How Beaumont ISD Improved Alternative School Collaboration with Branching Minds

Beaumont Independent School District

State: Texas | Type of School: City | Students: 19,453

Diversity:  59.6% Black, 26.5% Hispanic/Latino, 8.3%  White, 2.9% Asian/API 2.8% Other

Free or reduced lunch: 60.6%

With over 19,000 students and 20 schools, district MTSS Specialist Emma McBride had to be strategic to implement MTSS district-wide and get all teams on the same page. “Some campuses really were self-initiated and were starting the process of building that MTSS framework. Some campuses were like, what is MTSS? So having such a big district, it varied depending on the campus.” 

The district needed one system to help them bring all the data together, especially for students moving between campuses. She did her research, "In a district that is struggling, you don't have time to implement a program with staff and then decide, this isn't exactly what we want."

THE CHALLENGES:

Too Much Data, Not Enough Action

For Beaumont, it was one thing to collect student data through assessments and progress monitoring tools, but another to do something with it. “We wanted to have actionable data. We had a lot of data on our hands and it was spread out into different programs. Having assessment and support data in one place so that we could look at it as a whole and make better data-based  decisions was our main goal.”

Emma recognized that they did not lack resources or staff, they just needed an efficient way to collaborate and see the whole picture of a child. “The biggest thing that we needed Branching Minds to do for us was really just to pull all of the amazing resources and staff that we already have together in a platform where we could collaborate and see the cumulative support for the student in real-time.”

THE RESULTS:

Seamless Interventions and Collaboration for Vulnerable Students

With Branching Minds, Beaumont is making strides in designing support for students, especially students in alternative settings. They are able to utilize resources within Branching Minds to create support plans for students and have those supports follow them back to their home campus. “That's their specialty at the alternative campus, to pour that support into those students, to change their path, turn them back to the regular campus, and really help them be successful.” When the student returns to the home campus, the alternative campus team shares what they’ve learned about how to support that student through Branching Minds.  The home campus team can now continue any successful specialized support from the alternative setting! 

This type of collaboration is one example of how having the Branching Minds platform transformed Beaumont’s collaboration and communication. "Seeing all of those departments come together in one room and really talk about how they support students and their processes gave a bigger picture of how everyone's job fits together and how there really is a huge need for everyone to bring their expertise to the table.”