When we look at each Essential Element of the MTSS Framework, there is an important underlying trend: Relationships. Relationships are driven through dialogue; and emotions are bound to play a role when we are communicating about changes in process, instruction, classroom management or behavioral supports. In this breakout session, participants will learn the main concepts of Crucial Conversations (Grenny, Patterson, McMIllan, Sitzler, & Gregory, 2022) and how to modify them to fit the educational world. A crucial conversation can be defined as a discussion between two or more people in which they hold opposing opinions about a high-stakes issue and where emotions run strong. Participants will leave understanding how to have safe, meaningful and productive conversations with staff, colleagues, parents and students.

Panelists include: Chelsea Feusner, Aprille Phillips and Beth Ericson, Professors, University of Nebraska at Kearney

This breakout session will highlight key themes from the University of Nebraska at Kearney’s NexGen Leadership Academy, including climate and culture, shared leadership, curriculum and assessment, and collaboration. Presenters will discuss their experiences building leadership capacity across the state and how this can support the MTSS Framework. Participants will learn about the academy and data collected after the first year of implementation. The NexGen Leadership Academy offers a strategic and systematic approach to developing and supporting leaders in Nebraska’s educational system, with a focus on the NeMTSS Essential Elements.

Many schools have adopted Tier 2 supports for students exhibiting behavior related to externalizing problems; however, there are fewer strategies to support students who are internalizing problems, such as anxiety and depression. To address this gap, the Resilience Education Program (REP) was created to support children in schools who demonstrate early signs of internalizing concerns. REP is an integrated Tier 2 intervention for students in grades 4-8 that includes cognitive behavioral instruction, modified check-in/check-out procedures and parent skills training.Participants will leave this breakout session with free access to materials that will help them implement REP in their schools, including guidance on making cultural adaptations to REP lessons and procedures.

This breakout session will demonstrate the efforts and results of three Midwestern MTSS school districts ⁠— two rural and one suburban ⁠— in proactively focusing on building safe, positive and engaging relationships between students and staff. Participants will learn about the 2×10 and Connections List, which are two promising practices that have led to increased positive relationships between staff and students. Additionally, participants will view data from the Communities That Care Youth Survey (School Domain section) that focus on the relationships climate as a means to identify and compare school climate year over year. This discussion will easily translate into actions teachers and/or administrators can take when returning to their districts.

Let’s put muscle in your school’s mission. Educators don’t just teach stuff — they build great people who learn it. This skill-packed breakout session by an internationally acclaimed youth development expert and author of the bestselling book, “Growing Great Qualities in Kids: The L.A.S.E.R.B.E.A.M. Technique for Bringing Out the Best in Young People,” will demonstrate practical, immediately usable tools participants can use daily (and train others) to identify the behaviors they want to develop in students, and how to use positive communication and modeling to teach them. Participants will leave knowing how to develop outstanding behaviors, such as persistence, resilience, teamwork, kindness, confidence, responsibility, respect and more.

In this interactive and informative breakout session, participants will learn about the Writing Recipe, a foolproof way to empower even the most reluctant writer to B.E.L.I.E.V.E.! This approach engages students in exciting writing lessons with embedded social-emotional strategies, while strengthening their writing abilities and emotional intelligence. Educators will discover the power of the Writing Recipe’s ability to differentiate the writing process, with equity and empathy in mind, all while creating passionate writers who want to put their thoughts and ideas on paper. Through physical response activities that promote knowledge retention and reduce learning tension using the power of movement, to using manipulatives with meaning that build vocabulary in fun and humorous ways to which students can relate, participants will leave ecstatic about how the Writing Recipe will transform teaching and lift the levels of intrinsic learning…that is, if you B.E.L.I.E.V.E.!

