Christie Perkins, Carson City School District director of grants and special projects, leads families and staff members in a discussion during the district’s quarterly Community Connections event on the schools’ Multi-Tiered System of Support to help students with academic and behavioral needs.
Photo by Jessica Garcia.
When eight Carson City schools in September were recognized for their best practices to improve student behavior, they joined others around the state considered champions in changing school culture.
Carson City’s educators want to continue the work in providing specific, additional supports in the Multi-Tiered System of Support for students at all levels and hope to include more family involvement.
Christie Perkins, director of MTSS and student wellness, and several team members at Wednesday’s quarterly Community Connections meeting gave an overview of MTSS and how it is being implemented in Carson City’s schools.
As of October, according to Dr. Ashley Greenwald, program director of the Nevada Positive Behavioral Interventions and Supports Technical Assistance Center at the University of Nevada, Reno, Carson City is among 13 local education agencies in the state to provide MTSS. Greenwald, presenting to Nevada’s Senate Committee on Education on Wednesday, told members there are more than 200,000 students in the Silver State who are being trained in MTSS and although outcome data currently is not available, higher implementation schools are outperforming schools than lower implementation schools, indicating the framework’s success in academic and behavioral impacts.
The eight recognized Carson schools are among 220 implementing schools, or 33% of schools focused on MTSS practices in Nevada.
Stephanie Keating, MTSS coordinator, on Wednesday discussed how educators apply MTSS in their schools, and much of its success in the past few years has helped students especially in social-emotional growth through supports, she highlighted. CCSD has focused on students’ good behavior through its Positive Behavior Intervention Supports through various school incentives like Bark Bucks, tokens or other items or school currency to exchange for small incentives and keep them engaged.
“It also sets the expectations, how we acknowledge those expectations, and then how do we systematically and proactively respond to the challenging behavior, which still puts the dignity of the student at the forefront,” Keating said.
The MTSS framework that guides teachers’ interventions and strategies to help them achieve academic and behavioral outcomes is complex and visually is described as a triangle representing all students. The bottom portion, tier one, about 80% represents all students receiving all basic supports from schools. Approaching the top of the triangle, about 10 to 15% of students in need of more focused attention would receive tier 2 supports and students with the greatest needs receive more explicit interventions, or about 5% at the top. Students continually move through the tiers because they’re on their own plans and unique journey and it’s considered fluid.
“So it doesn't mean you’re there forever,” Keating said. “This is just to provide learning a sense of belonging, connection, intervention, and we collect data that show progress of our interventions and then this child can move down throughout the triangle.”
Students in transition who receive the district’s McKinney-Vento services also benefit from MTSS and its multidisciplinary approach and partnerships in the community. Hannah Etchison, special projects coordinator and foster care liaison, said the goal is to remove barriers for those who experience homelessness. The district will help with transportation, assistance with school supplies, clothing and other needs.
Community partnerships, including access to therapy and counseling resources, provide advocacy for families in need of stronger interventions for behavioral issues, Perkins said.
Academically gifted students also are served through MTSS and still can attain any of the mental health services even if their instructional model looks slightly different. Those who might need some adjustment are welcome to contact a curriculum coordinator for enrichment, Perkins said.
“You might be extremely gifted in reading, and then you might need a little extra math help, but you could still be certified GATE (Gifted and Talented Education),” she said. “So, they are a part of that triangle, of course, as all students in our schools are, but their service model would be slightly different just keeping them at tier one through the teacher through the instructional model.”
Perkins said students who feel engaged in school and have strong parent involvement have the best chance of success.
“We really believe that if they have strong connections in school, if they have positive relationships, they can be successful academically, socially, emotionally and they could be prepared for post-secondary options, college, career, whatever they choose,” she said.