District Level of Implementation of UMTSS… The First Year Tooele County School District UMTSS Conference June 12, 2013

Adding UMTSS to an Existing System

Big Questions we had to answer... Who should be on the district team? Superintendent Assistant Superintendents Board Member Behavior Specialists Special Ed Director Curriculum Directors Assessment Director CTE Director Elementary Principal Secondary Principal Instructional Coach

Big Questions we had to answer... What are the expectations of the members of the district team?  This is an ongoing process.  Some of our biggest concerns have been to bridge each of our department’s goals together into unified goals, to create an environment where each member can freely give input to the process, and to sustain the progress already made in each department.

Big Questions we had to answer... How does UMTSS fit into what we are already doing?  We looked at our current programs and connected the elements together into the UMTSS framework.  It was intentional that our work with UMTSS not be considered “another program”, but to integrate it into what we are already doing.

Big Questions we had to answer... What area should we focus on?  Literacy?  Numeracy?  Behavior? We needed DATA!

Big Questions we had to answer... Once we identified what area we would focus on, how would we choose the schools to work with?  Great question!

Our Big Break Through... We needed a way to measure our schools.  Implementation Goal Criteria Each area (math, ELA, and behavior) created their own criteria template. The templates went through a critique and an evaluation was conducted. We streamlined the formats and overhauled our original templates.  Consensus, Consensus, Consensus It was PAINFUL!

After many discussions... Our Continuums were finalized!

Implementation Continuum We found ourselves using our new tool to rate and evaluate schools.  Poor, Average, Great The wording continuum changed the way we looked at and used the tool.  Beginning Implementation, Progressing, Completely Implemented.

USING THE CONTINUUM

Key Ideas... There were multiple revisions. This is a process. Needed a clear vision of what we wanted schools to look like. Used the word “continuum” to help us avoid the idea of ranking/evaluating/comparison. Used positive vocabulary to keep our continuum from being threatening. Used familiar language of existing initiatives and projects to integrate what we had already accomplished.