So much for being here.
As you just noticed, this meeting will be recorded,
so if you have to leave early,
I know it's a busy time of year,
we'll be able to put this on our website
for you to review at your leisure at a later time.
My name's Cassandra Townsend,
co-director of the BEST Project
and State PBIS leadership team.
Very excited to be here with several
of our fabulous coaches, trainers,
and all of you, our fabulous coordinators,
whether you're at the building level or the district level.
Very excited that all of you are here. Thank you, Sherry.
You'll notice that, for today's webinar,
we have materials posted.
Sherry just put them in the chat as well,
so you'll find the materials that we reference on that link.
You'll also notice today during our presentation,
there may be some other links embedded in the presentation,
so feel free to utilize those as well.
So before we get into the agenda,
it's always important to start with the data,
right, coordinators?
We know this. We love data.
Hopefully we've got some data junkies out there,
colleagues and friends who love, love data.
So we're very excited that we have about 43 attendees,
including our coaches with us today,
and we did get some messages.
Some of you will be joining us a little later.
That's totally fine.
We also have many schools,
many diverse schools represented during our time today,
which is really great.
Awesome.
So our agenda for this morning,
we've got about two hours together,
and we'd like to start off with,
you know, your typical opening activity.
We wanna talk a little bit about some celebrations,
community agreements.
Our topic for today is really focusing
on student/family/caregiver voice.
This is a really great time to think
about how are we engaging and reflecting on our families
and our caregivers and students as we're reviewing our data,
which is another topic we'll get into as well, right?
We know that having diverse voice
is really helpful for us in our action planning.
So we're gonna round out our time this morning
with some assessment, information, and friendly reminders.
We have an action plan that's new
that we'd love to share with all of you,
and then many of you are in the role of coordinators, right?
So we have a "Coordinator Handbook."
We also made some updates to that.
So, pending our time this morning,
we'll have an opportunity to get in some breakout groups,
review the handbook as well.
As you know, this is really an opportunity
for all of you to connect with each other.
Back in the day if you've been doing this for years,
which I see some very familiar faces on the line today,
we used to have in personal regional meetings.
This is our opportunity together online.
While not in person, really wanna set the stage
for cross pollination of ideas, collaboration.
So we see this as an opportunity for all of you to jump in,
share your lived experience as well,
and feel free to do that a couple of ways during our time.
Feel free to go ahead and type in the chat box
or go ahead and raise your hand
if something of interest comes to you or you're like,
"Wow, I've got this idea.
I have to share it with my colleagues."
That's really the vibe we're going for this morning
with our time.
Again, the work that you do is so incredibly valuable,
and we learn from you,
and we're hoping that all of you will be in a position
to learn from each other as well.
So excited that you all are able to join us this morning.
Before we jump into some of the content, would love to hear.
We've had some cold weather, right? Am I right?
We've had some temperature dips.
So what we thought would be fun in the chat,
or feel free to raise your hand,
if you could just name one thing that gave you joy
or strength or maybe a coping strategy
during that recent stretch of sub-zero temperatures,
anything that was interesting
that you'd like to share for folks.
Oh, paint and sip. Love it, Sherry.
Good call. Yeah, oh, pottery.
That's such a cool idea. Yes, Florida.
Absolutely. Let's go to Florida, right? (laughs)
Or at least having a Florida background, Lauralee.
Thank you very much.
You're channeling some warmth right now on the webinar.
Baking, ice rink. Yes, yes.
I know, finally.
We've had some friends with homemade ice rinks they actually
were able to freeze for the first time, which is amazing.
Hockey, awesome. Fuzzy blankets.
Yes, fire, awesome. Thanks everyone for sharing.
Read a lot of baking. I love it.
Type in any recipes, too, anything that's exciting.
Always people love to hear new things, right? Awesome.
Thanks, everyone, for sharing. Appreciate it.
So here are community agreements.
Again, community agreements, you're gonna hear us
use the word living document a lot today
during our time this morning.
These should not be stagnant.
These are things that evolve and should be addressed
as you and your leadership teams go
through your teaming process.
One of the things that we wanna recommend is thinking about,
you know, sort of our social emotional agreements, right?
Behavioral agreements as well
as some of the procedural stuff,
and so thinking about both sides of those really lend itself
to a productive meeting, as you all know.
And so, again,
this is just a friendly reminder as you think
about organizing your monthly leadership team meetings
as coordinators,
what are your community agreements that you have?
And it's a great opportunity to also pair that
with roles, right?
What are the roles? Time is of the essence.
Time is valuable. Your time is valuable.
How are we making our time together fun, efficient,
and so everyone feels like they feel a part of the process?
And with that in mind, I would love to know,
if you are a new coordinator,
if you wouldn't mind just typing into the chat,
we'd love to welcome you to this meeting.
We also know there's been quite a bit
of turnover in Vermont,
and so if you are new to the role of PBIS coordinator,
let us know.
We're excited to support you in this work,
and I know many of you have been coordinators for years.
So if you are also a coordinator and have been for years,
if you wouldn't mind in the chat.
Valcor, thank you so much. Welcome.
Let us know how long you've been a coordinator for.
So jot in a number.
Let us know how long you've been in the coordinator role.
Carrie, awesome. That's great.
Welcome, Brad. Jacqueline, yay.
Well, welcome to the coordinator family.
Brina, that's wonderful.
Well, we also have some veterans on the line,
so that's wonderful.
Yeah, seven years. Awesome, Lisa and Abby.
That's great. Very cool.
So glad you all are here. Nine years, Amanda.
That's right. Wow, that's awesome.
Woo hoo! Go, team.
So we've got some newbies. You've got some veterans.
This is a great opportunity to connect.
So welcome to all of you. This is so exciting.
All right, so for those of you who are veterans
and those of you who are new,
you probably have seen this before.
We love this. We call this the tattoo, right?
This is our tattoo that we sort of (laughs) love to show.
It's really what keeps PBIS framework sustainable,
always focusing, one,
on equity as always at the center of our work,
but thinking about how do we build systems
so that we can support the practices,
and then how are we utilizing data
to ensure that what we're doing is working?
And so what we have learned over the years
with PBIS implementation is that you really have
to have this overlapping layers intact
for sustainability and efficiency
and efficacy of PBIS implementation.
So systems, we're talking about teaming structure.
Who's on your leadership team, right?
Do you have a schedule? Are you meeting regularly, right?
So all of those things are so incredibly important
to think about what sort of practices
and the sustainability of the practices as well, right?
And then, of course, we're always using that data.
So we always have to focus on data systems and practices
and certainly with equity at the center of what we do,
and huge kudos.
If you haven't heard,
the National Center Technical Assistance Center
on PBIS received another five years
of federal funding through 2028.
So this has been funded.
The center, I believe, has been funded for about 25 years,
maybe even more now with this new round of funding.
We wanted to share this with all of you
because PBIS is bigger than Vermont, right?
People nationally, many of you know this,
but this has really been a huge initiative
that has the data behind it that is influencing funding,
and so it's really incredibly exciting
to see that PBIS framework and what we know has worked
has been acknowledged over the years with the TA Center.
One thing I did wanna know
is when the funding first came out,
it was really predominantly funded
through the Federal Office of Special Ed, right?
So it was sort of seen
as a special ed initiative in some regards,
and what's really exciting, the last two rounds of funding,
I believe I'm correct on this, especially this last round,
it's not only been funded
through the Federal Office of Special Education,
it's been co-funded by the Office of Education.
So we're thinking general fund, ed fund,
as well as special ed, which is a really nice blend,
and it's signifying the prioritization, I believe,
of how we are building bridges between
and supporting students who need higher levels
of intervention within the general ed realm,
and so that's very exciting.
So wanted to put that out there. Thanks to all of you.
Sherry put in a link to lots of resources
on PBIS website as well.
The other thing that we wanted to share as well is,
while the BEST Project is certainly engaged in a lot of work
with PBIS implementation across the state,
we're also doing some really creative
and have been for a little bit
and will be doing more in the future
around how are we thinking about early childhood, right?
Many of you have been and heard of Pyramid Model practices.
If you go to Pyramid Model Consortium,
they actually coin it PBIS for early childhood.
