Welcome to the Ferguson-Florissant MTSS District Leadership Team page. The team’s purpose is to lead and provide oversight during the action planning, implementation, and assessment of the District Action Plan. The objective of the team is to increase capacity in several key areas: 1) Evaluation, performance, feedback, and data based decision making 2) Coaching and technical support, 3) Professional learning, 4) Stakeholder engagement, 5) Resource alignment, funding, and allocation. Members of this team include representation from the following stakeholders: District administrators, school administrators, University of Missouri-Columbia, and Special School District. In our continuous effort to improve our practice, we look forward to your thoughts, questions and feedback on how we can better improve our programming. Feel free to reach out to any team member with questions.

Benefits of Social-Emotional Learning

• Student attitude towards learning improved.
• increased motivation and commitment.
• There were behavioral changes in participation and study habits.
• improved grades as well as greater mastery of material.
• Reduces behavior problems 

Resources compiled with information from CASEL and Zins, Weissberg, Wang, and Walberg, 2004

Why We Are Committed to Restorative Practices

Restorative Practices have been shown to have a positive effect on school climate, culture, and academics (including improved student attendance, test scores, and graduation rates), and on outcomes related to discipline policies and practices including reductions in discipline referrals, violent and serious incidents, and punitive and exclusionary discipline responses.*

While these are powerful reasons enough to shift to a restorative approach to education, teachers and students will point to more personal reasons for why it is important. Students report a greater sense of belonging, voice, and empathy while teachers report greater experience of connection with students and satisfaction in their jobs. To learn more about why RP is important, read Understanding the “Why?” of Circles by Annie O’Shaughnessy, M.Ed.

*Adapted from Jon Kidde’s Restorative Justice: A Yardstick for Schools and Restorative Justice in Schools: Outcomes and Indicators

Student Screeners and Surveys

DESSA: The DESSA is a nationally standardized, strength-based behavior rating scale that assesses students’ social and emotional competence with editions that support students K-12. It has been used by districts across the country to support social and emotional learning.  It is aligned to CASEL standards. We use the DESSA Mini to identify students who may need support.  We use the DESSA Comprehensive Screener to drill down into exactly what would benefit each student who demonstrates a need for additional support.  A team of professionals individualize support in a Care Team process.  More Information about the DESSA

SECA: The SECA is a research-based, student-facing survey that measures self-reported social and emotional competencies of students in grades 5-12.  Students respond to questions that measure their confidence in 8 social-emotional domains.  We use the SECA result to identify areas we can address school-wide to help all students gain confidence in certain competencies.  We can also support smaller groups of students in Tier 2 interventions. More information about the SECA and SEL screeners

1. Self-awareness of strengths and weaknesses
2. Self-awareness of emotions
3. Self-management of emotions
4. Self-management of goals
5. Self-management of school work
6. Relationship skills
7. Social awareness
8. Responsible decision-making

Culture and Climate Surveys: The School Climate Surveys are a set of four multidimensional surveys to measure student, teacher, administrator, faculty, and family perceptions of school climate: elementary, middle/high, school personnel, and family. The surveys are brief, reliable, and valid for assessing perceived school climate among students in Grades 3-12. We use climate surveys to determine how members of our FFSD community view the culture and climate of our schools.  This information helps us plan for continuous improvement. More information about School Climate Surveys

MTSS Fidelity Evaluation

Tiered Fidelity Index (TFI): School SELT teams take the TFI as a group to measure school implementation across one, two, or all three tiers, all in one survey. The survey helps teams check in on their PBIS efforts, for creating action plans for improvement, and for monitoring implementation progress over time. The TFI includes a school walk-through tool to measure implementation of Tier 1 systems evident in the building. The MTSS District Leadership Team coaches school teams to use TFI results. More information about the TFI

Effective Classroom Practices: Developed through our partnership with the University of Missouri (MU), the Effective Classroom Practices tool allows leaders to measure the use of research-based best practices to ensure student learning and engagement in a positive, safe, and predictable classroom climate.  Leaders collect data and give teachers feedback on effective practices that benefit students. 

District Systems Fidelity Inventory (DSFI): The purpose of the District Systems Fidelity Inventory (DSFI) is to guide District Leadership Teams in the assessment, development, and execution of action plans that promote the capacity for sustainable, culturally and contextually relevant, and high-fidelity implementation of multi-tiered social, emotional, and behavioral systems of support and practices. The DSFI and process have been designed to serve as a guide for initial action planning, progress monitoring and annual evaluation of fidelity of implementation and impact. More information about the DSFI