Your district needs a strong Multi-Tiered System of Supports (MTSS), but the question is, how will you pay for it?Finding the funding for MTSS .
At Branching Minds, we pursue our mission by providing schools and school districts with engaging professional development that deepens educator practice and strengthens each infrastructure component needed to sustain an MTSS.
Empowering Districts With MTSS Professional Learning
The Branching Minds professional learning presents essential technical knowledge of the Branching Minds product directly alongside advancements in the learning sciences, academic research, and best practices in MTSS, tailored to each district's unique needs and current practices. We collaborate with users at all levels (e.g., assessment coordinators, principals, and teachers) to ensure that Branching Minds aligns with a district's specific workflow—present and future—to elevate their MTSS implementation and support long-term success.
Driving MTSS Success With Tailored Professional Development
As current and former educators with an average of 15 years of experience at the school and/or district level, we understand the importance of ongoing support in deepening MTSS practices and maximizing platform implementation. We are your partners every step of the way, ensuring sustained growth and impact in the MTSS journey by remaining committed to partners' success long after the initial training.
Tailored Professional Development for Your District’s Specific Needs
Discover Additional Professional Learning Opportunities
Start with the Launch Series to Unlock Next Steps in Your Professional Learning Journey
The Launch Series is a prerequisite for advancing to the Deepening Practices Collection.
Each session in this series has tailored versions for teams and leaders, ensuring relevant insights and actionable strategies for every role.
Launch Series
On-site or Virtual Facilitated Sessions
Within the first year of partnership, districts receive at least two professional development sessions.
The trainings balance learning evidence-based MTSS practices and the Branching Minds platform, while ensuring that trainings are tailored and aligned to a district’s MTSS infrastructure and goals.
The Building Capacity Session
The Building Capacity session focuses on MTSS Foundational knowledge and skills. Content is focused on key school systems, data use, and practice needed for successful implementation. The training gives tools and strategies for giving evidence-based practices that drive student success.
For Teams
The Building Capacity with Branching Minds for Teams session is provided to all districts that purchase the BRM platform. This training is geared toward staff such as administrators, instructional coaches, interventionists, and teacher leaders.
For Leaders
This session is intended for school administrators (e.g., principals) and district leaders (e.g., MTSS coordinators, directors, area superintendents). The content includes everything from the Building Capacity for Teams session, but at a high level. This is because these individuals typically will not be implementing intervention plans, but need to have an awareness of how the platform is set up to complete the tasks.
Making Data-Based Decisions Session
The Making Data-Based Decisions session helps to ensure users are transforming their data into action. Additionally, this training includes a check-in about how platform implementation is progressing, an opportunity to reinforce skills from the Building Capacity session, strategies to support evaluation and shifting adult practices, and planning opportunities to identify areas of improvement and success on the platform and MTSS implementation as a whole.
For Teams
This session is intended is tailored to administrators, instructional coaches, interventionists, and teacher leaders. It helps educators use the platform to assess practices, take a temperature check of student performance, evaluate the fidelity of support plans and progress monitoring, analyze trends and evaluate instructional impact.
For Leaders
This session includes everything from Making Data-Based Decisions for Teams (outlined above), plus strategies to help leaders action insights from BRM platform, to-do lists, continue improving practices and platform engagement, interpret the MTSS Self-Assessment of MTSS Implementation and prioritize actions, address challenges called out in the Building Capacity session, and reframe challenges with a focus on lifting barriers.
Deepening Practice with Branching Minds Collection
On-site or Virtual Facilitated Sessions
Deepening Practice
Research says that planned implementation can take up to 3 years for full implementation and adoption. In our Deepening Practice collection, educators reflect, reset, and expand initial systems, data-driven decision rules, and practices that will be required to support MTSS sustainability.
Comprehensive Support Plans That Work for T2 and T3 Academic Interventions
Learn how to create comprehensive intervention plans for Academics in the Branching Minds platform, including appropriate goals, interventions, and progress monitoring. Explore, analyze, and action intervention plan data, e.g. revising or ending support plans.
