any students that meet one of
  the three criteria on the Intervention Screen
• MSIS will display the MSIS ID, Name, SSN, DOB,
  Grade Level, and Criteria
• A check-mark will appear in the column under the
  Intervention criteria the student has met
• Highlight the student for whom you wish to enter
  data

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InterventionTab
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Intervention Tab
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Intervention Tab
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Intervention NOTE

• Intervention will follow a student if they move
  from district to district or school to school
• EX If a student in District A fails grade 3 at
  the end of the school year, then the student
  moves to District B over the summer, the student
  will show up on District Bs Intervention screen

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Intervention NOTE

• The number of days for suspension or expulsion
  will also follow the student from district to
  district and school to school within that school
  year
• EX A student with 8 days of suspension moves
  from District A to District B - District B
  suspends the student for 12 days, the student now
  has a cumulative total of 20 suspended days and
  will populate on District Bs Intervention screen

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Intervention Tab Entering Data

• Users will enter
• Referred to TST Date enter the date you
  referred the student to TST -- limited to dates
  within the current school year
• TST Decision Date enter the date the TST made a
  decision on the success of the Intervention
  cant be before the Referral to TST Date
• Intervention Success? users have three choices
• Yes Student remains in Regular ED
• Yes Student is referred to Child Study
• No

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Intervention Tab Entering Data

• Intervention Success? NOTE
• Yes Student remains in Regular ED - - user
  should select this choice if students
  intervention was a success and the student will
  remain in regular education user will NOT enter
  any further data for the student on the
  Intervention screen
• Yes Student is referred to Child Study - user
  should select this choice if the students
  intervention was a success but the student is
  still going to be referred to LSC (maybe the
  parent requested referral to the LSC, etc.)
• No - user selects this choice if the intervention
  was not a success, the student will now be
  referred to LSC (Local Survey Committee)

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Intervention Tab Student Referred to LSC

• When you select for Intervention Success? either
  Yes Student is referred to Child Study OR
  No
• This will activate the LSC Referral Date data
  field when you enter this date (cant be before
  the TST Decision Date), you would want to notify
  your District SPED Office that you are referring
  a student to them for testing
• The District SPED role will then enter the next
  five data elements if needed

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Intervention Tab Student Referred to LSC

• The following three data fields have a Yes or No
  answer in the drop down box everyone defaults
  to null
• Parent Permission to Test user selects yes if
  the parent has given permission to test, select
  no if the parent declines permission
• Eligibility Decision user selects Yes if the
  student has tested eligible or No if the student
  did not test eligible to be served
• Parent Permission to Serve user selects yes if
  the parent has given permission for the student
  to be served or No if the parent declines
  permission
• A Yes in ALL THREE data fields is required to
  allow access to the next two data fields
  (Eligibility and IEP Dates)

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Intervention Tab Student Referred to LSC

• After the user enters the Eligibility Date (cant
  be before the LSC Referral Date) and IEP Date
  (cant be before the Eligibility Date) AND a MSD
  (Monthly Student Data) or DSD (Daily Student
  Data) file is submitted to MSIS to update the
  students SPED indicator to Y, these two dates
  will be populated on the Student Update screen
• NOTE Once the student is indicated as being
  served by SPED, MSIS will begin checking the DSD
  and MSD files to make sure that you set the SPED
  Indicator to Y

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Select Students Tab Referral Students

• For Referral Students (students that the users
  will pull into the screen IF Tier I and II were
  unsuccessful)
• Select the radio button next to Referral Students
• This clears the screen and will put you in Query
  Mode
• Enter the MSIS ID for the student that you want
  to refer to Intervention or Child Study
• Click the query button (flashlight) so that MSIS
  will find the student and pull them into the
  screen

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Intervention Tab Referral Students

• Data field Type of Referral will become active
  for the Referral Students only
• User may select Intervention OR Child Study
• If user selects Intervention, the next three data
  elements become active to allow data entry by
  regular ed

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Intervention Tab Referral Students

