Volume 1, Issue 1 Fall 2009

RTI and PBIS Implementer: WYSIS Tying It All Together

Wyoming Department of Education Building Consensus: Understanding and Supporting Change
The anxiety that opposes change is not addressed with speeches and memoranda; rather, it is addressed by affirming what is not going to change and then demonstrating that the effects of the change is in the best interests of all stakeholders. The fear of change tends to stem from the fear of the unknown or the fear of failure, or both. By understanding and affirming what is already in place that works well, as well as identifying what is not working well and what can be done to improve the situation, fear and anxiety can be mitigated, consensus can develop and the opportunity for change can blossom. After all, change is not proposed when all is as it should be. a critical piece of successful implementation of the change. Consensus would mean that the belief in the need and in the RTI and PBIS frameworks is solid, the vision is clear and agreed upon, and the implementation requirements are understood. It may not be possible to have all staff on board and supportive, but it is important to have the majority of staff supportive of implementation. improvement data from schools where RTI and/or PBIS have been implemented are all ways to observe these successes and to gain a better understanding of the impact on the students that such changes would have. Teachers enter the profession with the desire to help students learn, which is exactly what RTI and PBIS both do. The second step would be coming to the table to actually start the consensus-building activities. Consensus does not mean that everyone thinks alike and agrees on everything. Consensus means that thoughts are shared and decisions for a common goal are made collectively. All voices matter, and all opinions and facts are considered. (contd on page 2)

Upcoming Trainings:
Rock Springs: Nov 12-13, Feb 18, April 19 Casper: Nov 23-24, Feb 16, April 20

Inside this issue:

Building Consensus: Understanding And Supporting Change WYSIS Newsbits Leadership: How Does Your Garden Grow? Building Blocks The Coaches WYSIS in the Secondary School Resource Review Coordinators Corner: WYSIS What Is it? 1 1 2 2 3 3 3 4

There are many activities that can support consensus building, but perhaps one of the best to start with is to simply provide the opportunity for other schools successes to be shared. Professional development such as attending conferences where RTI or PBIS, or both, is a focus, visiting schools The investment of time in build- where implementation is already ing consensus for RTI or PBIS is underway and looking at student

WYSIS Newsbits
The initiation of the WYSIS framework does not impact your status in existing RTI cohorts. You will continue to receive technical assistance and support from the WDE; however, we will be transitioning the title of our trainings to WYSIS. Mike Krupp and Teddi Benson from the University of Wyoming are two new WYSIS coaches. Schedules permitting, they may be involved with onsite visits to RTI cohort schools. A critical element of WYSIS is data-based decision making. Please continue to participate in the evaluation measures so that the WDE, your school and your district can evaluate the impact of implementation on student achievement. The WYSIS What Works Summit is tentatively scheduled for February 16, 2010. This will be an opportunity to share data, interventions, strategies and success stories with colleagues. The WYSIS community in Fusion has been developed. Web resources, upcoming trainings and new research are just some of what will be located there. We are also exploring ways to provide additional trainings via alternative formats (webinars, See and Share, Community of Practice, etc). Please request access. Remember homework assignments in preparation of Novembers trainings!

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RTI and PBIS Implementer: WYSIS Tying It All Together

Leadership: How Does Your Garden Grow?

In the book Leading Change In Your School, Douglas B. Reeves talks about a gardener who purchases new plants from a nursery in anticipation of planting each one is a special place in his garden. At home, the gardener realizes that he has a bit of cleaning up to do, with weeds and other rubbish scattered about. The gardener now has some choices: Drop the plants off close to where he wants them planted hoping some of them take; Pull the weeds and then plant the flowers. Reeves contends that every school, every district, in fact, every organization has at least a few weeds that could be pulled that would help combat initiative fatigue, the overwhelming numbness that arises when another request is made to do more with the same amount of time, money and energy. Reeves suggests that, before adding any new program, the remove at least one existing activity, plan, unit, or other time-consumer. find the essentials and identify the nonessentials. Encourage teachers to share their best time-saving tips. Small matters like having the computers up before the students enter the room add up to valuable time over the long run. Set the standards for a weed-free garden, namely by respecting the time of your teachers. A meeting for every bit of new information when an email would have sufficed is a great start.. Any weeds growing in your garden?

