Greetings!
Spring is here and districts have that home-stretch feeling again. Many
are gearing up for spring data collection and analysis.
A
big thank you to all of you who participated in our EBISS survey. You'll find details about the results in this newsletter. We will be
using your feedback to plan the EBISS professional development for the
'10-'11 school year.
Don't forget that the EBISS year-end
deliverable is due before school ends. You can find the due date and
information about it on our EBISS Google calendar and also in this
newsletter.
Please take 5 minutes to scroll and click
around this newsletter. Feel free to send us feedback - we're always
happy to hear about things you like and also suggestions for making it
better.
With Best Wishes,
Your EBISS State Coordinators
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Survey Results
Thank you to all of you who answered our survey about our March EBISS day of professional development. Here are some of the points that you made, and we are taking note of:
1. Topics of most interest to your teams are; - Research based interventions for Tiers 2 & 3
- Response to Intervention
- Systems Coaching
2. Attendees would most prefer that the next EBISS meeting provide
instruction and protected work time alternating intermittently across the day.
3. The
Google EBISS Calendar and steps for creating your own EBISS district
calendar are two things that you thought you would use regularly.
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Your DSSP or ISSP (if you are in Early Childhood) is due June 1st.
DEADLINE: TUESDAY, JUNE 1st
We recommend that you follow these simple steps for filling it out and submitting it...
1. Complete a hard copy at your spring EBISS team meeting*
2. Remember to connect your DSSP/ISSP to your action plan!
3. Click here to enter your DSSP data on the EBISS Website**
4. Email a hard copy as an attachment to your EBISS State Coordinator by June 1st.
* Please contact your EBISS State Coordinator if you need another copy.
**Have you misplaced your username or password? Just contact your EBISS state coordinator. Please note, the Early Childhood ISSP can not be entered online at this time. Thank you for your patience. Thank you! Back to Top |
Central Oregon's First PBIS Conference - A Big Success!
On April 7th Central Oregon held its first PBIS conference. The day was meticulously organized by Catherine Kelly from the High Desert ESD and by all accounts was a rousing success.
An inspiring opening keynote was delivered by Cory Dunn who put everyone in the mood to think about helping kids. As the day progressed, highlights included Gerry Morgan presenting on PBIS adventures in Early Childhood. Gerry, Michael Mahoney, and our own Kathleen Jackson presented on the EBISS leadership systems for early childhood. From the Eugene/4J School District and the U of O respectively, Bruce Stiller and Justin Boyd introduced the group to a gold-standard program for students needing Tier 2 behavior interventions: Check-in, Check-out. Patty Parnell from Linn Benton Lincoln ESD gave practical and effective advice about communication among team members. Our own Louise Bronaugh presented her research and behavior program for students who ride the bus, to transportation directors and school bus drivers. There was also great representation and support from colleagues at Educational and Community Supports, University of Oregon. The whole day was filled with excellent presentations. The last word from Catherine Kelly - she plans to make this an annual event. Congratulations to Catherine and the High Desert ESD on a job well done!
Want to view all of the presentations? Click here to access them. They are temporarily available for viewing.
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Featured EBISS Districts: Medford & Bandon
For this newsletter we look to two school districts from
Southern Oregon, one large (Medford) and one small (Bandon), who are both using the EBISS framework to increase student performance.
Medford
The Medford district leadership team (DLT) is committed to
increasing student performance by using data to help them work
"smarter, not harder".
This year they reviewed their EBISS action plan and determined that members of
the DLT would actively participate in the monthly EBISS meetings. They
agreed that a strong and united effort would be their best route to reaching
the clearly defined goals that they had set for the district. The calendar of
monthly EBISS meetings was created in the fall and all DLT members made these
meetings a priority. Members of the DLT team included the Director of
Special Services, several elementary school principals, a middle school
principal, the district PBIS coach, and the literacy coach.
During the monthly EBISS meetings the district leadership team spent the
majority of time viewing and evaluating performance data from DIBELS, SWIS, the
SET, and OAKS. They began by looking at the data from the district level
and as they identified hot spots, they drilled down to the building level for a
closer look. Their goal? To find areas in need of
specific, targeted, professional development.
In tight economic times, the Medford District Leadership Team felt that identifying
the needs and mapping the professional development to those needs was a much
more cost-effective strategy then trying to offer a wide range of training that
may or may not impact student achievement. This has led to an exciting and on-going
conversation about "foundation training" for teachers in the Medford
School District.
By working from a district perspective to address goals for growth and areas of
needed support, Medford's DLT is being fiscally responsible while
constructively building capacity to meet the needs of the system, and in turn,
positively impact outcomes for all students. - Nice Job Medford!
Bandon
The Bandon School District has undergone significant
and rapid transformation during the 2009-2010 school year. Noting their lack of
systemic behavioral supports at the middle and high schools, they initiated the
implementation of PBIS structures with an emphasis
on rewards. As a result, they have already seen dramatic reductions in issues
such as tardies and have recorded overall improvement in
school climate as measured by the SET.
Bandon's Harbor Lights Middle School also took on
universal screening (AIMSweb Maze) in reading,
and is in the process of reshaping their schedule and system to support the
instructional needs of the students in that building; this is a big undertaking given that the middle school enrollment is well over 250 students.
In short, this 3-building district of approximately
800 students is dynamically engaged in a transformational process to become a
district that provides Effective Behavioral and Instructional Support Services
to all students.
- Keep up the exciting work!
P.S. We loved the student video posted on the Harbor Lights Middle School site - great work by the students and kudos to Principal Deborah Greenfield for posting it. That last song, coupled with those images, really tugged at our hearts.
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Links We Like!
A number of you expressed interest in having us talk about or highlight effective interventions in our newsletter. We're going one better and including a link to a website that is all about research based education practices. Check it out for intervention ideas and information about best practices in education.
Doing What Works
The National Center on Response to Intervention also has a lot of good information about data-based decision making, research based interventions, and progress monitoring. NCRT- Check it out!
The Oregon Department of Education has now released their much anticipated K-12 Literacy Framework. It's an amazing, informative, and detailed map that shows the route that districts and schools should take to get all students reading at grade level. Don't miss this great resource that is now available online.
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If you found items in this newsletter that were useful to you, we hope that you will feel free to forward it to colleagues. Thank you!
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Upcoming
Events We Recommend!
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