So thinking about how are we building the bridge
between early childhood centers,
preschools in your buildings,
and some of you are already doing this work
with aligning language and practices
from preschool to your school age population.
And so you'll be hearing a little bit more from us
as we continue to embark on that work
and build those bridges.
The other opportunity that we've had in the past few years
and will continue on is thinking about,
through Project AWARE,
which is Advancing Wellness and Resilience for Education.
I believe I got that acronym right.
Thinking about how are we intentionally
aligning mental health and our local mental health agencies
and organizations and practices and systems
within our PBIS work at the building level.
And so, again, we know that the PBIS framework
is a framework in which we embed various practices,
and so we'll be looking more intentionally
as the BEST Project
to how are we aligning our local mental health resources
with the PBIS work that we're doing
that all of you are doing in our schools.
And so, again, very exciting. Lots of cool stuff.
Wanted to give you that heads up
'cause you'll be hearing a lot more
about that as we continue this work.
What's new?
Wanna let you all know that,
when we're talking about changes,
and for some of you who are new, this may not be new to you
because this is what you are experiencing
is we've done a lot of work as a state leadership team,
thinking about how are we centering equity
within the PBIS framework.
How are we focusing on culturally responsiveness?
How are we thinking about the transitioning from buy-in,
which is often that transactional term,
to really whole school collective ownership
of this framework?
And so you'll see lots of resources there.
Thank you. Sherry also put it in the chat.
I just wanted to bring your attention.
We've also done a lot of work. Living document again.
As we know more, we do better, right?
And so we'll see some language changes
that the state team has really focused on.
Just for an example, when we think about, you know,
problem behavior, that was what we used to say.
Now we're really thinking about it as interfering behavior.
It just resets the frame of all of us adults saying,
"Gosh, what is getting in the way of Cassandra,
right, being successful in math class, right?
She's not a problem kid. Cassandra's not a problem kid."
Well, my husband only thinks so.
However, that's a different conversation
and a different webinar, but, right?
It really gives that re-frame. So that's just one example.
You'll find lots of examples of language changes as well
on the website that Sherry had linked,
but just wanted to, for your information,
wanted to share that with all of you.
And then the other thing
is we've had our annual report come out, which is amazing.
We'll have another annual report come out.
Thanks to all of you. Kudos.
We rely on your data for that annual report.
We rely on your quotes, your lived experience, your photos.
So just a preview.
We'll be looking and leaning on many of you for resources
as we embark on this current year's annual report,
but right now, just sort of a little state of the union,
we've had 15 learning events.
We've had many participants at our events.
Many different schools have attended our trainings
with really high rates of satisfaction.
So, again, we could not do this work
without the work that all of you are doing,
and so kudos to you for really helping all
of us move this work forward.
Again, we're gonna launch into centering equity
and centering student and family voice.
One thing that I wanted to share with all of you
is we did a little bit of an update to this visual.
One of the things that we talk about in PBIS
is our system of support
that is so critically valuable for sustainability.
So as a new coordinator, as an existing coordinator,
what you're seeing here
is we have many state level supports available
to you to move this work forward.
We have our state technical assistance providers.
We have trainers. We have coaches.
Many of them are on the line today.
Again, don't hesitate to reach out
to your technical assistance provider.
Super helpful, giving information, a trainer,
a coach, lots of supports as well.
At the district level, as many of you know,
we have our coordinators, our district level coordinators,
and, again, you are the ones
who are keeping this really visible
and a priority at the district level,
and then, of course, we have our school level coordinators,
many of you of which are on the line today.
Again, this system of support
is really incredibly important,
so appreciate that many new coordinators are on the line
and hoping that if there has been turnover
in many of our schools, a coordinator will be identified
'cause your role is so valuable.
One of the things that we've updated
is that nice little yellow half moon at the bottom,
and this is a nice segue into our content
around student/family/caregiver voice,
is we need leadership teams at all levels, right?
Whether it's a district leadership team,
whether it's a building-based leadership team.
We have a leadership team at the state.
We really need to prioritize
that we're making sure we have all voices at that table
on those teams to inform the process.
So we've just added that to this
because we realize it is a priority, and while it hasn't,
we've lived it and we've mentioned that in the past.
Realize we need to be more explicit.
We need to focus and prioritize the voices.
Who's missing on our leadership teams, right?
Whose voice is not there?
We need to start having those conversations
to make sure that our community partners, invested partners,
stakeholders, there's lots of various terms,
are really part of this process moving forward.
Before I dive in to the content,
I'd love to just open it up,
give you all an opportunity to chime in.
Any questions so far, thoughts, wonderings, anecdotes?
And feel free to use the chat. Feel free to raise your hand.
Thank you, Chantelle. Yes, parents, absolutely.
It can be really hard at times to include parents,
and also what I've heard, too, and I struggle with this is,
oftentimes, we get the same families, right?
Or we get the same parent voices, right?
So how are we engaging families who are not there,
who are not at the table?
So absolutely. So thanks for sharing.
Thanks, Amanda. Yeah, beyond surveys, yep.
Awesome. Okay.
Well, we're gonna keep rolling,
but like I said, it's your time,
so feel free to jump in, absolutely.
Okay. Oh good, and Heather has a question.
"Our team meets after school, so can anyone help
with how you're including student/caregiver voices?"
That's a great question.
So feel free to chime in in the chat. Help Heather out.
Absolutely, and then that's great.
Lisa just shared, "ELL teachers are always trying
to coordinate translation services."
Right, absolutely. It's access.
Access to information is important.
So yeah, if anyone has thoughts
or wanna share to help Heather,
if there's any strategies for including voice after school,
please feel free to add into the chat.
All right. Thanks, everyone.
Okay, so centering student/family/caregiver voice.
We're gonna have you an opportunity in a second
to answer a question thinking in the chat box,
but just wanted to highlight a couple
of resources for all of you.
So the Vermont AOE has a Family Engagement Toolkit,
(clears throat) excuse me, and self assessment,
and some of the information
that we're gonna share is from that toolkit.
It's pretty comprehensive, and so certainly would recommend,
if you're looking for a resource, check it out.
The other, you'll also find lots of resources
on family engagement on the national PBIS website.
We also have a family/caregiver resources
on our website as well.
Part of our work is thinking
about how do we beef that up a little bit
and also make some changes.
So just keep in mind that our website also
is a living document.
You're gonna hear me say that.
And so if there are resources that you also come across,
don't hesitate to to send them to us
because we want this, our website,
to be a resource for all of you,
and I'm seeing some in the chat.
Thank you so much, Lisa, for sharing. All right, yeah.
"Move to PBIS student team into the school day
and meet once a month."
14 students on your team, Lisa!
That's amazing. That's such a great idea.
Yeah, thinking about the school,
thinking about timing, those little systems,
things really do make a difference as well.
I also think about your existing calendar.
When do you have open houses? When do you have a concert?
My son has his first band concert tonight, 5th grade.
I'm so excited! He plays the saxophone.
Oh my gosh, I'm nervous. That was a sidebar.
But anyway, yes, think about those opportunities for,
you know, how can you get input from families, right?
Thank you for sharing. Okay, enough of me chitchatting.
In order to launch our conversation
about family and caregiver engagement,
what do you see as the difference
between family engagement and family involvement?
So thinking about your experience,
what have you seen as the difference
between family engagement and really involvement?
So go ahead and type in the chat box. Take a moment.
Feel free to raise your hand as well if you'd like,
and I see Lauralee is also putting information in the chat.
All right, so yeah, do you see a difference
between those two family engagement or family involvement?
While you're doing that,
I have this in the slideshow mode in this view,
just an FYI, so I can can use the tabs to be able
to toggle back in later in the presentation.
So I'm hoping that this is an okay view for folks.
Let me see if I can make it a little better.
Does that feel better?
I just wanna make sure you're visually
less black space around.
Thank you for that prompt.
Okay, so we're seeing some folks type in the chat box.
Thank you so much. Yes, I love that.
Timoney, I hope I'm saying pronouncing your name correctly.
"Involvement is asking for their feedback
or inviting them to events, right?
Versus participation in the creation of questions."
Absolutely, yeah. Random, yeah.
So what I'm hearing, absolutely.
"Engage in the school," right?
What I'm seeing from your responses
is a little bit more of a depth, right?
