Multi-Tiered System of Supports (MTSS) Current Project Status and Future Directions Steve Goodman March 12, 2013

Key Points for Today Where are we now with the project? What have we learned? Where are we going and what are future opportunities?

Where are we now?

Emphasis of MiBLSi Work Over Time Focus on providing direct PD and TA to Implementers (Team Training, Focus Training) Focus on providing direct PD and TA to Implementers (Team Training, Focus Training) MiBLSi develop capacity for project implementation Focus on providing direct PD and TA to Implementers (Team Training, Focus Training) MiBLSi develop regional capacity for MiBLSi regional implementation Focus on providing direct PD and TA to Implementers and cascading levels of support MiBLSi develop local capacity for LEA/ISD implementation Focus on providing direct PD and TA to cascading levels of support LEA/ISD develop local capacity for LEA/ISD implementation We went from discussing Is this the right thing to do? To Can we do it in the right way? 2003 2005 2007 2010 2017

MiBLSi Statewide Structure of Support Provides guidance, visibility, funding, political support for MiBLSi Students Building Staff Building Leadership Team LEA District Cabinet and Implementation Team Across State Multiple ISD/LEA Teams All staff All students Multiple schools w/in local district Provides guidance, visibility, funding, political support, and implementation supports Provides coaching and TA for LEA and/or ISD Teams Provides guidance and manages implementation Provides effective practices to support students Improved behavior and reading ISD Cabinet and Implementation Team Regional Technical Assistance Michigan Department of Education/MiBLSi Leadership Multiple LEAs w/in intermediate district Who is supported? How is support provided? MiBLSi Statewide Structure of Support

What are we trying to do? Scale-up a statewide structure to create local capacity to implement an integrated Behavior and Reading Multi-Tiered System of Support (MTSS) with fidelity, that endures over time and utilizes data-based decision making at all levels of implementation support

Why we need to do something different… Schools do not always get to criteria for fidelity of implementation. Schools do not always maintain implementation efforts Supporting a school based participation model cannot be scaled through MiBLSi

Important Concept! We are working to do more than just provide MTSS practices to a few interested educators… We are developing a model that can go to scale and endure over time with succesfull results

What have we learned?

Reframing the Work It is not “How do we get educators to do MiBLSi” It is “How do we get better educational outcomes that will endure through changes” MTSS is a framework to produce better outcomes for students MiBLSi is a support system to help districts implement MTSS framework with fidelity

Moving from model demonstration to scale-up Through each iteration, we become more clear in our implementation efforts

Summary: Prevention and Intervention Educators are Students are doing the best they can given their skills/abilities and the quality of their environment Teach Prevent Encourage adapted from Durand 1990

Lessons Learned: Invest in demonstration sites with an integrated model Start small Consider educational practices AND supports for those practices Remember that to get the outcomes we want, we need to have educators implement effective practices with fidelity Focus on schools as unit of change and district as unit of support

Lessons Learned: Make it easy for educators to do the work by embedding in current initiatives and priorities Use data at all levels for continuous improvement (student outcomes, implementation fidelity, system quality) Implementation is a mission-oriented process involving multiple decisions, actions, and corrections (stages of implementation)

Feedback Loops Schools effectively implementating MTSS Practices Develop Organizational Structures Successful Student Outcomes Inputs Outcomes Outcomes Develop Staff Competencies Feedback Loops

An analogy of implementation stages When you read the album cover, it appears that all track are equal in duration. When you actually look at the record you see that the tracks vary in duration. Additionally, even went moving through the tracks (stages) a scratch may cause you to be stuck in one location for awhile and a bump may send you to an earlier track.

Stages of Implementation Focus Stage Description Exploration/Adoption Decision regarding commitment to adopting the program/practices and supporting successful implementation. Installation Set up infrastructure so that successful implementation can take place and be supported. Establish team and data systems, conduct audit, develop plan. Initial Implementation Try out the practices, work out details, learn and improve before expanding to other contexts. Elaboration Expand the program/practices to other locations, individuals, times- adjust from learning in initial implementation. Continuous Improvement/Regeneration Make it easier, more efficient. Embed within current practices. Should we do it! Work to do it right! Implementation is not an event A mission-oriented process involving multiple decisions, actions, and corrections Work to do it better!

Where are we going and what are future opportunities?

