East Moline School District 37 is a Pre-K - 8th grade school district in Illinois that serves almost 2,400 students. With over 45 different languages spoken and 4 bilingual programs running to support its student community, East Moline leadership prides itself on the diversity achieved within the district. When they started looking for an MTSS solution to streamline and organize its multiple MTSS procedures district-wide, they found just what they needed in EmbraceMTSS®.
About East Moline School District 37:
Students: nearly 2,400
Location: IL
Solutions used:
EmbraceIEP®
EmbraceMTSS® made it possible for the district to move away from its building-based MTSS management framework, which heavily relied on Google folders, to a centralized MTSS software for storing all historical data in one place.
This ensured more seamless and secure procedures, along with many other benefits:
- MTSS processes synchronized with IEP processes through EmbraceIEP®
- All historical data across the district is now stored in one secure place
- Improved efficiency and speed in intervention management
- Easier staff adoption due to familiarity with the system and its intuitiveness
- Ability to create, edit, and share intervention lists across the district
- Easily accessible customer support
The Problem:
When the district started looking for an MTSS software a few years ago, their MTSS procedures were building-based which affected overall special education department efficiency and coordination of MTSS documentation management within a larger spectrum of special education services offered by the district.
“It was really difficult for our special education department, especially when a child would be referred to have all these processes and different assessments,” said Kelly Ronnebeck, Associate Superintendent for Student Achievement at East Moline.
Another big concern was inability to store and access historical data in one place. “It was just hard to collect all student data and have it somewhere that was both private and accessible to people,” Kelly added.
Before Embrace®, the staff used different solutions and even Google folders to store and organize the data. However, with that, arose multiple problems.
“If the owner of the folder leaves the district,” explained Kelly,“ then all that information is lost.”
Kelly Ronnebeck
Associate Superintendent for Student Achievement
"We utilize EmbraceMTSS® and EmbraceIEP® and that has really helped to have our processes seem aligned."
The Goal:
Some of the most important goals of East Moline, according to Kelly, were to make MTSS procedures more uniform across the district and to sync them with all other procedures in their special education department.
After considering a few different assessment portals, East Moline found that they would all still provide only partial functionality while the district sought a 360 solution that would allow them to generate reports, analyze data, and add anecdotal, academic, and SEL information.
“We really wanted a place that we could capture both academic and SEL information. And also, you know, we wanted analytical data with the numbers. We also wanted to be able to type in some anecdotal things as well,” Kelly explained.
It was important to step away from using Google documents, too.
“Sometimes we just had a Google document where we would type in everything. That was very inefficient… Some buildings did use a spreadsheet to create scores, but then they didn't really have a place to put anecdotal information. It was just kind of a hodgepodge of ways that people tried to do it,” Kelly said.
Being a long-time EmbraceIEP® customer, the district decided to try EmbraceMTSS®. "We decided to utilize Embrace just because of the fact that it is so similar to the IEP side," Kelly explained.
Kelly Ronnebeck
Associate Superintendent for Student Achievement
"...Since we've started our new MTSS procedures, and Embrace® is part of that,.. we can get through an entire building's Tier 3 students in a whole morning, whereas before it would have taken sometimes days…"
The Solution:
More efficient, faster intervention management
EmbraceMTSS® allowed the district to rely on an already streamlined system for faster and easier intervention management, freeing up staff time and increasing special education department efficiency.
“Through our tightening up of protocols, since we've started our new MTSS procedures, and Embrace® is part of that, we can get through our Tier 3 students, looking at their data, deciding whether or not they need to stay in an intervention, move to a different intervention, or be exited. We can get through an entire building's Tier 3 students in a whole morning, whereas before it would have taken sometimes days, because we didn't have those procedures in place,” Kelly explained.
“Embrace® has been part of that tightening up of our systems and being able to be more efficient with talking about data and interventions, and whether or not to move a child into something else.”
Long-term procedural improvements
Even though it was tough at first to change the old ways of doing things, both the leadership team and staff are glad they made the switch after all.
“Change is difficult, but once we all have gotten used to the system, and how Embrace® is set up, and where to go and whatnot, it has been a much more streamlined process than it was before,” Kelly confirmed.
Familiar system and easier staff adoption
“Many of us were already familiar with EmbraceIEP®. So, it wasn't a big jump to go to the MTSS side, which made training and just knowledge of how the systems work much easier,” Kelly said.
Ability to personalize intervention lists
Being able to list interventions specific to the district and then offer the same list across the district has helped East Moline with the standardization of procedures.
“I think it's really been nice that we can list all of our interventions within EmbraceMTSS® and we can edit it and make it our own.”
Kelly also added that, “it's made us tighten up what we offer across the district to make sure that each building has the same things available to them. So, it's just helped with continuity across the district as well.”
Easily accessible support
“We’ve been pretty happy with the support that we’ve gotten from Embrace®… They’ve been very easy to work with. And the people who work with it the closest, which is not necessarily me, once they learn how Embrace® works, it’s just intuitive to them. So, I think it’s a great product. We’re happy with it.”
When asked if she would recommend EmbraceMTSS® to other districts, Kelly said: “Yes. I think it's a great portal to have all the information. It's secure. We can share it with just the people who need it. We can see things over time in Embrace®, and it gives us a clean way to store everything that’s the same over time. So, if a different person is in charge of interventions in one building than in another, all the information that is put in there is similar. So, it helps us to look at data and look at students in many different situations.”
“Embrace® has been part of that tightening up of our systems and being able to be more efficient with talking about data and interventions, and whether or not to move a child into something else."
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