Too often, continuous improvement is viewed as a checklist of what schools “do” to meet compliance. Section 009 of Nebraska’s Rule 10 Regulations and Procedures for the Accreditation of Schools regulates the minimum requirements for continuous improvement; however, a sustainable Continuous Improvement Process (CIP) is multi-faceted and models should reflect that. Join this interactive breakout session to learn about the journey toward coherence, which includes newly revised materials for Nebraska Continuous Improvement and the incorporation of key NeMTSS Essential Elements as they relate to dynamic continuous improvement.

When educators follow the research on how students learn to read and how to teach reading skills most effectively — all children can successfully learn to read. In this breakout session, participants will learn actionable information about how the implementation of the NeMTSS Framework ensures that all students receive explicit and systematic literacy instruction and students at risk of reading difficulties receive timely, evidence-based intervention to support their growth.

This breakout session aims to align the NeMTSS Essential Elements with High Ability Learners (HAL), as well as demonstrate what HAL–MTSS integration looks like and provide further information on how HAL fits into your school’s MTSS. Nebraska emphasizes MTSS and the role it plays in continuous improvement, and integrating HAL into MTSS will help create coherence for all students. Integrating HAL into MTSS promotes responsive programming, supports continual service to meet needs, and breaks down silos between HAL and the general education classroom. HAL–MTSS, when implemented with fidelity, is hypothesized to have a positive impact on HAL student academic and social-emotional development. HAL students often make the least amount of growth in a year. Improving our responsiveness to their needs will not only help HAL students, but the school as a whole.

In this breakout session, representatives from the Nebraska Department of Education will provide updates on NSCAS assessments for the 2022-23 school year and the statewide transition to NSCAS Growth. NSCAS Growth combines MAP Growth and the NSCAS General Summative tests. Participants will learn about NSCAS Growth and AQuESTT classifications and designations, as well as how to connect this work to the NeMTSS Framework. Participants will have an opportunity to ask questions. Hear from the NDE Offices of Accountability, Accreditation, and Program Approval; Special Education; Statewide Assessment; and Policy and Strategic Initiatives.

In this breakout session, educators will learn about secondary MTSS implementation. The ESU 3 team will share how its MTSS coaches support schools through a blend of presentations and activities that scaffold secondary schools toward improved MTSS implementation. ESU 3 participating schools not only evaluate and improve their MTSS systems, but also work through an annual four-step problem-solving process which compels teams to analyze and act upon problems through a more critical, informed and authentic lens. Presenters will share how they address students’ academic, social-emotional and behavioral needs as a team and unpack instructional, curricular and environmental structures that impact student achievement. Come learn how this three-year cycle will help your team implement MTSS in the final frontier: Secondary schools!

Panelists include: Mikaela Vobejda, principal, Golden Hills Elementary; Ami Nichols, principal, La Vista West Elementary; Tim Johnson, principal, Papillion Middle School; Jen Carson, principal, La Vista Middle School; Troy Juracek, principal, Liberty Middle School and Joel Bails, assistant principal, Papillion La Vista High School.

This breakout session is an invitation to dialogue with administrators from Papillion La Vista Community Schools (PLCS) regarding current MTSS processes. Participants will learn how PLCS uses its current MTSS processes to support learning among students, with an emphasis on how PLCS has helped bridge transitions from elementary to middle school, and middle school to high school. This will be an interactive session to compare processes, collaborate and share ideas with other educators across the state.

Universal screening has emerged as an evidence-based approach to better inform schools on where to focus resources for children who demonstrate mental health, behavioral and social-emotional concerns. This breakout session will provide an overview of screening measures and procedures, including ethical and legal considerations. Participants will learn how to use a decision-making framework to connect screening data to other assessments and interventions, as well as strategies to promote equity and reduce disproportionality in universal screening practices.

This breakout session will describe the essentials of developing an MTSS with an emphasis on instruction. Four evidence-based, high-leverage instructional practices will be introduced that can be used across curricular settings and grade levels to make a significant impact on improving outcomes for all students. The presenter will also provide preliminary data from districts using these practices and highlight the impact they have had on students’ reading, math and behavioral outcomes. Participants will gain knowledge of the essentials of developing an MTSS. This presentation will also provide participants with tools, resources and next steps they can use with their leadership teams and PLCs to implement effective instructional practices and achieve quick wins in the 2022-23 school year. The presenter will highlight specific steps and results secondary sites have experienced by using these practices and the impact these results have had on students’ engagement and college and career readiness.