Project Vision 47-ISDs and 320 LEAs will have capacity to support MTSS implementation with fidelity that is durable MTSS Coordinator Implementation Team Cabinet level (executive leadership) support Training Capacity Coaching Capacity Evaluation Capacity 1600 schools with potential to be supported through district implementation of MTSS

Reaching Schools School-based Cohort 1 – 7 (2004 – 2013) District Cohort 1 – 2 (2011 – 2013)

Implementation Support Capacity Developing Local Implementation Support Capacity

Opportunities: Emerging Directions in Multi-Tiered System of Supports Schools are being held accountable to successful outcomes for all students in both behavior AND academics ESEA flexibility waiver Focus on closing gap with racial subgroups and exclusionary discipline practices Improving safety in schools (bully prevention/violence) Math is a content area that provides an opportunity for the MTSS approach

Schools that implement MiBLSi with fidelity show reduction in Major Discipline Referrals compared to schools that are not implementing with fidelity Sample of 7 schools Focus Schools consist of the ten percent of schools on the Top-to-Bottom list with the largest achievement gaps between its top 30 percent of students and its bottom 30 percent, based on average scale score

Elementary schools have demonstrated increase number of students at benchmark and a reduction in the number of students requiring intensive interventions over a three year period. Number of students reduced in intensive supports = approximately 238 n=17 Focus Schools consist of the ten percent of schools on the Top-to-Bottom list with the largest achievement gaps between its top 30 percent of students and its bottom 30 percent, based on average scale score

Middle schools have demonstrated increase number of students at benchmark and a reduction in the number of students requiring intensive interventions over a three year period (n=6) Focus Schools consist of the ten percent of schools on the Top-to-Bottom list with the largest achievement gaps between its top 30 percent of students and its bottom 30 percent, based on average scale score

Elementary schools that implement MiBLSi with fidelity have demonstrated a decrease in major discipline referrals per 100 student per day Priority Schools (formerly known as Persistently Lowest Achieving Schools) are Michigan public schools identified in the bottom 5% of the statewide Top to Bottom ranking.

Elementary schools have demonstrated increase number of students at benchmark over a three year period Priority Schools (formerly known as Persistently Lowest Achieving Schools) are Michigan public schools identified in the bottom 5% of the statewide Top to Bottom ranking.

Opportunities: Emerging Directions in Multi-Tiered System of Supports We need to learn how to make it work in diverse settings (urban, rural, large districts, small districts) Implementation functions are similar but the form differs based on contextual fit and resource availability. Muti-Tiered Systems of Supports applied more broadly to include community and agencies to support children/youth

For MTSS to be implemented at scale… It must be defined with adaptions to allow fit with local contexts Precise definition of core features of MTSS Self assessment to identify the smallest changes to achieve largest effect Iterative measurement of core outcomes to facilitate continuous alignment Horner & Sugai (2006)

We need to help educators better understand how to use data for continuous improvement

Opportunities: Emerging Directions in Multi-Tiered System of Supports We need to expose our students to effective practices to produce successful outcomes Scale-up Durability Continuous improvement- creating self- modifying systems

“Scaling up is defined as having enough of something so that it is useful. Scaling up is the process of moving from “exemplars” to the “typical.” The process of scaling involves the development of organizational capacity to move from exemplars sustained by extra-ordinary supports, to typical application with typical supports”. “Scaling up is defined as having enough of something so that it is useful. Scaling up is the process of moving from “exemplars” to the “typical.” The process of scaling involves the development of organizational capacity to move from exemplars sustained by extra-ordinary supports, to typical application with typical supports. While there is no firm agreement about the level at which “scaling” is achieved, we hypothesize that an organization (district) has reached the “tipping point” for functional scaling when approximately 40% of the units in the organization are implementing a practice with fidelity. At that point, the education system would have changed to provide typical supports for evidence-based practices across the (district).” Fixsen et al 2008 Fixsen et al 2008

Question Is there a problem with educators not knowing how to implement MTSS correctly? Is there a problem with educators not adequately implementing what they do know about MTSS?

Implementation Science Longitudinal Studies of a Variety of Comprehensive School Reforms Effective Interventions Actual Supports Years 1-3 Outcomes Years 4-5 Every Teacher Trained Fewer than 50% of the teachers received some training Fewer than 10% of the schools used the CSR as intended Every Teacher Continually Supported Fewer than 25% of those teachers received support Vast majority of students did not benefit Aladjem, D. K., & Borman, K. M. (2006, April). Summary of Findings from the National Longitudinal Evaluation of Comprehensive School Reform. Paper presented at the Annual meeting of the American Educational Research Association, San Francisco, CA. Vernez, G., Karam, R., Mariano, L. T., & DeMartini, C. (2006). Evaluating comprehensive school reform models at scale: Focus on implementation. Santa Monica, CA: RAND Corporation. Aladjem & Borman, 2006; Vernez, Karam, Mariano, & DeMartini, 2006

We need to support people When staff are overwhelmed with the work, they are less likely to use and evidence-based practice if suggested by agency, supervisor or state. Aarons et al. 2012

Formula for Success Effective Interventions well-operationalized Effective Implementation Methods (implementation Team/Cabinet Team) Enabling Contexts (Host Environments) Socially Significant Outcomes

Inspirational Pep Talk

A wonderful evidence-based program that is poorly implemented is not necessarily better that a well implemented poor program. We need to take what we know as effective interventions and implement these with fidelity

Morning General Session (Keynote) Clock Hours Code Am312kN ADVISORY: It is the responsibility of the participant to be sure to document his/her own attendance. It is a criminal offense to use or attempt to use State Continuing Education Clock Hours (SCECHs) that is fraudulently obtained.