A depth in engagement versus just involvement.
Absolutely. I love that.
"Family engagement,
are those families regularly participating?"
Yes, yeah. So there seems to be a timeframe, too.
Absolutely, right?
Like maybe once in a while that's involvement.
We've asked parents to do this,
and they're gonna jump once in a while, but really,
that authentic collective ownership.
We're in this journey together, right?
It seems that many of you are highlighting that.
Yes, "Hands on, more present engagement." Yeah, yes.
I love that. Engagement.
"Input into policies, procedures, protocols." Absolutely.
That's what we're talking about
when we're talking about voice, right?
How are we getting them at the point
in which they're able to influence
and be part of conversations around protocols,
procedures, those types of things?
Love it. Yes, Jacqueline, I love that point.
"The first step to engagement is involvement," right?
"Getting folks involved to see that value."
Absolutely. I love that.
That's a great way to look at it. Awesome.
Okay, so this is from the toolkit from the AOE,
and again, many of you have already highlighted this, right?
I really like this first bullet.
Really focuses on doing things with rather than to families.
We talk a lot about that with our students.
How can we collaborate with our kiddos
to do things with them so they don't feel
like things are having been done to them?
It really is a nice reframe.
Again, I'm not gonna read all of the bullets,
but you'll see that many of what you all had shared
is very similar, right?
Thinking about the valuable contributions
to education in school as a whole,
that view of families as partners,
and that they do have valuable information
to contribute to the school, so absolutely.
So we're really kind of moving from that potential initial,
and you'll see another spectrum.
We're gonna get into another spectrum,
that much of what we discuss in this world is, you know,
moving from that initial engagement or initial involvement
to that authentic deep engagement, and you'll see that.
So absolutely, how are we moving towards,
and what we know, there's a lot of research,
and this may not be new to many of you, but it may.
We have to prioritize family/caregiver engagement, right?
The research shows, as we know,
it leads to positive academic outcomes.
There's evidence to show that it leads to decrease
in social emotional challenges or interfering behavior.
We need to be partners with our families,
and we can learn so much about what works
for their kiddos at home, right?
To inform what may work for their kiddo
in our school environment, and so absolutely.
It's important.
This is a visual from the Family-School-Community Alliance.
I love this, and I'm gonna read it,
and then if anyone wants to chime in,
but it's really that this family engagement
isn't in isolation.
That's how I sort of, right?
We need to align and integrate systems of support
for children to enhance their developmental ecologies,
promote mental health, and reduce the risk
of later mental health concerns.
So when we think about outcomes of our kiddos,
the family perspective and family environment,
that ecology of the family is so incredibly important,
as we know, and as you know, I imagine,
to really promote overall health,
not only physical health but mental health as well.
And we know through lots of research
around family engagement and school partners,
when we work together,
that can reduce later health concerns.
This makes me think of the ACEs study, right?
Many of you have known about that, right?
Adverse childhood experiences,
how we need to really partner with our communities,
our families, our local mental health agencies
to mitigate some of those adverse experiences
so that we can have healthy families and healthy kiddos
and healthy staff in our buildings.
So what we know also is honoring family/caregiver voice
is critically important, right?
And so there's sort of strategies at how we do this, right?
Thinking about, yeah, we can certainly make invitations,
but are we doing that?
Are we asking families to be involved?
What does that look like to have for us
to honor family and caregiver voice?
So would love for you all to think a little bit
about how do you honor families and caregiver voice?
Feel free to raise your hand or type in the chat
or just would love you to think a little bit about that.
What are you doing to honor family voice?
And I know many of you have cited that as well,
even going beyond just the invitations, right?
Having them as your leadership team level, right?
All right, so food for thought. Think about that.
How you're honoring families/caregiver voice.
The other thing we wanted to share
is when you're thinking about family/caregiver
and school engagement,
we can also think in that tattoo, right?
We can think about the systems. We can think about the data.
We can think about the practices that are heavily needed
to foster positive school communities,
especially around family/caregiver-school engagement.
(coughs) And so thinking about what resources
are available to families.
Is there a place for families
to hang out in your schools, right?
A long time ago, there was a school
that had a family resource space in their school,
which I thought was such a great idea, right?
So that families could go into the school, see a bulletin,
maybe bulletin board of resources or information,
have opportunities to engage with,
you know, staff and families.
There's certainly logistics that may get in the way,
but thinking about what are the systems we're creating
in our buildings to create that,
and then how are we measuring family engagement?
And we're gonna get to some of that
when we get to the assessment piece.
All right. So I mentioned a spectrum before.
This is a little bit of a transition,
not just thinking about family engagement
and family/caregiver voice
but thinking about student voice, right?
And so a few of us went
to the National PBIS Leadership Forum in October,
and we saw this slide,
and we thought it would be a really interesting thing
to share with all of you as we think about moving
from our previous conversation around involvement
to deep, authentic engagement and really thinking
about what does that look like for our students,
our kiddos, and our buildings?
This actually came from Ruthie Payno-Simmons,
and she cited these folks here who created this spectrum
and thinking about really going
from sort of just this expression, right?
So going from like we're having students express, right?
That's sort of an easy way to think about,
to consultation, which is sort of lower level involvement,
I would say, based on the spectrum, to full participation,
transitioning to that partnership with students
to having students engage in that problem solving together,
and then really having students.
So you can see through this spectrum,
and it'll give you examples,
but how do we sort of help our students
and how do we engage our students in this process
of moving from this side where it's just, you know,
tell us what you need to actually leading the work with us?
Which is really, really, I think,
exciting way to look at it as well.
-And so- -Cassandra,
-I just wanted to say -Jump in.
that my observation here is that this
is sort of the principles
of restorative practices and action, and it really is.
And when we think about restorative approaches,
we think about moving from a sort of compliance driven,
"We'll tell you, you do it," to, you know,
helping students have agency
and then really being co-leaders
in all the work of the school,
and we just keep learning more and more
that it contributes to collective ownership.
So, you know, people are more invested.
The adults and the students and the administration
are more invested in what happens with the school
when they move closer to leadership on the spectrum, so.
Yeah. No, thank you, Sherry.
I appreciate that. Absolutely, well said.
You know, so we're not gonna do a poll,
but I'd love for you all to think a little bit
about sort of where is your school
on this spectrum continuum of student voice?
If you wouldn't mind just typing in the chat box based
on where you think you are right now on this spectrum,
and then after that, we are gonna jump into breakout groups
where we have a couple of prompting questions for you all.
But yeah, type in the chat box.
Do you think you're at consultation?
Do you think you're at some participation?
Where do you think you are in that?
And I also just wanted to point out that there is a link
to an activity that really allows you to,
and we did this as a state team and looked at it.
It takes expression, consultation
on the left-hand side of a document
and then gives you an opportunity to highlight,
well, what are some examples?
What does it look like from an elementary perspective?
What does it look like middle, elementary, middle?
What does it look like high school?
So if this is something you're interested in
as a leadership team,
certainly would recommend you doing this.
It might be an interesting conversation
for your leadership teams as you think about action planning
to move towards that really getting students involved
in the work.
All right, awesome. Thank you for participating.
Yeah, it looks like a couple
of you expression, consultation.
I would imagine many schools are there.
Lisa, thank you. Absolutely.
Perfect, and, you know,
I love that you're putting grades, right?
Because this is a journey, and it may not happen based
on the entire school right now, right?
It may be activism, as Lisa pointed out,
really in the 3rd and 5th grade, right?
Thinking about that.
So thinking about what might be developmentally
and how you're gonna tweak it.
So, awesome. Thank you, Otter Creek Academy.
Thanks for joining. Absolutely.
So definitely some consultation, expression. Awesome.
Well, go ahead and check out that link
to that activity if you're interested in.
It might be a good thing for you all to explore together
as you think about action planning around student voice.
And so now we are at the point
in which we will jump into our breakout groups.
So we are gonna take about 15 minutes
in your breakout groups.
I am going to see if we can or if somebody,
one of my fabulous colleagues,
oh, Sherry's already got it in there in the chat.
Once you get into breakout groups,
we'd love for you to answer these two questions.
What barriers have you experienced in building, you know,
student/family/caregiver-school connections,
building positive ones,
and then thinking about the practices or strategies
that you found to be the most helpful.
