Equity for All: Effectively Implementing a Student Support Model While Managing Change

Abstract

All students attending public schools should receive the best educational experience no matter their academic, social/emotional and/or physical need. School districts have a responsibility to deliver on the promise of an equitable and excellent education for all students including for those students who require more. Systemic structures, policies and implementation support are required to ensure all students receive what they need and to access learning in the least restrictive educational setting. Research indicates that use of a Multi-Tiered System of Support (MTSS) framework can support students with diverse learning needs. The framework identifies Student Support Models as a structure necessary to identify students that need additional support. Full implementation of such structures can be complicated due to the challenges of institutional change. As Scott points out: Regulative, Cultural-Cognitive, and Normative forces cause resistance to change within institutions (1994). Schools may be defined as institutions since they are “a relatively stable and legitimated system of interrelated beliefs, values, practices, and structures creating conditions that constrain but also enable particular actions and outcomes…(Bridwell-Mitchell, 2019).” My analysis explores existing challenges caused by these institutional factors and steps the school district can take to overcome them. As a resident in Revere Public Schools, I conducted an analysis of why the current Student Support Team model and District Curriculum and Accommodation Plan were not working as intended. In this Capstone, I detail how I explored Revere Public School’s intervention process as established through Building Based Support Teams (BBST) and led a stakeholder group in restructuring and improving the intervention system. I will describe how the stakeholder group centered the redesign of systems and tools needed to improve support for learners while navigating institutional forces. This capstone provides an analysis of why two structures, the Student Support Team model and District Curriculum and Accommodation Plan, which were intended to deliver necessary support to students in the Revere Public Schools, were not working as intended. My findings show this is largely due to institutional factors. Additionally, I present opportunities and challenges the district will likely encounter during the change process and strategies to support the examination and advancement of organizational practices in order to better meet student needs.