MTSS Family Newsletter

Students of Chesaning Union Schools are engaged in a positive comprehensive school-wide system of tiered, high-quality instruction and supports resulting in student mastery of all standards. This is achieved through ongoing educator collaboration, family and community partnerships, professional learning, data-driven decision making, monitoring student progress, and evaluating outcomes of the whole child.

Recently, the MiMTSS Technical Assistance Center recognized our district at the Silver Level for our work toward implementing a Multi-Tiered System of Support. All three schools within our district were recognized for their use of the data system. Big Rock Elementary was also recognized for the impact of reading supports on student outcomes.

By implementing MTSS, we increase consistency of effective instruction, build staff knowledge and skills to equitably support all learners, use data to proactively identify and provide support for students, and create a positive culture that nurtures relationships with students and their families, and communities. This strong foundation helps learners gain the skills needed to realize their life dreams.

As part of our efforts to address student mental health needs, we have hired an additional school social worker. Jodie Danek is joining our school to support students at the middle school and elementary levels. This position comes from the feedback provided regarding our student mental health grant. The need for additional staff for mental health support was identified, and we are pleased to have Ms. Danek in this role.

Your feedback matters to us! As part of our continuous improvement process, we will soon be sharing perception surveys for families, staff, and students. The valuable perception data allows us to see the impact we are having on our stakeholders. We ask that you please take a few minutes to complete the survey when it is shared later this fall. Your input is important to us!

Multi-Tiered System of Supports (MTSS) is a framework that schools use to ensure all students and all needs are addressed in a systematic way. This framework generally follows this order to provide academic, behavior, and social-emotional supports for students:

1. All students receive strong core (Tier 1) instruction.
2. Students are screened at least three times per year to see if they are meeting expected performance levels.
3. Students who are not at expected levels are provided with additional assessments and/or team discussions to identify specific skills or behaviors to target interventions or supports.
4. Students are provided interventions or supports (Tier 1, 2, or 3) and data is gathered.
5. Teams review the intervention data to determine if the intervention is working, needs to be intensified, or the area of concern has been appropriately addressed.
6. Instruction and assessment cycles continue in order to help all students reach expected levels of performance.

Universal screening data for reading, math, and social-emotional behavioral skills informs teams of the need for student interventions. Our district univeral screeners are NWEA Growth for Math and Reading and SAEBRS (Social, Academic, and Emotional Behavior Risk Screener), which are provided to students three times per year. We just wrapped up our first screening window for the year. NWEA reports will be shared with families at parent-teacher conferences for students in grades K-10. Please be sure to ask your child's teacher if you have questions or would like further explanation of the benchmark screener.

Reading is our main focus within our district MTSS framework. Interventions in place K-12 for reading include:

• Heggerty for phonemic awareness
• Walpole for phonics
• UFLI (University of Florida Literacy Institute) for phonics and spelling
• REWARDS - decoding multisyllabic words, vocabulary, fluency, and comprehension
• Language! Live - foundational skills, fluency, and comprehension
• Curriculum-based interventions to support core instruction

Attendance Works is a resource that supports families and schools to reduce chronic absenteeism. The resources below are information sheets about the importance of attendance. Please share these with those who have school-age children so we can work together to build knowledge and reduce chronic absenteeism.

Elementary-Level Info Sheet

Secondary-Level Info Sheet

Please check out our district MTSS webpage for updated information about academic, social emotional, and health-related supports.

https://www.chesaningschools.net/page/mtss

The Saginaw County Health Department has a webpage dedicated to resources for parents and families. You can check it out here: https://www.saginawpublichealth.org/information-for/parents-families/

Children in grades K-12 are eligible to sign up for Step Up & BWell. This is a program in Saginaw County to encourage healthy exercise and eating habits. After registering, your child(ren) will track their daily minutes of exercise and earn “stars” for other healthy behaviors such as eating fruits and vegetables and avoiding sugary beverages and junk food. If you have not yet registered your child, you can click on the link below to do so. If you have already registered, be sure to log your child's healthy activities and habits. We can do it!

Registration Link

The District Implementation Team continues to be focused on providing effective communication to help support each school’s use of MTSS. We would like to hear from you about the effectiveness of our communication regarding MTSS. The data will be used by the District Implementation Team to refine our communications and improve how effectively we communicate to you! Please fill out the survey below:

Survey Link

The MTSS Communication Survey is a terrific way for you to ask questions about our MTSS. This section is dedicated to addressing questions raised in the survey.

Question: What tools are used to identify student needs and how often are these reviewed?

Answer: Universal screeners (NWEA and SAEBRS) and our Early Warning System (attendance, discipline, and course performance) are the initial tools used to determine student needs. These are reviewed three times per year at each building level. Students who are found to be performing below the expected level are provided diagnostic assessments to identify specific skills that may be in need of intervention. Reading diagnostic assessments include tests on phonemic awareness, phonics, spelling, and oral reading fluency. Diagnostic assessments are provided at least three times per year, but could be provided if a need arises outside the screening times.