School Support Teams August 2014 Odyssey

Today’s Objectives:  Define School Support Teams (SSTs)as well as their function and purpose  Who is on an SST and their role through the process  SST meeting basics  “What if” scenarios and troubleshooting

What is the function and purpose of a School Support Team?  School Support Teams are small groups of education professionals who meet periodically to examine and support the school’s Comprehensive Achievement Plan (CAP).  Working collaboratively, the team:  tracks implementation of interventions  monitors and identifies barriers to implementation  makes recommendations for adjustments  facilitates innovative solutions  Guidance

Which schools have Support Teams?  Pilot year 1 had 22 schools, both Priority and Focus.  Year 2: expansion to approximately schools.  Exploring the idea of District Support Teams.

How often do schools meet with their Support Team?  Three to four times a year.  Depends on agreements among ODE and team members.

How are Support Teams formed?  Application and interview process for external team members.  Regional Network Coordinators (RNCs) and ODE, form the teams, drawing from a set of approved candidates.  Each team matches a balance of knowledge and experience related to the school’s efforts.

Who serves on Support Teams?  The school principal, select teacher-leaders and a district representative comprise the internal members of the school support team.  Educators who possess knowledge and expertise related to the school’s efforts, but are not school or district employees, represent external members of each school support team.  The school’s assigned Leadership Coach is also a member of the school support team and is not considered to be either an internal or external team member.

What might a Support Team meeting look like?  Internal members (school personnel):  Report on CAP progress  Share and discuss data relevant to interventions within the school and student performance data  Report on successes and challenges  All team members:  Collaboratively discuss and analyze data, pose questions, and offer insights  Collaboratively analyze and discuss challenges and propose innovative solutions and course corrections

When will Support Teams start?  Year 1 vs. Year 2  Initial meeting completed end of October.  Subsequent meetings occur regularly throughout the year for a total of about 4 meetings.

Initial Support Team Meetings  Will focus on the school’s CAP and the actions determined by engagement (either concluded or ongoing).  Relationship building and understanding of the process for all roles.

Subsequent Support Team Meetings  Focus on  Agreed set of questions – standardized protocol  School and student data  Collaborative problem-solving and decision- making processes  Intermittent updates to CAPs Efforts aimed at supporting schools in improvement efforts

What if…  A school is trying to implement several initiatives at once.  It is evident that there is no system for collecting data in a common manner at the school.  SST has determined that the district won’t allow the school to implement a particular program that the school team believes would assist in making progress.

Questions? Erica Anderson Education Specialist