The most essential skill educators use to support learning is listening. We use it to build relationships with colleagues, partner with parents, model and teach students how to listen effectively and much more — every day. This breakout session will demonstrate fun, exciting, original, creative, attention-grabbing tools and activities to expand participants’ communication toolboxes. Educators can use these resources for themselves or take them home to train others. Participants will leave knowing how to build a more open and collaborative school community.

In this interactive and informative breakout session, participants will learn about the Writing Recipe, a foolproof way to empower even the most reluctant writer to B.E.L.I.E.V.E.! This approach engages students in exciting writing lessons with embedded social-emotional strategies, while strengthening their writing abilities and emotional intelligence. Educators will discover the power of the Writing Recipe’s ability to differentiate the writing process, with equity and empathy in mind, all while creating passionate writers who want to put their thoughts and ideas on paper. Through physical response activities that promote knowledge retention and reduce learning tension using the power of movement, to using manipulatives with meaning that build vocabulary in fun and humorous ways to which students can relate, participants will leave ecstatic about how the Writing Recipe will transform teaching and lift the levels of intrinsic learning…that is, if you B.E.L.I.E.V.E.!

Participants will learn about the Nebraska Department of Education’s reimagined Perceptual Survey and its availability for the 2022-23 school year. This two-year process involved ongoing collaboration with the ESU Data Cadre and encompasses up-to-date initiatives by various NDE sections. By the end of the breakout session, participants will understand how perceptual survey items were rebuilt to measure four valuable constructs and how survey responses can be used to guide continuous improvement action planning, restoring the school community and reinvesting in targeted efforts for student success.

Panelists include: Annette Wragge, state coordinator; Abby Pfister, Northeast Region coordinator and Jen Quaranta, Southeast Region coordinator

This breakout session will cover information to help participants look below the surface and gain a better understanding of students with autism who have average to above average language and cognitive abilities. Presenters will discuss important learning characteristics specific to individuals with autism, including theory of mind, weak central coherence and executive functioning deficits, and how they relate to universal supports in the classroom. Participants will also learn about cost-effective supports that are easy for classroom teachers, specialists and other team members to implement to foster students’ social, emotional, behavioral and academic success.

Panelists include: Amy Colwell, Regions 1 and 2 NeMTSS Early Childhood Implementation Facilitator; Brooke Gebers, Region 3 NeMTSS Regional Support Lead; Jill Guenther, Region 4 NeMTSS SEBL Specialist; Linda Clavel, Region 5 PBIS Coach and Megan Dufek, ESU #8 MTSS Coordinator

This session will explore the connections of social, emotional, behavioral, and academic support for students enrolled in pre-kindergarten through graduation using a MTSS Framework for Continuous Improvement. This cross-area panel will bring regional support opportunities provided through NeMTSS in partnership with ESUs directly to you. You will have the opportunity to learn about support offered from a variety of professionals and ask questions specific to the areas of early childhood; social, emotional, and behavioral learning; and Continuous Improvement using an MTSS Framework.

This breakout session will address ways to evaluate and improve your district’s system-level practice of MTSS to achieve efficient, effective and equitable support for all students. Presenters will discuss using data-driven decisions to evaluate the whole system, with the goal to iterate and improve a school or district’s MTSS practices holistically (academic, behavior, social-emotional). Participants will learn multiple ways to evaluate their current MTSS practices and how to apply data-driven decisions to iterate and improve practices.

This breakout session will describe how function-based thinking empowers school professionals to provide social, emotional, behavioral and mental health services more effectively by considering why challenges in these areas occur and identify crucial concepts and core components of an evidence-based model for providing multi-tiered systems of support. These crucial concepts and core components provide an evidence-based framework that can be used as a foundation for social, emotional and behavioral support programs. Freely accessible resources will be shared.

