🎥 What does it mean? "Infrastructure" is the mechanisms in a system that support people as they work efficiently together. This includes teams organized to work like clockwork, implementation plans, well-allocated resources, useful technology, etc.
Infrastructure provides the stability for initiatives to be installed, sustained, and improved independent of specific people.
Teams
Configuration and Purposes of Teams
Agenda Templates
- Generic Running Agenda A clean slate that can be adapted and used for any team + 🎥 how to use it.
- Running Agenda for Data Review Meetings* This is an example of a running agenda that a school could use throughout a school year to review screening data, progress monitoring, common assessments, etc. and keep track of their action items.
- Fall Data Review Meeting* This is a similar example, but it offers a slightly different structure.
- Intervention Tracker Spreadsheet Grade level teams can use a spreadsheet like this to track students of concern and practices they're using to respond in the classroom. The behavior PST can also use it to document Tier 2 and Tier 3 interventions.
- Individual Student Behavior Problem Solving During PST or SST meetings, teams could use this agenda to frame conversations around specific students. Decisions would then be reflected in – for example — the Grade Level Behavior Tracker (Tier 3) or IEPs/BSPs (SpEd).
- SpEd Student Support Team (SST) Behavior Data Review Team meetings to review all behavior data for students in special education to proactively identify students needing additional behavior supports. There is also a variation designed for teams that review a broader student group (e.g., students suspected of having a disability).
- Federal Setting III Program Data Review Team meetings to review student progress/levels, staffing, program integrity, and program evaluation.
*Essential Components of Data Review Agendas: When Data Facilitators work with their teams to develop meeting agendas like the examples linked above, there are a few essential components: (#1) Follow the school's Plan for Data Review Meetings (#2) When examining any data source: Define the "current state", "desired state", strengths and needs (i.e., analysis), action steps, and a plan for evaluating progress.
Team Functioning
- Team Norms: Here's a resource folder and a 🎧 podcast episode (26:21) that both support the development and maintenance of effective team norms.
- Decision Making Windows: A lot of friction in meetings comes when team members are unclear on their role in a decision. Are we making this decision together? Does the leader want my input or is this a non-negotiable? Once a team is versed in these 4 "window" categories, they're invaluable for clearing that up.
- Consensus Ladder: When decisions are being made "together" the loudest voices may hold sway unless the team has a system for encouraging everyone to give input. This is a simple fist-to-five scale for accomplishing that.
- Teamwork Resource Folder: Additional resources designed to support collaboration and teamwork among educators, including group reflection techniques and example questions for talking to principals.
Implementation Plans
- Implementation Science Basics When we're implementing new practices and programs, if we want them to stick around and achieve the results we're looking for, we need to be intentional about what we're implementing, where we're implementing it, who is involved, and how we approach it.