Implementor Spotlight – Dyer County
Tennessee TSC began a partnership with Dyer County Schools in rural Northwest Tennessee in the fall of 2022. Tennessee TSC consultants began district-wide training with a cohort of three schools and then trained five additional schools in the fall of 2023. Laura Burroughs, the District RTI2-A + RTI2-B Coordinator, has been instrumental in leading the district’s schools in the alignment of their academic and behavior frameworks.
After completing its third administration of the District Capacity Assessment-Tennessee (DCAT), Dyer County Schools’ overall scores on the assessment’s Leadership, Assessment, Data-Based Decision Making, and Instruction and Intervention subdomains increased considerably. During a recent District Leadership Team meeting, we asked about the steps taken to improve the district’s implementation of RTI2-A + RTI2-B, which the DCAT measures. Laura Burroughs, along with Rena McKnight and Angie Stafford, who are both supervisors and a part of the district leadership team, shared a few examples of how the district has been supporting their schools.
This data is shared with permission from Dyer County Schools.
This is a picture of the poster that can be found in the school team meeting rooms.
“Dyer County Schools increased their percentages on the District Capacity Assessment-Tennessee by maintaining collaboration through School Leadership Team meetings as well as District Leadership Team meetings. [The School Leadership Team] meets monthly and [the District Leadership Team] meets bi-monthly. The essential component that is making a huge impact and that has shown the greatest growth is Data-based Decision Making.
Recently, we provided a School Team Lead Training on the problem-solving process. Each school was given a poster to hang in their meeting room to remind them to follow the process. Scenarios of possible problems were handed out. Small groups worked together to problem solve and then presented to the whole group. Problems were defined along with what expectations were desired. Each small group shared their data sources along with their hypotheses as to why the problem was occurring. They put this information together to establish a plan of action. The school coaches took this training back to their schools and shared with their data teams the importance of using the problem-solving process to make important decisions.
Because Dyer County Schools began implementing a Universal Behavior Screener in the fall of 2023 to better align academics with behavior within our district, we are now looking at both academic and behavior data, which has better equipped us to problem solve. We have also committed to providing the needed professional development opportunities to meet the needs of our teachers and our students, such as continual support of our behavioral expectations and discipline system, which ties into our Character program, and the use of high-quality instructional practices to better engage our students. We are also looking forward to Tier 2 training. Dyer County Schools appreciates the support of the Tennessee Tiered Supports Center.”
This is a picture of Laura Burroughs, the District RTI2-A + RTI2-B Coordinator.
These images are shared with permission from Dyer County Schools.