We love this topic.
Really want to give all of you an opportunity
to engage in this topic.
Once the breakout rooms happen,
you will not be able to see this chat.
So we're gonna repost the questions again
once you are launched into your breakout groups.
So if at any point you wanna pop out of the breakout group,
just let me know.
There's a way for you to do that.
I believe I did enable that,
and then feel free to ask any questions.
Also take care of you, do what you need to do,
but we're gonna launch into breakout groups right now,
and we will see you in about 15 minutes,
and I will send a prompt which will let you know
when we'll go back to the main group.
Does anyone have any questions before I launch you,
hopefully launch you into your groups? (laughs)
All right, we're good? All right.
So I'm gonna open up all rooms, and I'm hoping that you are,
are folks getting launched?
I hope I did this correctly.
I don't see people. Let me just do this one more time.
Okay, hold up. This happened last time.
I'm gonna close. I always find those are sometimes abrupt.
Apologies. (laughs)
We had a great breakout room.
You did? Good, good.
I hope that was helpful.
I would love to hear any ahas or any ideas or thoughts.
(people speak indistinctly)
Not to put her on the spot,
but I wonder if Lauralee wants to share.
About? (chuckles)
Insights from our conversation. Oh, Lauralee Keach.
-There's two Lauralees. -Oh, sorry.
Oh, sorry. Thank you.
(people laugh)
I am happy to.
So we talked about the fact that getting this idea
of student and family/caregiver engagement
is really a mindset shift.
Since the inception of our education system,
it really has been you send your kid to school,
we do our thing the way we do our thing,
you can kind of take it or leave it,
but it's how we go about our business,
and there your kid goes home,
and there's this really distinct separation
between home and school, and, again,
students are meant to come to school,
be compliant, do what adults tell them to do, and go home.
So this really is a significant mindset shift
in our education system and really trying to figure out
how do we bring people along in that mindset shift?
How do we go about that?
And I kind of see it as there's really three kind of pieces
of information or sources of information, if you will,
to create really effective education environments,
and that's the school perspective, the student perspective,
and the family/caregiver perspective.
So without the student and family/caregiver,
we're kind of missing like 2/3 of the information we need
in order to create like a really effective
and engaging learning environment for students.
So I don't know necessarily
how to get people to change their mindset,
but I think that's really what this is,
and I think it is a process.
I think the activities are helpful.
I think that's a really great way
versus just kind of sharing information,
but like, let's do this activity.
Let's see where we're at.
Let's talk about what the benefits
of getting student input would be.
How is this gonna benefit our school
and teachers and students and everything?
I think that's really big.
I did share that, at one of our elementary schools,
the agreements for shared spaces have been created
through a collateral problem solving process with students.
It's been very, very intentional, slow but very intentional,
and so students have actually created the agreements
and what they look like, sound like,
feel like in those shared spaces based
on that collaborative problem solving.
So I was talking to Sherry and saying,
"I might be able to, I can look and see,
to get like almost like pre-post SWIS data
and see like did that collaborative problem solving process
and having students create that
and really be a part of those discussions have an impact
on the behavior in those shared spaces?"
That's awesome, Lauralee.
That would be really exciting data to look at, absolutely.
That's great. Thanks for sharing.
It's certainly a mind shift change, right?
Other thoughts or other ahas or anything folks wanna share
before we actually dive into data
to talk about how can we get some voice?
And I see some people putting in the chat,
so thank you for that.
In the group I was in, there was some discussion about,
you know, apparently a bunch of schools
have hired family engagement specialists,
you know, through their involvement
with the McKinney-Vento Act stuff.
So a lot of times,
they're pretty much focused on reaching out to families,
you know, where there's homelessness and, you know,
not connected within the community,
and that has some real value, obviously,
in bringing some families in and giving them voice.
But we also talked about, you know, really neutral spaces,
meeting parents where they are out in the community,
a lot of working families
that don't really have the capacity
to come in during the school day,
and you have to find a time and place
where they're really comfortable and, you know,
time being the biggest barrier always,
you know, and also when you can make the time,
it really works well.
So also bringing people in and serving food
has been really successful as families they don't see at all
end up showing up and being much more relaxed
and engageable when you're breaking bread together.
And I'll just mention one of the things
that came up for me yesterday, I was in a training,
and, you know, one of the counselors was talking about,
you know, the one really important way
to engage families is very successful,
and he does this part of his practice all the time,
is he always explores with parents
and with families their own experience of school,
middle school and high school because those get passed on.
Those sort of attitudes and, you know,
feelings about school get really kind of passed on
and relived often through kids.
So he found that when he engaged with families
and explored a little bit of their own school experience,
that it really led to a much more meaningful kind
of interaction and much more willingness to engage,
you know, and also to work together,
then to bring them into the partnership
to support their kids in and outta school.
It's a good go-to kind of strategy, I think.
Yeah, I love that, Ken, because,
I think as Heather had mentioned also in the chat,
is what you're speaking of, you know, families, caregivers,
we all have our own experience, right?
About how we were in middle school,
high school, elementary school,
and some of those experiences were not so great, right?
And so then our orientation to school as a parent
may be triggering at times to our own past experiences,
and so yeah, absolutely, Heather.
You know, sometimes people will hang up, right?
I've had parents hang up on me,
or parents will not have positive interactions.
So how do we think about rehelping
and engaging in that collaborative dialogue,
as you mentioned, Ken, to reshape that experience
or reframe that it's gonna be different or it is different?
And so much of that when we talk about PBIS implementation
is how often are we making those positive reach out
to families, right?
Instead of just waiting and reaching out
when things go south, let's flip the script.
What are our systems in place for reaching out
to families when kids are rocking, right?
I think that's so important
to help reframe that potential narrative
that many families have.
So thanks, Heather, for bringing that up,
and thank you also, Ken and Sherry and others and Lauralee.
Yeah. How can we make it better or different?
That's a great question, right? Absolutely.
Nice job, love it. Good thinking, everyone.
So now, and again, feel free to chime in.
This is a lot for you all, too.
So thinking about the next transition
when we're talking about family engagement
and caregiver voice is a lovely transition into assessments
(laughs) because, as Lauralee mentioned, you know,
it would be wonderful to see if our efforts
around family engagement are working, are not.
So we're gonna transition into a variety of assessments
because it's also incredibly timely, right?
So we're gonna talk a little bit
about the Tiered Fidelity Inventory.
This is our go-to assessment that we're hoping all
of our schools implementing PBIS will really prioritize.
I'll get into the nuts and bolts
of what it entails in a minute
but did wanna point out for just our recent conversation
is in the Tiered Fidelity Inventory,
there is a feature that your leadership team
will assess on student/family/community involvement.
And so if this is an area,
certainly think about making sure you're looking at this,
you're completing the TFI.
It does have that feature around family engagement for you.
So here we go. Hold up, I think I froze.
Oh, here we go. There we go.
Duplicate slide for some reason. So why is this important?
It's timely for one, right?
This is the time in which many of you,
hopefully all of you are engaging
in your annual assessments because what we do know,
especially with the TFI and what the research says,
is fidelity matters.
Why are we doing something if we're not gonna do it
with the intended way in which will lead
to the best outcomes for our kiddos, right?
So the TFI allows us to do that.
It allows us an opportunity to really,
in many of our assessments, fidelity,
assessing how we're doing,
how we're implementing PBIS implementation.
Certainly your assessments are timely right now.
If you haven't, get out your calendars. (laughs)
Oh, thank you, Sherry.
Jargon buster, Tiered Fidelity Inventory.
Get out your calendars, make sure you have an opportunity.
We'll be talking about the TFI,
the Self-Assessment Survey, and the School Climate Survey
and the Feedback & Input Surveys as well.
And what we know is we need the data, right?
When we talk about data systems practices,
that Venn diagram,
we need the data to really guide what we're doing, right?
And especially
around the social emotional behavioral learning
and wellbeing of our kiddos, and we also know that,
while fidelity is important,
perception data also is equally important,
and what we're finding is often our school perspective
around something may differ
than your family or caregiver's perspective.
So how are we gathering various perspectives
around PBIS implementation, around family engagement
so we can then really triangulate the data and look at it?