• If Child Study is selected, LSC Referral Date
  becomes active to allow data entry
• Note ALL Intervention data element fields are
  made inactive the user can NOT enter any
  Intervention Data if Child Study is selected as
  the referral
• User follows same rules as before entering the
  remaining data elements

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Referral Student

• Once data is entered for a Referral student on
  the Intervention tab, the Referral student will
  now show up when the Intervention radio button is
  selected
• Users will not be able to query for the student
  by selecting the Referral radio button
• MSIS will place a check under the appropriate
  referral column to indicate the selection that
  was made previously as to why the student was
  referred

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Contacts

• Robin Miles
• Office of Reading, Early Childhood
  rmiles_at_mde.k12.ms.us
• Phone [phone]
• Intervention Screen Information
• Ellen Burnham
• http//www.mde.k12.ms.us/special_education/msis.h
  tml
• Phone [phone]
• Trecina Green
• Office of Curriculum and Instruction
• tgreen_at_mde.k12.ms.us
• Phone [phone]

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Basic Components of Interventions

• A clear statement of the problem
• A problem analysis
  that uses
  data to confirm the initial concern
• Development of a specific research-based
  intervention designed from the problem analysis
• Baseline data

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MSIS Screen

• May not have capturedall students requiring
  Tier III intervention (3 years of data in MSIS)
• Allows multiple interventions within the 18-week
  period (Each new intervention replaces previous
  only last intervention remains in system)
• Three questions key
• Date referred to team?
• Date intervention evaluated?
• Success of intervention?
• N indicator for success results in referral to
  LSC
• Y with referral to LSC possible
• Y intervention was successful

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Intervention Tab Entering Data

• Intervention Success? NOTE
• Yes Student remains in Regular ED - - user
  should select this choice if students
  intervention was a success and the student will
  remain in regular education while being monitored
  user will NOT enter any further data for the
  student on the Intervention screen
• Yes Student is referred to Child Study - - user
  should select this choice if the students
  intervention was a success but the student is
  still going to be referred to LSC (maybe the
  parent requested referral to the LSC, etc.)
• No - user selects this choice if the intervention
  was not a success, the student will now be
  referred to LSC (Local Survey Committee)

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Intervention Tab Entering Data

• Users will enter
• Referred to TST Date enter the date you
  referred the student to TST -- limited to dates
  within the current school year
• TST Decision Date enter the date the TST made a
  decision on the success of the Intervention
  cant be before the Referral to TST Date
• Intervention Success? users have three choices
• Yes Student remains in Regular ED
• Yes Student is referred to Child Study
• No

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Intervention Tab Referral Students

• When you select for Intervention Success? Yes
  Student is referred to Child Study OR No
• This will activate the LSC Referral Date data
  field when you enter this date (cant be before
  the TST Decision Date), you would want to notify
  your District SPED Office that you are referring
  a student to them for testing
• The District SPED role will then enter the next
  four data elements if needed

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How Do High School Teams vary from Elementary
Teams?

• Will usually not address content failure
• Focus on WHY student is not successful
• Must support content teachers
• Should involve student incentives
• Should have a reading specialist on the team

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High School Schedules

• Interventions are independent of class schedules
• Students may not catch up
• Interventions should follow the student
• Interventions might not be linked to subject area
  content

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The referral process

• Must become an institutionalized process,
  consistently administered, and monitored in order
  to bring about change.
• Request for referral should be made by a teacher
  at the time that data exist reflecting that Tier
  II interventions are insufficient to resolve the
  student concern.
• Other stakeholder referral should have data
  indicating need for team intervention.

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Implementing an Effective Teacher Support Team

• Public Relations Groundwork
• School Readiness
• Team Training
• Belief Set of Effective Teams
• All students are unique and capable of learning
• All students shall experience a level of success
  commensurate with their abilities
• Teachers share responsibility for student
  learning

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Implementing an Effective Teacher Support Team

• Establish regular meeting times.
• Set a schedule for data review.
• Make sure resources follow needs.
• Support teachers efforts.
• Compensate team members for service on team.