Collaborative Inquiry: MTSS

Upon reflecting on our decision making team, some of the key principles that guide effective organizations, I have observed in Rogers Garden Elementary. The school climate and culture are both developed and underdeveloped in many capacities.  It is my observation that the school's School-Based Leadership Team (SBLT) is developed and thriving.  I feel that the MTSS Problem Solving Team is less developed and cohesive. In Chapter 2, we are made aware that that the "schools organizational climate ...is a metaphor for the schools distinguishing characteristics" (pg. 32).  That resulted in my reflecting on the team chemistry and purpose in decision making.  Kowalski explains that "an open school climate is characterized by "cooperation and respect within the faculty and between the faculty and principal" (pg. 33).  It is herein that our strength as an organization lies. Our organizational culture is one of shared beliefs with strong interconnected values as...

The purpose of the CORE meetings is to analyze the data of the FAIR, DRA, District Benchmark data as well as classroom data.  The purpose of these CORE meetings are to look at the effectiveness of our CORE instruction. A concern last year was that coaches were "owning" the majority of the data and prescribing the majority of the interventions based on student need.  The challenge that resulted was that the teachers did not have a clear understanding of their student needs as determined by data.  The challenge became that teachers would take their students who were struggling to the Problem Solving Team to get support and not be able to discuss intelligibly the data, student needs or interventions.  The response that many teachers gave was "the coach or the interventionist" is providing the support for this student.  We know this is not the most effective way for a classroom teacher to work with his or her students.  Upon asking the coaches whether they we...