Wanted to let all of you know is our goal this year
is really hoping to increase our assessments.
As many even know, pre-COVID, and I'll show this next graph,
for the Tiered Fidelity Inventory,
we had really high rates of schools completing it.
Certainly know that, you know,
when COVID happened and pandemic,
certainly dips in lots of things happened in our school,
not just schools implementing PBIS but statewide,
and so what we're really hoping for
is that our schools were really focused
on completing the Tiered Fidelity Inventory
in addition to the Self-Assessment Survey,
and I'll get into that, and the School Climate Survey
or the Feedback & Input Survey,
which is maybe new to some of you.
So we're gonna talk a little bit about that.
So thinking about really getting the TFI done this year
in addition to one of the other assessments,
that's our hope and our goal.
Before we get into sort of the nuts and bolts,
just a friendly reminder about data, right?
The reason we collect data
is because it serves a purpose, right?
We don't wanna just collect it
and let it sit in a cabinet, right?
We wanna also make sure we're using the data
to inform our planning, inform our practices.
We also wanna make sure
that we're collecting data with fidelity,
so thinking about how your systems are
for collecting any type of data.
Have you trained staff?
Have you taught staff about the assessment?
Do they know what the questions are, right?
So there's lots of things that we wanna make sure,
and then, of course,
we always think about triangulation of data.
We're not gonna make huge systems change based
on one assessment, right?
Think about the academic side of things, right?
One statewide assessment doesn't necessarily mean we're
gonna re-shift or redo our entire system, right?
We need to triangulate the data with local data,
and so just really important to do that,
and what we also know is we want data to be used
to be supportive and really not to punish.
So I know sometimes when we talk about data,
and folks, you know, are fearful.
"Well, if I am honest on this survey,
does that mean some ramifications or, you know,
retribution or any sort of issue for me," right?
No, this is really supportive. It's to guide the system.
And so how are you articulating that
and how are you ensuring that it really
is viewed as that supportive?
So in the chat box, what data do you use
to assess the effectiveness of your systems or practices?
Do you have other data sources that you're looking at?
Go ahead and type them in the chat.
Feel free to raise your hand, let us know,
and while you're doing that,
I'm just gonna look at the chat.
Okay, benchmarks of quality. Yeah, that one.
We used to do that one a while ago. Absolutely.
Yeah, and, yeah, we can be in touch, Sherry.
Thanks for responding to Lauralee. Yeah.
Yeah, Russell Quaglia
has a good student engagement survey.
-TFI. -Yep.
We've got SWIS, School Climate Survey.
Absolutely, so lots of data out there as well.
And some of it can be more formal,
some of it can be more like informal,
progress monitoring data, right?
So there's lots of different things. I love it.
-Nurse, attending. -Panorama surveys. Oh, sorry.
Oh, Panorama, yeah, yeah.
A lot of schools are using Panorama, we're hearing, as well.
So yeah, that's great. All right, awesome, thank you.
So we're gonna launch really quickly into a review
of the Tiered Fidelity Inventory.
Knowing that and mindful of time,
we're not gonna dive deep into this.
So this is sort of a higher level overview.
We're not gonna get into the graphs.
If you need help, please reach out to your TA,
and then, if you need more additional help,
we have coaches available that can support you more
on a long-term basis as well.
So I wanna say that because we may kind of go
over this relatively quickly to share the information,
but know that there's lots of resources available to you
to support you in this work,
and somebody did have a question about Panorama.
Thank you so much, absolutely. There's a website.
It's a whole host of a variety of surveys
and platforms that schools are using for data systems
as well as some universal screeners, so.
Okay, without further ado,
especially for those of you who are new,
get out your calendars, schedule a time to complete the TFI.
This is our annual assessment
that our leadership teams complete, okay?
In the spring between January 1st and March 31st.
If you do need an extension,
we're pretty flexible, so just let us know.
We know February with the vacations,
it can be hard to squeeze things in,
but the goal is we really,
really want you to complete the TFI
because what it allows you to do is it allows you
to assess your PBIS implementation
across the tiers of implementation.
So if you're a school who's implementing
at the universal level and only at the universal level,
you're gonna do the universal part of the TFI.
If you also have gone to a targeted PBIS training, right?
And you're implementing targeted practices
at the targeted level,
you can do the universal as well as the targeted
and so forth as well as the intensive.
So it gives you a really helpful opportunity
for your leadership team to kind of come to consensus
around what are the critical features of PBIS implementation
and allows you to reflect on that
to then inform your action planning for next year.
So we'll talk a little bit about action planning as well.
One of the things that is recommended with the TFI
is have somebody do a walkthrough,
and I'll show that in a second what that looks like,
but a walkthrough is essentially having an external coach.
It could be somebody at the district level.
So if you're a district level coordinator,
you could take on this role, go to your building,
look at the walkthrough paperwork, and just,
it's basically a little mini survey that you do
with students and staff during the day,
and you bring that information
to the school's leadership team
while they're completing the the TFI,
and so they're looking at the walkthrough information,
which is kind of a point in time interview protocol
with the leadership team's perspective on the questions.
And it's really nice 'cause you're getting
both an outside potential perspective on implementation
as well as what the leadership team is.
So they work really nicely together.
It's not required per se, but it is highly recommended.
Some of our coaches are able to do that as well.
Our TAs may be able to do that.
So if this is something you're interested in
or brainstorming how to build capacity around,
please reach out as well.
It's just a really nice complement,
and for those of you who have been implementing for a while,
it's very similar to what was called the SET, right?
The School-wide Evaluation Tool
where we'd go into the school pre-training and post-training
and we'd ask your students some questions
about school-wide agreements.
We'd ask your staff some questions around protocols.
It's very similar to that in a lot of ways,
and so the way that our schools are using the TFI
is it's really that formative assessment,
and the way that we're doing that is progress monitoring.
While we're asking everyone to do this once a year
as part of our PBIS plan,
some schools wanna do it twice a year.
So just let us know.
We can open up a window for that as well.
We do use this for our state acknowledgement system
and our recognition,
which we're revamping a little bit right now.
So stay tuned for that, and then what you're gonna find
with the TFI is it breaks things down into these categories.
There's a bunch of questions around teaming,
and this is the universal level.
It differs slightly when you do the targeted and intensive,
but just for the general purposes here,
for the universal when you do the TFI,
there's a bunch of questions that are gonna ask you
around your fidelity of implementation
around teaming structures, right?
Then there's gonna be a series of questions
that'll ask that'll refer to implementation.
Then there's a series of questions
that will ask you about your evaluation as well.
So, again, not gonna dive too much into that
but wanted to let you know that that is a priority,
and we're excited to see that number shoot up.
So tell your colleagues. Tell your neighboring schools.
Really looking for to seeing some
of that data this year for our annual report
and celebrating all the work you're doing.
This is just a quick snapshot
of what the walkthrough tool looks like.
You'll see an interview protocol on the bottom.
Again, it's very tiny.
Maybe we could put the link in somewhere.
You can find it on TBIS apps if one of my colleagues
could just put that in there if you wanna explore that.
The other part that is really important to use
when you're doing the TFI is the "Companion Guide."
This is really helpful for schools
to think about categories or areas
that are not necessarily represented in the current TFI.
So thinking about mental health, thinking about some
social emotional behavioral interventions.
The "Companion Guide" is a great place
to help reflect on those activities as well.
There is a new TFI 3.0 coming out in the near future.
It's under validation.
I will send all of you after this webinar
if you're interested in participating,
but the new iteration of the TFI
will embed some of the features
that are in this "Companion Guide" into it in one survey.
Instead of having to use supplemental tools
to help inform your TFI, it'll be much more comprehensive,
and we will certainly let you know when that comes out,
and I'll send more information about that at a later date.
Can I interrupt for a second?
-Go. Yep, go for it. -So the TFI's
been around for a little while,
and it's a validated instrument, and it measures, you know,
what is supposed to happen with PBIS, like Cassandra said.
But as time has evolved and we've recognized, you know,
how we really need to keep equity at the center
and be culturally responsive and integrate mental health,
this particular guide came out,
and it provides elaborations to the particular questions
that you're trying to address as a team
when you're completing the TFI assessment.
