North Dakota Department of Public Instruction (NDDPI) staff and TSI school and district teams are working on engineering conditions to support effective and durable change in practice to reduce achievement gaps. Past reform efforts to support TSI schools in North Dakota reveal that change efforts spread rapidly across TSI school landscapes, with minimal knowledge about how to effect the improvements envisioned by state, regional, and local education agencies. From the push to embrace family and community engagement to adopting schoolwide multi-tiered systems of support (MTSS), new reform efforts are often implemented in schools prior to resolving crucial technical and logistical issues. As a result, progress toward goals is typically modest, with a high degree of variance from school to school. In some classrooms, a change idea might work; in many other classrooms, it does not. This work will focus primarily on understanding how to make evidence-based strategies work reliably in practice within North Dakota TSI schools and/or districts.
R11CC staff will collaborate with NDDPI staff to help them increase their knowledge of student sub- group learning needs through the application of evidence-based programs and practices to effectively support TSI schools and districts within North Dakota’s Multi-Tier System of Supports (NDMTSS) Framework. R11CC, NDDPI, and North Dakota Regional Educational Association (NDREA) staff will engage in improvement research to determine how a proposed set of changes will improve outcomes for student subgroups in TSI schools through rapid tests of change to guide the development, revision, and continued fine-tuning of new tools, processes, work roles, and relationships. The support is designed to accelerate learning alongside TSI school improvement teams. This partnership is expected to increase the percentages of economically disadvantaged students and students with disabilities who perform at or above proficiency in English language arts and math standardized assessments. R11CC’s support will focus on facilitation, professional learning, relationship brokering, tool and material development, and project management.
Project Updates
A Tool to Help Districts Make Progress on Teacher Diversity
The automated teacher diversity district tool is designed to help state education agency staff support districts in identifying gaps in the diversity of their teacher workforces.
An Equity-Centered Continuous School Improvement Framework
The Region 11 CC and the Nebraska Department of Education co-developed an Equity-Based Continuous School Improvement Framework based on insights from this year’s Learning Community Series on supporting TSI/ATSI Schools.
Social Emotional Learning (SEL) for Educators Toolkit
Transforming Education has created an SEL for Educators Toolkit, including six video mini-modules, which focuses on strengthening the social-emotional development and well-being of adults in school settings.
Bridging Difference Playbook
This playbook synthesizes skills and strategies that promote positive dialogue and understanding as a first step toward overcoming divisions and divides, whether within families, between groups, or across our nation.
Remote Literacy Learning: Implementation Toolkit
This toolkit helps schools and families join efforts to support children’s literacy growth in remote or blended learning environments.
Start with Equity: From the Early Years to the Early Grades
Read about specific steps to make progress toward a more equitable society in this new actionable policy roadmap report.