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Inside this issue
Important Upcoming Events/Meetings
February 1 Speech Cohort February 1 EL Cohort February 5 ASD/DCD Cohort February 6 CAREI Problem Solving PD - Session 2 of 4 February 7 EBD Cohort February 8 School Psychologists Cohort February 15 MN Assessment Group February 17 Random acts of Kindness Day February 20 Superintendent Council February 21 Principals Meeting - Secondary Only February 22 International World Thinking Day February 25 Special Education Leadership Team February 26 Tell a Fairy Tale Day February 27 Instructional Coaches PLC |
The Progress, February 2019:
Volume 4, Issue 5 The Progress archive
Click here to view past issues from the current school year. Comments? Suggestions for new articles?
Contact Jillynne Raymond, jraymond@gced.k12.mn.us 
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Friendly Data Reminder...
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30 Day Data Challenge
Cherie has been out in the classrooms since posting the 30 day data challenge last month. She reports seeing the good work in progress. Remember, the goal is to use data to establish students' goals and to progress monitor students' growth. Through the use of data, we make more informed decisions beginning with problem identification. The data helps us with the challenging task of problem solving, which is a continuous process in education. Keep it up all! |
Does your data indicate a need for Tier 2 reading interventions?
Don't miss: Press Tier 2 Interventions Workshop Tuesday 19, 2019 8:30 am to 3:00 pm 1/2 hour lunch provided onsite River Bluff Education Center Click here to register. |
Teaching Reading is Hard Work
As originally conceived, RTI [MTSS] depends first and foremost on effective classroom teaching so that few students need small group or intensive remediation. Successful RTI [MTSS] approaches also require alignment and compatibility among the ‘tiers’ of service so that classroom teaching is supported and reinforced in supplemental small groups (Tier 2). Intensive remediation (Tier 3), necessary for students with the most severe reading disabilities, should be coordinated with regular classroom materials, strategies, and content. Otherwise, students may be caught between conflicting approaches or may simply not experience the comprehensive instruction, reinforcement, or consistency that will help them learn. (Moats, 2018) 
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by Jillynne Raymond
If you are in public education, it it was hard to miss National Public Radio's story, Why Millions of Kids Can't Read, and What Better Teaching Can Do About It. Some of you may have heard it on the radio or read the article first hand. Some of you may have heard from others that heard or read it firsthand. For me, I was driving between districts in the county when it played on the radio. Then I certainly heard from others that heard/read the same story and found myself defending public education and our work. Teachers and administrators work so hard for our students' learning. The variables in that learning are numerous and vary from student to student, which make problem solving at the individual student and system levels an essential need. Our friends at FastBridge Learning, covered the story also while offering more help with the complexity of teaching reading; click here to read Effective Reading Instruction by Rachel Brown, Ph.D. The fact that we screen our K - 8 students in reading puts us ahead of the recommended learning curve. Through our MTSS implementation, districts have been able to identify specific needs or problems for solving. This work has also prepared us to meet new legislation regarding dyslexia identification. Implementing and focusing on the system to identify and intervene reading concerns is the MN Department of Education's recommendation for helping students with dyslexia; MTSS is the recommended action. It is essential to problem solve in order to find the root cause of a reading concern. The complexity of teaching reading only adds to the need for problem solving at the individual level and at the system level. Based on system wide data, two sites are implementing new reading curriculum. Teaching reading is complicated at best. It is not as simple as teaching phonics and decoding. The brain is a complex organ and we read with our brains. Both Kenyon-Wanamingo Elementary School (KWES) and River Bluff Education Center (RBEC) are implementing new ELA curriculum this year to help teach reading. KWES principal Katy Schuerman admits that KWES had been using reading curriculum from 2002, which was clearly out of compliance; that curriculum was developed prior to the National Reading Panel Report of 2000. Many changes were made to curriculum based on that report. Through their collaborative data analysis they identified the need to work on vertical and horizontal curriculum alignment as well as increasing the rigor. Their team ultimately chose to implement Journeys, a balanced literacy framework by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. It fit the criteria that the team prioritized as: (1) authentic children's literature, (2) a strong phonics