So the recommendation really is that somebody have the TFI,
this integrated TFI inventory "Companion Guide"
also right at hand to see what the elaborations are
for each question at tier one.
I hope I didn't make it more confusing,
-but anyway, thanks. -No,
I think you clarified what I was saying.
So certainly when you're doing the TFI, check this out.
There'll be prompting elaborations
as well for your team to consider.
Yeah, thank you, Sherry. I appreciate that.
And there was a question about the TFI 3.0.
It's under study right now.
So they have to get enough schools.
So the sooner schools participate in the validation study,
the sooner we'll have it.
So that's why this national PBIS
is really encouraging schools to participate in it.
So I'll send you more information on that,
and yes, Lisa, thank you for that reminder.
It focuses some of those equity questions.
The elaborations in the "Companion Guide" will be in there.
So you'll get questions around equity,
more questions around mental health collaborations,
and various things, so thank you for that.
And we're gonna jump in really quickly
with the Self-Assessment Survey,
and then after this little part,
I'm gonna then open it up for questions.
So if you do have questions right now about the TFI
and you're holding onto them, there'll be an opportunity.
Also, if you have questions
about the Self-Assessment Survey, jot them down.
I'll open it up for question minute.
So the Self-Assessment Survey,
for those of you who've been around for a while
and for those of you who are new,
this has been around for a while.
What essentially the Self-Assessment Survey does,
it's a survey for all your staff
to think about the perceptions around what's in place
and whether or not what's currently in place is a priority,
what level of priority.
Wanted to point out, and it's on our website as well,
there's new SAS.
It's called SAS 4.0. So again, things evolve.
And so one of the things you'll notice on the newer SAS
is it somewhat aligns, the categories align with the TFI
and which makes it a little bit user friendly
because if you think about it,
the TFI is the leadership team, right?
That's the group of people who complete the TFI.
The Self-Assessment Survey is for your entire staff
to complete and asks somewhat similar questions
around school-wide agreements in place or not in place,
and so it's a really nice.
There's a nice complement to each other
so that the leadership team can dive
into what the staff perceptions are
around PBIS implementation as well
as what the leadership team perceptions are
around PBIS implementation.
So it's certainly recommended
that schools certainly do the TFI
but also do the Self-Assessment Survey for these reasons.
It's really nice because it informs your action planning.
I love this because it allows staff also an opportunity
to give voice, talking about voice,
staff voice is important as well,
regarding what are the features of PBIS, right?
And so that's really important.
So again, you're looking at staff perception data
and then around PBIS and then leadership team data,
and so you're able to see over time,
what is the staff thinking?
How will that inform our action plan, right?
'Cause maybe you're doing great, right?
But maybe there's a communication issue
where the staff doesn't really understand a piece
of the implementation that you're doing, right?
So there's lots of opportunities
to compare and contrast with those.
The other thing that I mentioned this previously,
there's two main questions
that the Self-Assessment Survey will ask, and it's,
"What systems are in place,
and which ones are priority for improvement," right?
So you'll get lots of data,
colorful graphs on what your staff thinks
around PBIS features that are implemented, yeah.
Yes. SAS honors the input of staff.
Absolutely, and it's so important to share the data
with staff and engage them in the action planning
as it relates to the SAS results.
Thank you, Kym, for that. Absolutely.
Yeah, take it to a staff meeting.
Again, why do a survey if you're not gonna share it?
I know that if I do a survey, I'm more likely to do it again
if I get to see the results, right?
Because that means somebody cares about my voice
and I'm psyched to see what's happening, right?
So keep that in mind. It's a great tool.
The other thing we've already talked a little bit about this
is it does honor all staff input.
Perceptions are important.
Feel free to steal some of these slides, right?
This could be why you're doing it for your staff, right?
We value your perceptions. We honor your input, right?
So if you're thinking about introducing this,
if you're new or continuing on,
it might be a nice opportunity
to steal some of these slides as well.
And then, as I mentioned previously,
it more closely aligns with the subscale, so the category.
So when you're doing a comparing and contrasting
of the TFI and with the SAS,
they more closely align around school-wide systems
and various subcategories.
So, questions, comments, wonderings about the TFI or SAS
before we dive into School Climate
and the Feedback & Input surveys?
And thanks, Sherry, for putting in the instructions.
Appreciate that. Okay, I'm just looking for hands.
Any hands up? All right, and just feel free to use the chat.
-Thank you. -Participants
can correct me if I'm wrong,
but it's my understanding that the Self-Assessment Survey,
the SAS only takes about 15 minutes
for somebody to complete.
So, you know, both of these tools are very efficient
in terms of time and give you a lot of information.
Yeah, and, Sherry, thanks.
The new iteration of this SAS is completed much more quickly
than the old iteration of this SAS,
and I think it's much more intuitive.
Thanks, and while we're at it, if you have strategies
for getting your staff to complete it,
feel free to share with each other in the chat
or raise your hand.
I remember we used to have just a staff meeting.
"Everybody bring your laptop. Bring a device.
We're gonna do it together."
So once you think about the systems
and aligning and prioritizing time and space with surveys,
you're certainly gonna get,
I would imagine, a higher response rate.
So if you have any other creative ideas,
feel free to type them in the chat box
about how do we get our staff to do it.
(laughs) Good chocolate, yes!
(laughs) Bribe them or we incentivize.
Certainly. We all love treats.
That's a great idea.
Thanks, Lisa. Thanks for sharing.
Okay. All right, just mindful of time.
Got a few more things to get through.
This is the School Climate Survey.
We really would love for folks to think
about doing a School Climate Survey.
We think this one is pretty easy
because it's part of the system, the PBIS app system,
so many of our schools are familiar with it.
One thing to note with this survey,
the School Climate Survey, well,
I'll get into the details in a second
about the different surveys,
we have heard through our schools
that some of the language is not as welcoming
and collaborative as we are going for.
This is developed on the national level,
and, you know, making changes at that level
for survey instruments,
as you can probably imagine, takes time.
I like to think that Vermont,
we're ahead of the game, it seems,
in our reframing and welcoming and collaborative language,
moving away from the compliance
to that more collaborative lens,
and so I just wanted to put that out there
as a mini disclaimer that,
while the language may not feel as welcoming
as what we're hearing from the field
or maybe a little bit more compliance based,
it's still a relatively good tool.
It's data for you to get information on.
So if you are looking for a School Climate Survey,
certainly take a moment and look at that.
There's actually five surveys.
We usually just highlight the four.
There's an extended survey.
That's what the fifth one is for, high school students,
but that's several mini questions.
So again, for the purpose of our work,
we certainly recommend using one
or two or a couple of these surveys.
You'll find surveys for younger students,
grades three through five,
and they're relatively short questions as well,
and they're really based on many School Climate Surveys.
So if you're using Panorama,
there's certain School Climate Surveys
that have been validated,
questions that have been validated over
and over again and that are reliable,
and so you'll notice probably some of these questions
are very similar to other School Climate Survey questions
just because the sheer nature
of it being valid and reliable.
You'll also have a survey
for students in grades six through 12.
What's great is there are staff questions as well,
and you can do family members.
So if you are looking for a tool
that would assess family/caregiver voice or perceptions,
this could serve that purpose for you.
It's also free.
So if you're looking just to dive in and get some feedback,
this is a free tool, so certainly would recommend that.
And underneath each of these bullets,
again, I'm not gonna read each one,
but you'll see the categories or sub-domains
in which the questions are organized by.
So for family members, there's a question
around their perceptions around school safety,
several questions, right?
So again, if you want more details,
certainly you can go to the link.
Some of the benefits of this are that it's really efficient,
it's easy, you get multiple perspectives.
There are unique features in this
in which you can compare across participants.
So if you go to the manual, you can see, I think,
an example of that where you can look
at how students who have identified as female
are responding to the School Climate Survey.
You can break it down by students
who are identified as BIPOC students
or students of African American descent.
Like they can be broken down
into those sub-categories as well.
And when we're thinking about, you know, centering equity,
these kind of questions are really important, right?
For us to really prioritize.
Kym, thanks for raising your hand.
And I'm gonna ask for other people
to maybe chime in on this,
but I'm pretty sure there's sometimes concern
about de-identifying versus identifying.