Comprehensive Support Plans That Work for T2 and T3 SEL/Behavior Interventions
Learn how to create comprehensive intervention plans for social-emotional and behavioral health in the Branching Minds platform, including appropriate goals, interventions, and progress monitoring. Explore, analyze, and action intervention plan data, e.g. revising or ending support plans.
Planning and Leading Effective MTSS Meetings
One of the biggest hurdles school systems have to overcome when shifting to MTSS is adjusting practices around planning, scheduling, and facilitating effective meetings. Learn to leverage best practices and the Branching Minds platform tools to achieve expert-level MTSS meeting coordination and facilitation. Walk away from this professional development with tips, tools, and templates to focus their MTSS work and keep meetings on track.
Additional Professional Development
Foundations + Infrastructure
On-site or Virtual Facilitated Sessions
Branching Minds’ Infrastructure and Foundations Series supports districts and schools in developing procedures, protocols, and communications that promote the implementation of the MTSS framework.
The Foundations and Infrastructure Series provides time and space for district and school teams to reflect on “WHAT is MTSS?”, “WHY do we want to ‘practice’ MTSS?” and “HOW will we ‘practice’ MTSS?”.
We work closely with our district partners to understand and value previous work, ensure alignment between MTSS and any district strategic plans, and uncover all stakeholder needs.
Outcomes from the sessions include: deeper foundational knowledge of MTSS components, aligned and explicit protocols, procedures, clear roles and responsibilities, and the importance of communication to support the adoption of new practice.
Strengthening Infrastructure with Branching Minds Series
Creating and Implementing an MTSS Handbook
Improving system-level infrastructure is essential to enhancing best practices across any school district’s MTSS practice.
The Branching Minds Infrastructure Series provides school districts with the tools and professional development needed to advance their system to the next level. The primary goal of this series is to thoroughly examine every aspect of your MTSS, helping you identify strengths, challenges, opportunities, and potential gaps. With support from a Branching Minds consultant, participants will consolidate these insights into a unified, collaborative MTSS handbook. This document will serve as a valuable repository and blueprint, capturing the collective wisdom of the district's stakeholders, guiding daily practices, and helping stakeholders allocate resources in support of students' diverse and evolving needs.
Strengthening Infrastructure with Branching Minds Collection
MTSS Foundations
Just like infrastructural blueprints for building a home have codes that must be understood by the drafter, the engineer, the contractor, the building inspector, and the homeowner, school districts must first ensure that the blueprint or foundation for success is understood by everyone doing the work.
Planning and Leading Effective MTSS Meetings
One of the biggest hurdles school systems have to overcome when shifting to MTSS is adjusting practices around planning, scheduling, and facilitating effective meetings. Learn how to leverage best practices to achieve expert-level MTSS meeting coordination and facilitation. Walk away from this professional development with tips, tools, and templates to focus their MTSS work and keep meetings on track.
Examining Current Policy and Practice
Complete a comprehensive review of your existing practices (MTSS Handbook) and system-level data to reveal detailed insights and targeted recommendations. Identifying trends to uncover areas for improvement, our analysis empowers you to make informed decisions and maximize the impact of your interventions.
Additional Professional Learning Opportunities
Branching Minds (BRM) offers a variety of professional learning opportunities for states, districts, and schools to ensure instructional leaders, specialists, coaches, and teachers are able to implement MTSS and the BRM platform with fidelity and maximize educators’ efforts to accelerate learning for all students.
Contact us to learn how Branching Minds can support your district's RTI/MTSS practice
Our Most Recent Blog Posts
For decades, the "Reading Wars" have sparked fierce debates over the best way to teach reading. But at the heart of it all, one truth remains: .
Feb 12, 2025
Whenever I mention I taught middle school, the reactions are predictable: either a wide-eyed “Wow, you’re so brave!” or a grim “Middle school? That .
Feb 4, 2025
Close your eyes (while reading this may be difficult, but just play along)… and imagine stepping into a Student Support Team Meeting with an .
Jan 31, 2025