component, (3) a strong vocabulary component, and (4) materials to differentiate guided reading. Their progress continues and according to KW Instructional Coach Laura McAnally the district is making progress and began with a mentality of "take it, do it; learn it as you teach it." Principal Schuerman agrees and adds that they are committed to using all of the components this year. Teachers are learning how to weave it all together; the shift to a block schedule allowed for the curriculum adoption. The teachers are "doing it like the book" and will re-evaluate as a full team this spring. From the student perspective, the "kids are loving the stories, even the older elementary students." We are implementing the same curriculum K - 6 at RBEC. The well scripted nature of the teacher's book was an important selling point for the uniqueness of a Setting IV program. "Our teachers need to be able to hand off the learning activity to another adult in the room if they are needed to help with a student's behavior," explains RBEC Principal Maggie Helwig. Implementing curriculum with fidelity takes on-going support. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt's coaching PD as well as their instructional coach are supports for the teachers' learning in KW. The work is hard; the payoff is priceless. |
Specific Learning Disability in Reading or Dyslexia? The problem solving approach is the same; follow your MTSS protocols.
The MN Department of Education emphasizes the need for a strong system to meet guidelines regarding Dyslexia identification and interventions. GCED and its member districts are already doing this through your MTSS implementation.
Step 1: Universal screening/benchmarking
It targets high value skills that should be mastered by certain stages of development between Pre K- and Grade 3. Students not meeting learning targets need to be offered support; according to MN Statute 120B.12, subdivision 2 the identified student "must be provided with alternate instruction that is multi-sensory, systematic, sequential, cumulative, and explicit [MN Statute 125A.56]. The purpose of universal screening is to identify students that will likely not read within grade level by the end of the school year.
Step 2: Create system to support the screening results
Can the student read quietly with comprehension? NO > When you consider the data, what is your greater concern?
The MN Department of Education emphasizes the need for a strong system to meet guidelines regarding Dyslexia identification and interventions. GCED and its member districts are already doing this through your MTSS implementation.
Step 1: Universal screening/benchmarking
It targets high value skills that should be mastered by certain stages of development between Pre K- and Grade 3. Students not meeting learning targets need to be offered support; according to MN Statute 120B.12, subdivision 2 the identified student "must be provided with alternate instruction that is multi-sensory, systematic, sequential, cumulative, and explicit [MN Statute 125A.56]. The purpose of universal screening is to identify students that will likely not read within grade level by the end of the school year.
- Letter Naming Fluency > letter naming fluency and identification are critical skills needed for reading
- Phonemic Awareness > great predictor until 2nd grade
- Decoding - Nonsense/pseudo word fluency compensates for memorization
- Oral Reading Fluency > highly correlated with poor decoding
Step 2: Create system to support the screening results
Can the student read quietly with comprehension? NO > When you consider the data, what is your greater concern?
- Related language, background, word knowledge
- Then build language processing, vocabulary and funds of knowledge
- Decoding skills
- Then build accuracy and fluency of phonological, orthographic, morphographic skills
- Understanding text structure, discourse, sentence structure
- Then build comprehension skills across increasingly larger sections of text
- Speaking of reading, if you're reading this send an email to jraymond@gced.k12.mn.us with the word READ in the subject line. The first one to respond wins this month's "fabulous prize!"
CAREI Problem Solving PD - Is your homework done?
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FRIENDLY HOMEWORK REMINDER
At our first session of CAREI's problem solving PD we were assigned homework. We were on step 1 of the problem solving model - Problem Identification. It is easy for educators to want to fix things and jump to a solution even before finding a root cause of the problem to solve. To help us slow down and work deeper on problem solving, our homework was to stay focused on step 1 only: RESOURCES: The slides and all of the handouts we used are available in the Google Drive here. Please remember to complete your homework by February 6:
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Strengthening Tier 1 MTSS - MDE Webinar Series
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MDE is sponsoring a webinar series this spring to provide information on practical strategies to support students’ social, emotional and behavioral skill development within a multi-tiered system of support (MTSS) framework.
