NDMTSS Capacity Building, Evaluation and SPDG Grant Submission

NEW Regional Support Liaisons help provide direct support the NDMTSS schools statewide

Through the ESSER grant funding contracted through the N.D. Department of Public Instruction (read more about these funds in a post from December 2020) the NDMTSS State Lead Team and Implementation Team have utilized a Community of Practice framework to establish Regional Support Liaisons (RSLs) at multiple regional education associations (REAs) across the state to deliver direct support so schools engaged in NDMTSS.

The goal of these RSLs is to:

Increase support for schools in all REAs and NDMTSS statewide
Build a stronger foundation for Targeted and Comprehensive School supports
Meet the ever-expanding capacity needs as the number of schools/districts continues to increase – every ND REA has schools engaged in NDMTSS at some level
Increase knowledge and understanding of NDMTSS as a school improvement process

The 10 RSLs are engaged to a high degree this year and have several key roles and expectations that are totaling 125-140 hours per RSL depending on the number of schools they are supporting!

Engage as a Learner.
Develop as a NDMTSS Regional Support Liaison (RSL)
Participate in RSL Community of Practice (CoP)

They will have attended ALL sessions, coaching calls, site visits in both the Developing Academic Pathways cohort and the Evaluating Your System cohort. This totals 78-102 hours of committed time to build a strong understanding of NDMTSS and engage with our school teams!

In addition to these hours, the RSLs are also engaging in the Community of Practice sessions to debrief their learnings from training sessions with one another to help define the newly developed RSL role and ensure the State Lead Team can best support them.

Starting the week of March 22^nd RSLs will engage in delivering facilitated NDMTSS Self-Assessments known as the SAND (Self-Assessment for North Dakota). Using a gradual release model they’ll each complete facilitated SANDs with four different school teams. They have watched an experienced facilitator deliver previously and now their first SAND will be with an experienced facilitator as their co-pilot. Next, they are paired up with another RSL to co-facilitate with on two different occasions where they’ll take turns being the lead facilitator and the other will serve as their co-pilot. Finally, they will facilitate on their own!

Evaluation Study begins with schools self-assessing the current state of their system.

The chosen school teams (via random sampling selection process with the State Longitudinal Data System (SLDS)) to receive a Facilitated SAND are determined as part of the NDMTSS evaluation study of the ESSER grant to help determine the effectiveness of a system. The list of 30 schools includes 5 elementary, 5 middle, and 5 high schools in each size category: small, medium, and large. These facilitated SAND sessions will be completed starting the week of March 22 through early June to meet the needs of school schedules. Assessment scores will be entered and analyzed in a previously developed SAND Assessment Dashboard for review.

The evaluation will show the effectiveness of the school-level implementation of MTSS and the effects of the system they have created on student achievement as it relates to student growth. The study is based on the hypothesis that schools are implementing at higher levels will see increased levels of student academic growth.

NDDPI submits State Personnel Development grant focused on Specially Designed Instruction

The N.D. Department of Public Instruction in collaboration with the NDMTSS State Lead Team recently submitted a new State Personnel Development Grant (SPDG) with a strong focus on Specially Designed Instruction (SDI) in connection with MTSS. The Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) defines SDI as “adapting, as appropriate to the needs of an eligible child under this part, the content, methodology, or delivery of instruction –

To address the unique needs of the child that results from the child’s disability; and
To ensure access f the child to the general curriculum, so that the child can meet the educational standards within the jurisdiction of the public agency that apply to all children.”

With the grant scope on SDI we know that there are supports that can be provided to both general education and special education and provide positive results. NDDPI has been working with Special Education Units at high levels to evaluate Individualized Education Plans (IEPs) as well as determining the effectiveness and compliance of those IEPs. A rubric would be utilized to assist special education staff to determine how effective their IEPs are and how to increase SDI to lead to more compliant IEPs. MTSS would increase supports through SDI to see gains especially with students who have disabilities.

NDDPI anticipates hearing back on the grant award around June 2021.

The State Personnel Development Grants (SPDG) program provides grants to help state educational agencies (SEAs) reform and improve their systems for personnel preparation and professional development of individuals providing early intervention, educational, and transition services to improve results for children with disabilities.