ICYMI: Branching Minds Top 10 Product Improvements in 2023

It’s been an exciting, dynamic year for Branching Minds, thanks to you! The input and support of our district partners are the driving force behind every update and enhancement. We've come a long way, and with sincere gratitude, we toast our wonderful community of educators and celebrate our top improvements of the year. 

1.

Howdy, partner! To kick off the year, we introduced new features that help educators in the Lone Star State meet the requirements of Texas HB 4545 (now House Bill 1416), including the ability to take action directly from reports for group formation, family communication letter generation, and more. Our partners now have the option for CSV exports for the Cohort Assessment Performance Report and a nightly PEIMS Data Extract for the Texas Records Exchange (TREx)s.

Branching Minds' Accelerated Learning Report

2.

In February, our integration with iReady Math and Reading underwent an update, aligning with iReady's transition to 5 performance levels.

3.

We launched our signature Tier Automation feature for the first time. With this functionality, administrators could leverage universal screener data and apply cut-point thresholds for Tier 2 and Tier 3 support. Though the feature set was in its infancy, we were on our way to more equitable and systematic tier recommendations. The evolution of Tier Automation continues, and we now offer customization of tier cut points for percentile-based screeners.

Branching Minds' Tier Automation Feature

4.

We created a new functionality that allows district administrators to control which user roles can edit each section of the student profile, leaving folks more confident in the accuracy of important student data.  

5.

Our Intervention Library grew throughout the year with Science of Reading supports, supports from the JED Foundation for high school students, supports for early childhood from NCMPI, supports from the Flordia Center for Reading Research, Khan Academy Kids, Duolingo, and many more! We also improved our library of supports for English Language Learners.

6.

The Cohort Assessment Performance Report expanded to encompass a range of benchmark assessments.

7.

We worked on crucial updates to our data ingestion pipelines and processes so district data flowed into the Branching Minds platform as quickly as possible. By mid-fall, we were excited to see that most data files were ingested the same day they were sent! We also now support OneRoster 1.2 for rostering data.

8.

We rolled out the ability to ingest behavior incident data from PBIS Rewards, with no data transformations needed for strapped IT teams. 

9.

Our Intervention Usage Report was updated, allowing users to view intervention details on a student-by-student basis.  

Branching Minds Intervention Usage Report

10.

Finally, we launched our MTSS Learning Hub to provide asynchronous Professional Development for our district partners. So far, 126 district partners are leveraging the MTSS Learning Hub to ensure educators in their setting know how to use the Branching Minds platform to support students and improve outcomes.

Wrapping Up

We are excited to continue our product development in 2024 as we listen to your needs and help you meet your goals.  Here's to another year of innovation and delightful discoveries!