Panelists include: Annette Wragge, state coordinator; Sarah Haahr, Central Region behavior specialist and Ali Sweitzer, Metro Region behavior specialist

In this breakout session, presenters from the Autism Spectrum Disorders Network will review high-leverage, intensive interventions for students with autism and other disabilities. Presenters will provide an overview of targeted, intensive, individualized interventions for students on the autism spectrum, as well as the Universal Protocol. Discussion will cover two different skills-based teaching approaches; one for students with emerging problem behavior and one for students engaging in severe problem behavior. Both approaches focus on increasing functional communication, tolerance and cooperation skills. Participants will gain a more comprehensive understanding of programming options for school teams supporting students with emerging problem behavior and/or students engaging in severe problem behavior beyond the traditional Functional Behavior Assessment and Behavior Intervention Plan.

Let’s put muscle in your school’s mission. Educators don’t just teach stuff — they build great people who learn it. This skill-packed breakout session by an internationally acclaimed youth development expert and author of the bestselling book, “Growing Great Qualities in Kids: The L.A.S.E.R.B.E.A.M. Technique for Bringing Out the Best in Young People,” will demonstrate practical, immediately usable tools participants can use daily (and train others) to identify the behaviors they want to develop in students, and how to use positive communication and modeling to teach them. Participants will leave knowing how to develop outstanding behaviors, such as persistence, resilience, teamwork, kindness, confidence, responsibility, respect and more.

In this interactive and informative breakout session, participants will learn about the Writing Recipe, a foolproof way to empower even the most reluctant writer to B.E.L.I.E.V.E.! This approach engages students in exciting writing lessons with embedded social-emotional strategies, while strengthening their writing abilities and emotional intelligence. Educators will discover the power of the Writing Recipe’s ability to differentiate the writing process, with equity and empathy in mind, all while creating passionate writers who want to put their thoughts and ideas on paper. Through physical response activities that promote knowledge retention and reduce learning tension using the power of movement, to using manipulatives with meaning that build vocabulary in fun and humorous ways to which students can relate, participants will leave ecstatic about how the Writing Recipe will transform teaching and lift the levels of intrinsic learning…that is, if you B.E.L.I.E.V.E.!

In this breakout session, participants will take a deep dive into resources needed to support implementation of new English Language Arts (ELA) instructional materials into the NeMTSS Framework. Participants will learn about ELA-specific tools to support implementation. This session is a must if your schools are implementing new ELA materials this fall.

MTSS offers a meaningful and effective way to organize instruction and intervention to help improve outcomes for all students through a combination of instructional and behavioral interventions. Instructional and behavioral interventions aim to provide increasingly intensive supports to address and remediate issues that impact learning; but until those issues are addressed, a gap will remain between what the student is currently able to do and what the student needs to do. One component to consider in MTSS’s layered continuum of supports is the use of technology. This breakout session will discuss how universal technology supports and assistive technologies may be used to support students in accessing and engaging in high-quality, grade-level learning experiences.

Panelists include: Kim Snyder, director of Teacher and Principal Support, Office of Coordinated School & District Support; Julie Downing, educator effectiveness specialist; Ryan Ricenbaw, Nebraska Leadership and Learning Network specialist; Nebraska Department of Education

The Nebraska Department of Education’s S.E.E.D. process can help ensure the strengths of all educators and school leaders are used to their full potential. In this breakout session, participants will learn about S.E.E.D. – Supporting Educator Effectiveness Through Development – and how this process prioritizes each district’s context and data-informed decisions, and values the roles of ESUs, Institutes of Higher Education, district and building leadership, the Nebraska Department of Education, and professional learning and community partnerships in implementing systemic change. The S.E.E.D process uses research and evidence-based strategies to build coherence and assist districts in supporting and developing educators. The foundation of this process includes the Nebraska Teacher and Principal Performance Standards and rubrics.