How Duneland Increased Consistency and Communication for Student Interventions

Duneland School Corporation

State: Indiana | Type of School: Suburban | Students: 5,800

Diversity:  91% White, 9% Hispanic, 1% Black

Free or reduced lunch: 26.5%

“We self-identified as being on the ‘Nine Islands of Duneland,’ which meant each school was doing its own thing. So it was important to align ourselves, as a single district, because we should represent the same thing.” Jen Bognar, Director of Exceptional Learning in Duneland.

The process began with how they looked at data and communicated about student support across the district.  “We were looking for a way for everyone to gather that data in the same way so that we could create some alignment, look at the fidelity of services, and have those open conversations about what people were doing and take those best practices from each building and be able to share them.”

Duneland partnered with Branching Minds to help them build consistency in their MTSS practice across the district. 

THE CHALLENGES:

Buy-in from a Reluctant Team

“The people who were really successful at a self-created system were very reluctant to give it up.” Many felt that they didn’t need another thing, especially if their way was working. 

For Jen and her team, they charged their leaders to help with the buy-in for the new system. “We needed to make sure they understood this wasn't going to be an additional time draw for them; it was going to help them save time by being able to explore the data, to track behavior, and  to share information with colleagues in different buildings.”

THE RESULTS:

Collaboration and Responsiveness

Within a year of implementing Branching Minds, Duneland is seeing results.  “In the last year we've had a huge amount of growth as far as being able to be more responsive to students needs. Every decision that we make, we can make because of the data that Branching Minds helps us collect and analyze.”

And, teams are able to collaborate to make sure students are getting the support they need. “With the tier level reports, you can look at a classroom level, grade level, building level, and that makes a huge difference in being able to compare results. We've used that data in principals' and instructional coaches' meetings, to look at the growth or gaps.  We pinpoint why we think that is. Then we can target the correct person to provide that intervention.”

Another benefit? Staff who work with students with intensive behavior needs can make quicker and more consistent decisions.  “They track their behavior data from their groups when they meet at the end of the week using the graphs. When the data is presented in that way, it makes it so much easier to analyze in order to respond with appropriate interventions.”

Duneland is just beginning their journey with Branching Minds and are excited for the results to come.  

“We have a lot of initiatives that we're working on right now to support academic and social, emotional and behavioral growth. So by being able to use Branching Minds as a platform to not only back up the need, but back up the success that those programs are having, that helps us inform our parents and our community about what we're doing for students.”