This series will highlight best practices based on current research from the Office of Special Education Programs (OSEP) Technical Assistance Center on Positive Behavioral Interventions and Supports (PBIS) and voices from the field to illustrate applied examples from Minnesota schools. Minnesota educators and MTSS teams who support social-emotional and behavioral skill development of students or who are responsible for building systems to support these practices within an educational setting are encouraged to participate. Erin Farrell, MDE Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) specialist, is a board certified behavior analyst. Janet Christensen, MDE Emotional and Behavioral Disorder (EBD) specialist, is a former special education teacher and school administrator. Both Erin and Janet have practical experience and behavioral expertise in a variety of K-12 schools. 
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Access the webinar series from the links below. All sessions will start at 3 p.m. and last one hour. Call in to the webinar series audio at 1-206-596-0378 (toll line). For more information, contact Erin Farrell or Janet Christensen.
Thursday, February 7, 2019; 3:00 pm Reengaging in PBIS Join the February 7 session on how to reignite teamwork and action planning. Thursday, February 14, 2019; 3:00 pm PBIS and Aligning Practices Join the February 14 session on social-emotional learning (SEL), school-lined mental health (SLMH) and restorative strategies. Thursday, February 21, 2019; 3:00 pm ASD 101 Join the February 21 session on Autism Spectrum Disorder. Thursday, February 28, 2019: 3:00 pm EBD 101 Join the February 28 session on Emotional Behavioral Disorder. |
February is CTE Month®
by John Double
John is an administrator on special assignment from the Riverland Consortium; he and Brian Cashman collaborate on CTE projects.
As a month, February has many designated causes that it recognizes and celebrates. Some more commonly known designations are “American Heart Month”, “National Dental Month”, “National African American History Month” and “National Women’s History Month”. A less known designation impacting workforce needs in our communities includes February as Career and Technical Education Month®. So what is Career and Technical Education (CTE)? How does it relate to STEM and/or STEAM education? What do they have to do with a student’s education and career goals?
According to the Association for Career & Technical Education, “Career and technical education, or CTE, is education that directly prepares students for high-wage, high-demand careers. CTE covers many different fields, including health care, information technology, advanced manufacturing, hospitality and management and many more…”. “CTE encompasses many different types of education, from classroom learning to certification programs to work-based learning opportunities outside the classroom,” (ACTE Website). Our schools offer many classes under these categories to help students explore and develop their interests in these career areas and more.
The Minnesota Department of Education defines S.T.E.M. education in the following way: “STEM education provides intentionally designed and linked learning experiences for students to develop and apply understandings of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics concepts and processes,“ (MDE Website). This term is sometimes seen as S.T.E.A.M. with the “A” encompassing the area of Art as well. These co-curricular lessons and activities involve the combination of multiple subject areas to increase the learning of the material by students including the application of the students’ learning.
CTE courses and STEM lessons focus on using multidisciplinary approaches and applying student learning. There is a misconception that CTE courses are “Job Training” vs. education. There is also a misconception that manufacturing work is dirty and consists of “assembly line” work. Both of these misconceptions are just that - misconceptions. CTE courses apply learning in real-world scenarios. Students can read about how electric current runs through a circuit however CTE courses and STEM lessons apply that learning in a hand-on format. Many manufacturing facilities today are drastically different than the manufacturing facilities of 50-100 years ago. Many use high-tech machines in clean environments and use computer programming and robotics engineering to compete internationally in the world market.
During CTE Month® this year, take some time and really look at what the schools in your community are doing with Career and Technical Education. There are thousands of high-demand, high-wage positions open in the state of Minnesota with that number projected to increase dramatically over the next decade. Examine which classes they offer and which careers these classes help prepare students for after graduation. Does your school have any defined “pathways” for students to assist them in narrowing down their career interests? What partnerships does your school have with the local business community to enhance their programming and to provide a real-world context for learning? CTE courses, STEM lessons, and partnerships with the local business community and higher education create the best scenario for preparing our students for the careers of today and tomorrow.
