WYSIS Newsletter Vol 1

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The anxiety that opposes

change is not addressed with

speeches and memoranda;

rather, it is addressed by affirm-

ing what is not going to change

and then demonstrating that the

effects of the change is in the

best interests of all stake-

holders. The fear of changetends to stem from the fear of

the unknown or the fear of fail-

ure, or both. By understanding

and affirming what is already in

place that works well, as well as

identifying what is not working

well and what can be done to

improve the situation, fear and

anxiety can be mitigated, con-

sensus can develop and the

opportunity for change can blos-

som. After all, change is not

proposed when all is as it should

be.

The investment of time in build-

ing consensus for RTI or PBIS is

a critical piece of successful

implementation of the change.

Consensus would mean that the

belief in the need and in the RTI

and PBIS frameworks is solid,

the vision is clear and agreed

upon, and the implementation

requirements are understood. It

may not be possible to have allstaff on board and supportive,

but it is important to have the

majority of staff supportive of

implementation.

There are many activities that

can support consensus building,

but perhaps one of the best to

start with is to simply provide

the opportunity for other

schools successes to be

shared. Professional develop-

ment such as attending confer-

ences where RTI or PBIS, orboth, is a focus, visiting schools

where implementation is already

underway and looking at student

improvement data from schools

where RTI and/or PBIS have

been implemented are all ways

to observe these successes and

to gain a better understanding of

the impact on the students that

such changes would have.

Teachers enter the profession

with the desire to help studentslearn, which is exactly what RTI

and PBIS both do.

The second step would be com-

ing to the table to actually start

the consensus-building activi-

ties. Consensus does not mean

that everyone thinks alike and

agrees on everything. Consen-

sus means that thoughts are

shared and decisions for a com-

mon goal are made collectively.

All voices matter, and all opin-

ions and facts are considered.

(contd on page 2)

Building Consensus: Understanding and Supporting Change

WYSIS Newsbits

The initiation of the WYSIS

framework does not impact

your status in existing RTI

cohorts. You will continue to

receive technical assistance

and support from the WDE;

however, we will be transi-

tioning the title of our train-

ings to WYSIS.

Mike Krupp and Teddi Ben-

son from the University of

Wyoming are two new WYSIS

coaches. Schedules permit-

ting, they may be involved

with onsite visits to RTI co-

hort schools.

A critical element of WYSIS

is data-based decision mak-

ing. Please continue to par-

ticipate in the evaluation

measures so that the WDE,

your school and your district

can evaluate the impact of

implementation on student

achievement.

The WYSIS What Works

Summit is tentatively sched-

uled for February 16, 2010.

This will be an opportunity to

share data, interventions,

strategies and success sto-

ries with colleagues.

The WYSIS community in

Fusion has been developed.

Web resources, upcoming

trainings and new research

are just some of what will be

located there. We are also

exploring ways to provide

additional trainings via alter-

native formats (webinars,

See and Share, Community

of Practice, etc). Please

request access.

Remember homework as-

signments in preparation of

Novembers trainings!

Wyoming Department of Education

Fall 2009

Volume 1, Issue 1

RTI and PBISImplementer: WYSISTying It All Together

Upcoming Trainings:

Rock Springs: Nov 12-13, Feb 18,

April 19

Casper: Nov 23-24, Feb 16, April

20

Inside this issue:

Building Consensus: Understanding

And Supporting Change

1

WYSIS Newsbits 1

Leadership: How Does Your Garden

Grow?

2

Building Blocks 2

The Coaches 3

WYSIS in the Secondary School 3

Resource Review 3

Coordinators Corner:

WYSIS WhatIsit?

4

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In the book

Douglas B. Reeves

talks about a gardener who pur-

chases new plants from a nursery

in anticipation of planting eachone is a special place in his gar-

den. At home, the gardener real-

izes that he has a bit of cleaning

up to do, with weeds and other

rubbish scattered about. The

gardener now has some choices:

Drop the plants off close to

where he wants them

planted hoping some of

them take;

Plant the new flowers among

the weeds

Give the plants a stern lec-

ture about growing smarter

Pull the weeds and then

plant the flowers.

Reeves contends that every

school, every district, in fact,every organization has at least a

few weeds that could be pulled

that would help combat initiative

fatigue, the overwhelming numb-

ness that arises when another

request is made to do more with

the same amount of time, money

and energy. Reeves suggests

that, before adding any new pro-

gram, the remove at least one

existing activity, plan, unit, or

other time-consumer.

How do you begin the weedingprocess?