Plant the new flowers among How do you begin the weeding the weeds process? Give the plants a stern lecUse multi-grade dialogue to ture about growing smarter

Building Blocks
I believe the group heard me; I can actively support the groups decision as the best possible this time even if it was not my first choice

Consensus is... Derived from Latin roots and means shared thought. A process for group decision -making. A gathering and synthesis of ideas. Arriving at a final decision acceptable to all. Achieving better solutions. All group members contribute-everyones opinions are voiced, heard and encouraged. Differences are viewed as helpful. Everyone agrees to not sabotage the action or decision made by the group. Members agree to take responsibility for implementation. Making a commitment. Adapted from material provided by
Heartland

Building Consensus: Understanding and Supporting Change

contd from page 1
Does this mean opposition is not valid? No. As a matter of fact, opposition is inevitable and quite valuable. Opposition commands examination of facts and motive and sets the stage for the introduction of new information and ideas as well as healthy discussion. A variety of consensusbuilding tools are available to facilitate this process. The important thing is to find what works for your school and use it.

The professional learning community model is a powerful way of working together that profoundly affects the practices of schooling. But initiating and sustaining the concept requires hard work. It requires the school staff to focus on learning rather than teaching, working collaboratively on matters related to learning, and hold itself accountable for the kind of results that fuel continual improvement. Dr. Richard DuFour, educator of 34 yearss, author and consultant

Caption describing picture or graphic.

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The Coaches:
Michael Krupp: Mike was a special education teacher for 11 years in a junior high school setting. He primarily taught students with emotional and learning disabilities. Mike is currently pursuing a PhD. in special education at the University of Wyoming in Laramie. He has experience team teaching, collaborating on student behavioral issues, inclusive practices, teacher beliefs, and theoretical perspectives in disability studies. Teddi Benson : Teddi is originally from Ohio and has 28 years of experience serving as a special education teacher, general education teacher as well as a teacher for accelerated students in Ohio, North Carolina and Wyoming. She is National Board Certified as a Middle Childhood Generalist and she works with the Ellbogen Foundation to support teachers pursuing national board certification in our state. Teddi is married with 3 grown children, lives in Laramie with her husband Jon, and is currently working on her PhD in education with concentration on special education.

I never cease to be amazed at the power of the coaching process to draw out the skills or talent that was previously hidden within an individual , and which invariably finds a way to solve a problem previously thought unsolvable. John Russell, managing director,

Harley Davidson Europe, Ltd.

WYSIS in the Secondary School

Secondary level adoption of braided academic and behavior supports presents unique challenges statewide and nationally. Barriers to common planning time for teachers, uneven literacy supports, and building size are often cited as features of high school reform that make the work difficult. The resulting structure often guides struggling students into special education even if they do not actually have a disability. flexible way of applying interventions due to the sense of The systems approach of WYSIS urgency that exists once a stubuilds efficiencies for meeting dents enters high school. These the needs of all learners. At the students simply do not have high school level, this datamuch time to respond to the driven approach would help sort of interventions that would schools identify students who allow them to catch up to their truly have a learning disability , piers. This has led many diswhile appropriately serving tricts to start the process at the those students who are at-risk and far behind for other rea(contd on page 4) sons . This would also possibly mean an accelerated or more

The systems

approach of WYSIS builds efficiencies for meeting the needs of all learners.

Resource Review
RTI in Middle and High School: Strategies and Structures for Literacy Success by Denise P. Gibbs This book delivers the framework, tools, resources and strategies for developing and implementing an effective RTI model that meets all secondary students literacy needs. This book walks schools through: The facets of RTI unique to secondary schools Key concepts and building blocks for creating an effective RTI model for literacy programs Monitoring progress

Getting Ready for RTI: staff Training on Key Principles, ImDetermining schools unique plementation Issues A 28 minneeds, abilities and readiute video that covers the basis ness for building an RTI of RTI, its importance and core framework principles and practical applicaAssessing and analyzing the tions of the tiered RTI process. needs of struggling seconTopics include universal screendary school learners ing, intervention effectiveness, Implementing appropriate literacy interventions reliability and fidelity and progress monitoring elements.