John is an administrator on special assignment from the Riverland Consortium; he and Brian Cashman collaborate on CTE projects.
As a month, February has many designated causes that it recognizes and celebrates. Some more commonly known designations are “American Heart Month”, “National Dental Month”, “National African American History Month” and “National Women’s History Month”. A less known designation impacting workforce needs in our communities includes February as Career and Technical Education Month®. So what is Career and Technical Education (CTE)? How does it relate to STEM and/or STEAM education? What do they have to do with a student’s education and career goals?
According to the Association for Career & Technical Education, “Career and technical education, or CTE, is education that directly prepares students for high-wage, high-demand careers. CTE covers many different fields, including health care, information technology, advanced manufacturing, hospitality and management and many more…”. “CTE encompasses many different types of education, from classroom learning to certification programs to work-based learning opportunities outside the classroom,” (ACTE Website). Our schools offer many classes under these categories to help students explore and develop their interests in these career areas and more.
The Minnesota Department of Education defines S.T.E.M. education in the following way: “STEM education provides intentionally designed and linked learning experiences for students to develop and apply understandings of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics concepts and processes,“ (MDE Website). This term is sometimes seen as S.T.E.A.M. with the “A” encompassing the area of Art as well. These co-curricular lessons and activities involve the combination of multiple subject areas to increase the learning of the material by students including the application of the students’ learning.
CTE courses and STEM lessons focus on using multidisciplinary approaches and applying student learning. There is a misconception that CTE courses are “Job Training” vs. education. There is also a misconception that manufacturing work is dirty and consists of “assembly line” work. Both of these misconceptions are just that - misconceptions. CTE courses apply learning in real-world scenarios. Students can read about how electric current runs through a circuit however CTE courses and STEM lessons apply that learning in a hand-on format. Many manufacturing facilities today are drastically different than the manufacturing facilities of 50-100 years ago. Many use high-tech machines in clean environments and use computer programming and robotics engineering to compete internationally in the world market.
During CTE Month® this year, take some time and really look at what the schools in your community are doing with Career and Technical Education. There are thousands of high-demand, high-wage positions open in the state of Minnesota with that number projected to increase dramatically over the next decade. Examine which classes they offer and which careers these classes help prepare students for after graduation. Does your school have any defined “pathways” for students to assist them in narrowing down their career interests? What partnerships does your school have with the local business community to enhance their programming and to provide a real-world context for learning? CTE courses, STEM lessons, and partnerships with the local business community and higher education create the best scenario for preparing our students for the careers of today and tomorrow.
Bluff Country Collaborative: CTE/Perkins at Work
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The Bluff Country Collaborative is a partnership among the Houston County Economic Development Agency, the Fillmore County Economic Development Agency, Workforce Development, Inc., the SE MN Perkins Consortium and the school districts of Caledonia, Fillmore Central, Houston, La Crescent-Hokah, Lewiston-Altura, Mabel-Canton, Rushford-Peterson, and Spring Grove.
The principals from these school districts collaborate approximately every 6 weeks to move their CTE strategies forward. At a meeting last month with SE MN Perkins Coordinator Brian Cashman, the principals began with a review of their vision, goals and strategies along with a check in from each person. Their communication was professional, positive, and fun; it was evident that their collaboration was for the greater good of all. With their strong working relationships in place, they easily shared tasks and resources. In reviewing their proposed agendas for the 2019 Senior Day, the team reviewed data from the 2018 program evaluation to inform this year's plan. For example, this year's plan will include more on soft skills and less unstructured time. Strategies this Group Collaborated on at their December meeting included:
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BLUFF COUNTRY COLLABORATIVE |
Accessibility Matters
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Are you ensuring that your organization is accessible for all?
The MN IT Services Office of Accessibility outline best practices for creating accessible documents, websites and apps. To help your organization, check out Accessibility Matters Quick Cards. Learn more about accessibility at mn.gov/mnit/accessibility. 