Use multi-grade dialogue to

find the essentials and

identify the nonessentials.

Encourage teachers to

share their best time-savingtips. Small matters like

having the computers up

before the students enter

the room add up to valu-

able time over the long run.

Set the standards for a

weed-free garden, namely

by respecting the time of

your teachers. A meeting

for every bit of new informa-

tion when an email would

have sufficed is a great

start..

Any weeds growing in your gar-

den?

Does this mean opposition is not

valid? No. As a matter of fact,

opposition is inevitable and quitevaluable. Opposition commands

examination of facts and motive

and sets the stage for the intro-

duction of new information and

ideas as well as healthy discus-

sion. A variety of consensus-

building tools are available to

facilitate this process. The im-

portant thing is to find what

works for your school and use it.

Leadership: How Does Your Garden Grow?

Building Consensus: Understanding and Supporting Changecontd from page 1

Caption describing picture or graphic.

All group members contrib-

ute-everyones opinions are

voiced, heard and encour-

aged.

Differences are viewed ashelpful.

Everyone agrees to not sabo-

tage the action or decision

made by the group.

Members agree to take re-

sponsibility for implementa-

tion.

Making a commitment.

Adapted from material provided by

Heartland

Building Blocks

Consensus is...

Derived from Latin roots and

means shared thought.

A process for group decision

-making.

A gathering and synthesis of

ideas.

Arriving at a final decision

acceptable to all.

Achieving better solutions.

Page 2 RTI and PBIS Implementer: WYSIS Tying It All Together

Ibelieve the group

heard me; I can ac-

tively support the

groups decision as

the best possible this

time even if it was

not my first choice

The professional learning community model is a powerful way of

working together that profoundly affects the practices of schooling.

initiating and sustaining the concept requires hard work. It requi

the school staff to focus on learning rather than teaching, working

collaboratively on matters related to learning, and hold itself accou

able for the kind of results that fuel continual improvement.

Richard DuFour, educator of 34 yearss, author and consultant

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Mike was a

special education teacher for 11

years in a junior high school

setting. He primarily taughtstudents with emotional and

learning disabilities. Mike is

currently pursuing a PhD. in

special education at the Univer-

sity of Wyoming in Laramie. He

has experience team teaching,

collaborating on student behav-

ioral issues, inclusive practices,

teacher beliefs, and theoretical

perspectives in disability stud-

ies.

Teddi is origi-

nally from Ohio and has 28

years of experience serving

as a special education

teacher, general education

teacher as well as a teacher

for accelerated students in

Ohio, North Carolina and

Wyoming. She is National

Board Certified as a Middle

Childhood Generalist and

she works with the Ellbogen

Foundation to support teach-

ers pursuing national board

certification in our state.

Teddi is married with 3

grown children, lives in Lara-

mie with her husband Jon, and

is currently working on her PhD

in education with concentration

on special education.

Key concepts and building

blocks for creating an effec-

tive RTI model for literacy

programs

Determining schools unique

needs, abilities and readi-

ness for building an RTI

framework

Assessing and analyzing the

needs of struggling secon-

dary school learners

Implementing appropriate

literacy interventions

by Denise P. Gibbs

This book delivers the frame-

work, tools, resources and strate-

gies for developing and imple-

menting an effective RTI model

that meets all secondary stu-

dents literacy needs. This book

walks schools through:

The facets of RTI unique to

secondary schools

Monitoring progress

A 28 min-

ute video that covers the basis

of RTI, its importance and core

principles and practical applica-

tions of the tiered RTI process.

Topics include universal screen-

ing, intervention effectiveness,

reliability and fidelity and pro-

gress monitoring elements.

The Coaches:

Resource Review

a disability.

The systems approach of WYSIS

builds efficiencies for meeting

the needs of all learners. At the

high school level, this data-

driven approach would help

schools identify students who

truly have a learning disability ,

while appropriately serving

those students who are at-risk

and far behind for other rea-

sons . This would also possibly

mean an accelerated or more

flexible way of applying inter-

ventions due to the sense of

urgency that exists once a stu-

dents enters high school. These

students simply do not have

much time to respond to the

sort of interventions that would

allow them to catch up to their

piers. This has led many dis-tricts to start the process at the

(contd on page 4)

WYSIS in the Secondary School

Secondary level adoption of

braided academic and behavior

supports presents unique chal-

lenges statewide and nationally.