State of Wyoming
Susan Shipley WYSIS Coordinator WYoming Department of Education 320 W Main Street Riverton, WY 82501 Phone: 307-777-6231 Fax: 307-777-2556 E-mail: sshipl@educ.state.wy.us

The Wyoming Department of Education (WDE) is committed to supporting schools and districts who wish to implement a systems approach of instructional practices that result in improved student outcomes. Research has shown that if schools improve student achievement, behavior incidents decrease; and, when behavior problems decrease, student achievement improves (Hawkins, Catalano, Kosterman, Abbott, & Hill, 1999).
Tying it all together

WYSIS in the Secondary School contd from page 3

middle school level, before the struggling student has reached the ninth grade. Tiered interventions for behavior and academics have been successfully implemented at the secondary level across the nation. One such school is Doherty High School in Colorado Springs, Colorado. Some results of tiered reform at Doherty include: Increase in graduation rate from 76.1% in 2000 to 84.1% in 2006 Decrease by 57% in 2006 of the Freshman Failure Rate of 40% in 2000 ing in 2006 91% of ninth graders reported a smooth adjustment from middle to high school.

To view the full report, please visit http:// www.betterhighschools.org/docs/ ReportOfKeyPracticesandPolicies_10-31Only 15% of students with disabilities 06.pdf were measured unsatisfactory in read-

Coordinators Corner WYSIS: What is it?

WYSIS...Wyoming System of Instructional Support...what exactly is it? Is it a new program? No. Is it a new plan? No. Is it new research? No. Is it a seminar or a conference? No. Ok, so what is it? One of the goals of WYSIS is to provide tools for each school to overhaul their own toolboxes to fit each individual school and ultimately, each district in the state. RTI helps organize and monitor good teaching practices, academic and behavior-oriented, WYSIS is the framework that that have existed for years. It the Wyoming Department of also infuses many researchEducation is providing that based and validated practices braids RTI and PBIS, recognizing that didnt existed even 15 years the interdependent relationship ago. of academic and behavior development for all students to truly Is WYSIS a special education receive a high-quality education. initiative? The answer is no. It is a framework that will allow WYSIS does not provide RTI and schools to better work with stu- PBIS principals as part of a spedents universally, proactively cial education, general education, identifying struggling students Title 1 or Accelerated Student early so that they are supported initiative. A basic principle from and served effectively, before the training that WYSIS provides they are failing. is that all students can learn and that all available resources WYSIS is to education what a should be used to meet the foundation is to a housea relaneeds of all students, whether tively universal structure that they are on IEPs or highly profihas the same basic purpose yet cient students. ultimately looks different from house to house, or in this analSo, why integrate RTI and ogy, school to school. PBIS? Reading competency, as measured by DIBELS, has been noted to be a powerful predictor for office disciplinary referrals and problem behaviors (MCIntosh, Horner, & Chard, 2006). When students improve their reading scores between 3rd and 6th grades, they have been found to have significantly less problem behaviors in 7th grade. In addition, one of the National Performance Goals states that All students will be educated in learning environments that are safe, drug free and conducive to learning. To improve the academic success of our children, we must also improve their social success. Academic and social failures are reciprocally and inextricably related (Eric Mann, LICSW, New Hampshire Center for Effective Behavioral Interventions and Supports, 2009). By improving social and academic success, improving reading proficiency on statewide assessments, and reducing discipline referrals, suspensions and expulsions, dropout rates are reduced, graduation rates are increased, the gap between students with disabilities and their peers is reduced and post-secondary outcomes are improved. In addition, systems of behavior and literacy support are created for teachers, processes are streamlined, classroom management improves, teaching time increases, and professional development is targeted to teachers needs.