Like if you have a really small cohort
of students represented by a particular demographic
that you want to ensure that, you know,
if you have two kids that identify as BIPOC,
you wanna ensure that you don't know
who those two kids necessarily are
if they are not sharing that information.
Rebecca, I'm kind of looking to you 'cause you seem
to really grasp all of these surveys really well.
Isn't there a cutoff?
Like if there's only a certain amount of students,
let's say, in 5th grade, that there's some way
that that information is de-identified?
I can't speak to that today
having not looked at this for a long time, but-
Carrie or anybody? Or I can look into it further.
I can't remember off the top of my head,
but absolutely, we wanna be very mindful
when we're looking at data that is de-identifiable,
and I believe it's either five,
if there's five or 10 students, I think.
I can't remember exactly, and we can follow up.
-I think it's 10, Sherry. -If it's nine or less,
-Nine or less. -the state will support it.
But I don't know if the School Climate Survey
does that automatically and eliminates it
if it's two people or less.
You do have the option
of not filling out those demographics,
but I don't know if the reports protect that small number
of students because you can (speaks indistinctly) student.
-Yeah. -Yeah.
-I don't think it does. -That's a good-
What we'll do is we'll follow up with that,
and I think it would be helpful for us
to put that information on our website as well.
So under School Climate Survey,
we can share accurate information around that.
Most surveys do.
If there is a low end size, they will not report it.
So you might have an asterisk
on your actual report potentially, but we'll look into that.
That's a great question,
and I don't wanna say something that's not accurate.
And maybe that can go in the next reminder
so it's fairly current, just, yeah.
-Thank you. -No, thank you.
That's a really good point and relevant for Vermont, right?
In our size and our population in our schools.
Gotta be thoughtful. Rebecca?
Just one other thing to consider,
I did put it in the chat,
is in the staff and the family surveys,
there are some items about family involvement,
and they kind of indicate the family involvement
is people actually showing up for things at school.
And again, I haven't looked at this super recently,
but it's like they come to conferences, they come to events.
So I know when I've worked with schools before,
we've talked about like saying to staff, like,
"Okay, you know, this is not what it means.
This is not
what we think family/caregiver involvement engagement is."
These questions are here,
and the teams have decided we're not gonna use that data
because it's not really getting at what we think really
is involvement and engagement,
and then having some way of, you know,
letting family/caregivers know that.
Like there's these questions, but this, you know,
the current version of this survey we don't think
is culturally responsive in these questions
or whatever they say, you know,
just to be aware of that because,
if you go an action plan around that
or you've just reinforced the mindset
that some staff have that this parent
or family/caregiver is not engaged
because they don't come to things,
which is often a mindset that has existed.
So I think that's a tricky thing to just be aware of,
and, you know, we can wait for the next iteration
of this School Climate Survey.
I'm sure that that will be addressed, but right now,
just being upfront about it I think is important.
-Yeah- -The other stuff in there,
other stuff you can get really good information,
but this just reinforces that mindset.
And like if you're trying to engage a family/caregiver
and they finally are filling out a survey, yay,
they're filling out a survey and they say,
"Oh no, I'm not actually a valued member of this community,"
by those questions, it's yucky.
Yeah, absolutely. Yeah.
So certainly with any of these surveys, you know, take 'em.
Do what you think is best for your climate, your culture,
and you'll see in the feedback
and input survey a little disclaimer as well.
So again, we're thinking about how can we influence some
of this from the Vermont state level knowing
that these are created nationally?
But again, if you're looking for something, right,
it might be helpful to consider the School Climate Survey.
The other thing that you'll notice
with the School Climate Survey
is you just wanna think about readiness.
So whenever you do School Climate Surveys,
there's lots of readiness steps you wanna consider,
thinking about opt in, opt out,
what is your school policy or procedure around that.
You really wanna introduce your community and families
and students and staff to the survey itself.
What are they doing?
And then really just thinking about,
well, once you have the data,
how are you gonna action plan around that?
How will that impact the work that you're doing? Kym?
Yeah, sorry, I don't mean to belabor it,
but I pulled an excerpt outta the manual
from the School Climate Survey and put it in the chat
that says, "To preserve anonymity of respondents,
if a racial or ethnic subgroup has fewer
than five respondents in a school,
results cannot be viewed for that group
or have their subgroup identified in the data download.
However the responses will be included
-in the overall reports." -Thank you, Kym.
I'm not seeing it in the chat right now,
-but maybe I missed that. -Really?
Oh, well, how about that?
-What if I push enter? -Oh, there you go.
Yeah, just push enter. Yeah, thank you so much!
See? Look at this, teaming already.
Go, team. Thank you.
That's really helpful. So it's five.
Cool, okay, so just, you know,
if you're thinking about school climate,
lots of readiness things.
There's lots of examples in the manual.
So if you're looking for an invitation letter,
you're looking for different resources,
they've created several of those for you.
The other new resource that came out relatively recently,
about a year ago, almost two years ago now,
gosh, January 2024,
is this "School Climate and Survey for Families: Resource."
So it's a little bit of information if you're interested
on how schools are using the School Climate Survey
for families and parents.
So just wanted to think about if you're looking
for resources, there's one for you,
and then the other survey that we're introducing
and we're hoping schools may consider is,
it's called the Feedback & Input Surveys.
Now this is also free for any of you to use.
It came out in April of 2022.
If you're interested in this after learning more about it,
it's not a survey that's automatically open for you,
so you'd have to just let a fabulous Anne Dubie know,
and she will go online and work her magic
and open it up for you.
But what this really does is it allows your teams, again,
to gather more information around how schools,
students, family/caregivers
are experiencing your school-wide systems, right?
So there's four different surveys.
There's an elementary, secondary,
school personnel, family as well.
What's unique about this one,
which may be of interest to you,
is that there are quantitative questions, right?
But also some open-ended qualitative questions.
So if you're looking for people to type in
and give you their lived experience
or give you feedback outside of the yes-no response system,
this may be a good tool for you to consider,
and thank you for putting it in the link.
You'll learn more about it on our website.
Whereas the School Climate Surveys very quantitative,
this one is both qualitative and quantitative.
So interesting as well.
This is our Vermont disclaimer because we're evolving.
One of the things that our state team,
we were reviewing this recently.
We were like, "Hmm, some of the language
and some of the wording choices
are not as collaborative or welcoming
as we wanting the language to be."
It doesn't mean that it's, you know, not a good tool to use,
and we may consider this for the School Climate Survey.
What we ended up doing, and if you click here,
you'll see a document of the survey
with suggested language changes or suggested considerations.
So while we can't make a big change with this survey
because we didn't create this,
what we did is we added additional considerations.
So if your team is looking at this,
you might wanna think about some
of these considerations as you go through it.
So again, just another option for you,
and our hope is that, yes, TFI, check,
and we want you all to do one or more
but definitely one perception measure,
so either a Self-Assessment Survey, a School Climate Survey,
and if it's not one of these, let us know what you're doing
'cause we'd love to learn
or a Feedback & Input Survey as well.
So kind of pick your own adventure,
but really hoping that schools will do the TFI
or TFI and one of the other perception measures.
And then this is just a quick comparison
between sort of the School Climate Survey
versus the Feedback & Input Surveys.
As Sherry mentioned,
the climate survey is really a formal measure.
There's evidence behind it being a reliable
and valid measure and tool, you know,
and again, much more quantitative.
The Feedback & Input Surveys
are quantitative and qualitative.
So you're gonna get some other things
that might be helpful for you.
Okay, questions, comments, wonderings
about the School Climate Survey or Feedback & Input Surveys?
Did I miss anything, team? Feel free to jump in.
You're all hanging in there. Love it, thank you.
All right, we're gonna keep going if you're cool.
So putting it all together, one of the things we realized
is there's so many tools out there, and we're thinking,
"Gosh, how do we action plan together,
or how do we have an action planning form
that puts these assessments that we just mentioned
and a few other in one place?"
And so if you click on this link,
you'll be able to see this action planning form,
and what this looks like, essentially,
is an opportunity for you to start with TFI.
So action plan, these are the features of the TFI
that you can add your TFI score,
and one of the things that we wanted to prompt you all
to consider is what are other surveys with related items?
So in the SAS,
there is a question around team composition, right?