Barriers to common planning

time for teachers, uneven liter-

acy supports, and building size

are often cited as features of

high school reform that makethe work difficult. The resulting

structure often guides struggling

students into special education

even if they do not actually have

The systems

approach of

WYSIS builds

efficiencies for

meeting the

needs of all

learners.

Page 3Volume 1, Issue 1

I never cease to be amazed at the power ofthe coaching process to draw out the skillsor talent that was previously hidden withinan individual , and which invariably findsa way to solve a problem previously thoughtunsolvable.

John Russell, managing director,

Harley Davidson Europe, Ltd.

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and their peers is reduced and

post-secondary outcomes are im-

proved. In addition, systems of

behavior and literacy support are

created for teachers, processesare streamlined, classroom man-

agement improves, teaching time

increases, and professional devel-

opment is targeted to teachers

needs.

Susan Shipley

WYSIS Coordinator

WYoming Department of Education

320 W Main StreetRiverton, WY 82501

Phone: 307-777-6231

Fax: 307-777-2556

E-mail: [email protected]

The is com-

mitted to supporting schools and districts who wish to

implement a systems approach of instructional practices

that result in improved student outcomes. Research has

shown that if schools improve student achievement, be-

havior incidents decrease; and, when behavior problems

decrease, student achievement improves (Hawkins,Catalano, Kosterman, Abbott, & Hill, 1999).

State of Wyoming

WYSIS...Wyoming System of

Instructional Support...what

exactly is it? Is it a new pro-

gram? No. Is it a new plan? No.

Is it new research? No. Is it aseminar or a conference? No.

Ok, so what is it?

WYSIS is the framework that

the Wyoming Department of

Education is providing that

braids RTI and PBIS, recognizing

the interdependent relationship

of academic and behavior devel-

opment for all students to truly

receive a high-quality education.

It is a framework that will allow

schools to better work with stu-

dents universally, proactivelyidentifying struggling students

early so that they are supported

and served effectively, before

they are failing.

WYSIS is to education what a

foundation is to a housea rela-

tively universal structure that

has the same basic purpose yet

ultimately looks different from

house to house, or in this anal-

ogy, school to school.

Coordinators Corner

tiered reform at Doherty include:

Increase in graduation rate from

76.1% in 2000 to 84.1% in 2006

Decrease by 57% in 2006 of theFreshman Failure Rate of 40% in

2000

Only 15% of students with disabilities

were measured unsatisfactory in read-

ing in 2006

91% of ninth graders reported a

smooth adjustment from middle to

high school.

To view the full report, please visit http://

www.betterhighschools.org/docs/

ReportOfKeyPracticesandPolicies_10-31-

06.pdf

WYSIS in the Secondary School contd from page 3

middle school level, before the strug-

gling student has reached the ninth

grade.

Tiered interventions for behavior and

academics have been successfully im-plemented at the secondary level

across the nation. One such school is

Doherty High School in Colorado

Springs, Colorado. Some results of

Tying it all together

One of the goals of WYSIS is to

provide tools for each school to

overhaul their own toolboxes to

fit each individual school and

ultimately, each district in thestate. RTI helps organize and

monitor good teaching practices,

academic and behavior-oriented,

that have existed for years. It

also infuses many research-

based and validated practices

that didnt existed even 15 years

ago.

Is WYSIS a special education

initiative? The answer is no.

WYSIS does not provide RTI and

PBIS principals as part of a spe-

cial education, general education,Title 1 or Accelerated Student

initiative. A basic principle from

the training that WYSIS provides

is that students can learn and

that available resources

should be used to meet the

needs of students, whether

they are on IEPs or highly profi-

cient students.

So, why integrate RTI and

PBIS? Reading competency, as

measured by DIBELS, has been

noted to be a powerful predictor

for office disciplinary referrals

and problem behaviors

(MCIntosh, Horner, & Chard,

2006). When students improvetheir reading scores between 3rd

and 6th grades, they have been

found to have significantly less

problem behaviors in 7th grade.

In addition, one of the National

Performance Goals states that

All students will be educated in

learning environments that are

safe, drug free and conducive to

learning. To improve the aca-

demic success of our children, we

must also improve their social

success. Academic and social

failures are reciprocally and inex-tricably related (Eric Mann,

LICSW, New Hampshire Center for

Effective Behavioral Interventions

and Supports, 2009). By improv-

ing social and academic success,

improving reading proficiency on

statewide assessments, and re-

ducing discipline referrals, sus-

pensions and expulsions, drop-

out rates are reduced, graduation

rates are increased, the gap be-

tween students with disabilities

WYSIS: What is it?