Take the No Mouse Challenge!
Try to perform your regular job at the computer without using the mouse for 15 minutes. The Takeway If a document, application, or system cannot support mouseless operation, it will not support assistive technology or accessibility tools. |
The Olmstead Plan: MaxAbility - Growing Your Workforce
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The Minnesota Olmstead Plan will help achieve a better Minnesota for all Minnesotans, because it will help Minnesotans with disabilities have the same opportunities available for everyone else. February's MaxAbility Event focuses on employment opportunities. We encourage you to share this information with your local business and community partnerships. The interactive workshop will cover key concepts to becoming an employer of choice for People with Disabilities.
SE Minnesota Employment Network presents: Disability Friendly Culture and Etiquette Workshop Wednesday 2/27/19; 8:30 to 10:30 am Wood Lake Meeting Center 210 Woodlake Drive Rochester, MN The workshop is free and open to the public; registration is preferred. |
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Dr. Evan Gough, Superintendent of Goodhue Public Schools.
One thing people should know about me is that I'm an open book. 
Random Fun Facts:
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There’s a new superintendent in the county and we’re pleased to welcome Dr. Evan Gough. Dr. Gough hit the ground running midyear and could not be happier to serve Goodhue Public Schools.
Dr. Gough most recently served Blue Earth Area School District as superintendent, which was built on a foundation of 7 years as a math teacher, 2 years as dean of students, and 3 years as an assistant principal. As a high school sophomore, he knew that he wanted to be a superintendent, though he did not anticipate it happening as quickly as it did. Growing up on a farm in South Dakota he experienced his father’s role as a school board member. The school community was going through the building of a new elementary school and high school gymnasium, as well as the consolidation of small rural districts. This work is public work; Dr. Gough was able to observe what his father and his colleagues experienced. These experiences led Dr. Gough to his ultimate career goal. He was not the only one influenced. His sister is a high school choir director and his brother married a kindergarten teacher. This marriage has helped smooth some sibling conflict. The kindergarten teacher is able to help her husband understand that not every child comes to us ready to learn. Dr. Gough’s experience with Blue Earth Area Public Schools included lessons that he will apply in Goodhue. Blue Earth recently went through a 7 million dollar HVAC renovation. Dr. Gough was able to work on the budget to align resources and needs. His top lesson was to “expect the unexpected, especially with this type of older construction and the unknowns.” To get through the process he encourages all to keep the end goal in mind and the “wonderful learning environment that this will create. We’ll get there.” The superintendent’s lens is policy and finance, so why focus on the system? It all boils down to how he has been helping his first grade daughter understand his job, which is “enabling everyone in the district to be successful at their job.” The superintendent’s job is to question and to ensure that the right resources are allocated properly. It boils down to service leadership. According to Aria, his astute daughter, that means that he drinks a lot of coffee, talks on the phone a lot, and walks around a lot. She should know; in Blue Earth she walked by her dad’s office every day. Also through the 30,000 foot view of a superintendent, Dr. Gough sees that one of the most exciting things is public education is that “we’re moving the mountain; we’re not teaching in one room school houses anymore. We’re going to move that mountain through collaboration.” Also exciting in public education is his belief that we are getting better at telling our story. “We let others define us; now we have a vast amount of information” that contributes to the story. This is important because of the challenges we face, challenges that our communities and lawmakers need to understand. Just one challenge is that the world is changing fast, which raises more questions than answers. For examples, What job skills do our students need? What jobs will our current kindergarten class have in the future? Dr. Gough is up for the challenges, with his family supporting him on the home front. His wife Amy is also an educator, licensed as a reading specialist, music teacher, and special education teacher. Before the Goughs moved to Blue Earth, Amy taught in Kenyon-Wanamingo. She currently is staying home with Aria and her 9 month old sister, Ayela. Welcome to our GCED community! |
Remember that you have access to free resources through Infinitec.
Thanks for your heart's focus on all of our students!