So you might wanna consider using,
if you're looking for an action planning template,
using this one because it'll allow you
to start with the TFI, which is, again,
the fidelity tool for your leadership team,
and we know fidelity matters.
We also know the other perception tools matter as well.
So while you do the TFI and use this as your base,
we've prompted you here in this column
to other perception data tools that have related items.
Okay? And there's instructions here.
So we just wanted to point that out.
If you are looking for one tool that can meet lots
of different goals and really consolidate,
that's something we recommend.
Right, let me just fix my screen here. Okay.
So I'm mindful of time.
I have a few more things to get through.
How about a two-minute stand up,
get a sip of water, do a dance little break?
Does that seem okay for folks right now? I love it.
Progress monitoring, thumbs up. Thank you for that feedback.
Two minutes, we'll see you right back here,
and we'll launch into the "Coordinators' Handbook."
That was a fast two minutes, I say. I did try to keep track.
All right,
I know I just gotta note some people have to leave,
so that's totally fine.
Like I said, this is recorded.
Certainly have an opportunity to watch it,
but we wanna round out just knowing we
have a few more minutes together.
We have some important information that we wanted to share,
so we are going to keep going.
Okay, so if you are a new coordinator,
this is our "Coordinators' Handbook."
Welcome.
This is your guide to the various roles
in our system of support and also gives you an opportunity
to think about what are some of the things
that you may need to attend to on a monthly basis,
and I'll show you what that looks like in a second.
You can find it at that link on the presentation,
and I imagine one of our colleagues will put it in the chat.
Also, just to note, this is a living document.
It is always changing.
So we've just made some changes
to update our practices and our recommendations.
But if you as a coordinator
are finding you're doing something and you're like,
"God, I think all coordinators should do this,"
let us know 'cause we'd love to always update
and add this document to this "Coordinators' Handbook."
So this is our table of contents
for the "Coordinators' Handbook,"
and so if you're an SU coordinator,
you're gonna have a nice little description
around your role as well as some responsibilities,
like around a checklist, right?
And as a school coordinator, you're gonna have the same.
That's how it's organized, and then you'll also have
what we call the Calendar of Activities.
Now this is what I was just referring to.
This is not an exhaustive list by all means
because you all do so much,
and if we were to add every single thing you do
on a monthly basis, we'd have a probably 50-page novel here,
but these are the highly recommended activities,
as a school coordinator or an SU coordinator,
we recommend you attend to.
So if you're looking for a roadmap,
I remember when I was a coordinator.
"What am I supposed to be doing, right?"
We hope this is a helpful tool for you
to think about what some of the activities involve
in your role are, right?
Awesome. Some important reminders.
Well, before we go on, are there any questions?
Feel free to let me know if you have questions
about the "Coordinators' Handbook" or thoughts.
All right, "One of my favorite tools after nine years."
Well, that's an endorsement, Chantelle. Thank you.
Absolutely. It's super helpful.
So we're hoping it's helpful to you.
So certainly let us know if you do have any questions
or anything that does come up.
A couple of friendly reminders here
as we transition from our time together this morning,
again, the SAS and the TFI surveys are currently open.
Hoping folks will do them.
Definitely TFI! Go for it.
I hope I've said that enough, (laughs)
and then we also wanna encourage schools to do the SAS,
School Climate Survey,
or the Feedback & Input Surveys as well.
We have an FBA training,
so just a little highlight with our calendar.
Later on you'll see a link
to our professional development calendar.
But if you're looking at building your internal capacity
for folks to be able to do a simple FBA
to then create a student support plan,
we're offering a training at the Franklin Center in Rutland.
So hope to see many of you there.
We've done a lot of updating,
thanks to Lauralee and Jeremy
and team really evolving our thinking around that,
and so there'll be some more trauma-informed perspectives
introduced into that new iteration of the training.
So if you went several years ago,
you may wanna jump back in 'cause it's certainly updated
and really relevant for folks.
The Summer Institute I'll get to in a minute
because I have a very exciting save the date
on the next slide.
We also have (laughs) core training.
So if you're interested in going to the next level of PBIS
or you've gone through universal,
maybe targeted and you're looking for refresher,
we have an opportunity for you to do that,
not only at the Summer Institute but in March.
So that'll be on our professional development calendar.
We also are encouraging schools
to let us know for our state planning.
So if you're on the call today and you happen to know,
type it in the chat box.
Let us know what training you're thinking about going,
your leadership team's thinking about attending.
Would be super helpful.
If you don't know right now,
please get back to us, let us know.
We also have another coordinators meeting on May 10th.
Stay tuned for information for all of our coordinators
'cause we'd like to also get your input
to inform that May meeting, so stay tuned for that,
and here's our fancy save the date for our Summer Institute.
If you don't know already,
it's June 24th through 27th at the Killington Grand,
again in Killington, Vermont, centrally located.
It's been a wonderful place for the institute,
and our theme this year is really capitalizing
on A Place of Belonging: Cultivating School Communities
Where Strengths are Valued, Nurtured, and Embraced,
and so you'll see that theme threaded
through the Summer Institute this year.
And to note, registration opens on March 6th.
So we wanna make sure that you all
will have enough information and ready to push the button.
We anticipate it's gonna be pretty crowded this summer,
so make sure that's on your list, and just so you know,
the save the date and the link to the website,
which will show you anticipated strands,
I'll show it in a second, will also give you a sense
of what we're offering at this year's Summer Institute.
So very excited.
We're also really thrilled to give you an inside scoop
on our keynote presenters this year.
We have Trevor Muir.
Many of you may have seen some of his videos
that he did during the pandemic.
Very creative. He's an educator.
Very inspirational around our role
as educators in sharing stories
and how we can support students sharing their stories.
So it's very encouraging.
If you wanna look him up, definitely Google him.
That'll be great. We also are thrilled Nese.
She's from University of Oregon,
has done a lot of work on social justice
and student voice and equity,
and so she'll be giving us really practical information
and a lot of national data, too, around equity work,
and then last but not least,
we cannot have a Summer Institute
without our fabulous Joelle van Lent,
and she will be, you know, bringing it home
with an active session on Thursday,
really reflecting on our wellness and our wellbeing
in connection to our students and our staff,
and so that's very exciting.
So stay tuned for that.
A sneak peek of some of the offerings.
This is not an exhaustive list,
but we're really excited to, you know, embrace.
We've got some equity strands.
We're gonna do some restorative justice,
restorative practices work.
We're also gonna bring back Charles Appelstein,
I don't know if you remember him.
He did some great work about strengths-based practices,
and so he'll be joining us this year.
Very excited about that,
and then here are some workshop offerings as well.
We're excited to have a really a variety this year
of workshops as well as some that people
are really excited to see again.
So you'll see a little bit of a mix,
so, again, stay tuned for those.
And if you are looking at anything in the near future,
we have a lot of learning events still to happen.
So the PD calendar is the best place to look for that,
and save the date.
Our annual PBIS Forum this year will be on October 16th.
So mark your calendars. Would love to see you.
It's very celebratory opportunity
to acknowledge you as coordinators,
to acknowledge our schools,
and all of the wonderful work you're doing.
So put that in your calendar.
More to come,
and then certainly stay tuned to stay connected.
We are also hoping to increase
on our website Vermont PBIS great ideas.
It's one of our little goals.
So if you have a PBIS great idea,
a presentation you've done, a resource,
something that's aligned your efforts
within your MTSS system, academic,
social emotional behavioral,
anything that you think would be of benefit to the field,
really, please don't hesitate to send us.
We love to hear from you
because you all have such wonderful examples
and are doing such great work.
I want to open it up to any questions
or comments that you all may have
in our last couple of minutes (laughs)
before we launch you into your day.
So if you have questions,
feel free to type in the chat box or raise your hand.
While you're formulating any questions you may have
or comments, after this, you will receive a survey,
and attached to that will be a certificate
of attendance for your time with us today.
So please take a moment to do that.
We really value your input, and please stay tuned
for some information that we'll send to you.
So questions, thoughts?
All right, thank you all so much. Enjoy your day.
It's great to see so many of you. We'll see you again.
And welcome new coordinators! Welcome to the family.
We're excited you're here.
-Bye, everybody. -Thank you.