Stories like Suttons Bay Public Schools are beginning to emerge around the state in light of significant school improvement efforts resulting in positive outcomes for students. These stories help build understanding about what is working in schools and offer a coherent frame of reference for other districts. As you read this story, think of your district’s own emerging story and the audience that might benefit from hearing the story.

Suttons Bay From the Continuous Improvement Monitoring Perspective

The Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) of 2004 requires state educational agencies to develop and implement a monitoring, technical assistance, and enforcement system. The Continuous Improvement and Monitoring System (CIMS-2) is the Michigan Department of Education (MDE), Office of Special Education (OSE) system that meets these federal requirements. The CIMS-2 is the recently revised system used by the OSE to help local school districts and the state monitor, analyze, and interpret data and ensure compliance with the IDEA, as well as focus on results for students.

The CIMS-2 allows local districts to see the data the state uses when making monitoring decisions. That information is stored in a single location so that status updates, notes, and other information are easily accessible. For more information, refer to the FOCUS on Results article The Continuous Improvement and Monitoring System (CIMS-2) Helps Schools Ensure Positive Outcomes for Students or learn more about CIMS-2 at http://cims.cenmi.org.

Shirley Young, a monitoring consultant for OSE, noted that the case opened by state monitors on Suttons Bay Public Schools in 2007 has been closed. She explained that Suttons Bay was selected for focused monitoring for having a disproportionate number of Native American students in special education, which is referred to as disproportionate representation. For more information, refer to the FOCUS on Results article Understanding Disproportionate Representation and Significant Disproportionality.

Young acknowledged that while the citation was initially a source of distress for local staff, they methodically reframed the challenge and created an opportunity for reorganizing their operations. The result was a significant increase in the level of engagement of virtually all stakeholders—parents, students, the Native American community, administrators, and staff.

Initial resistance is a normal reaction, but Suttons Bay progressively engaged in collective problem solving. The district saw the state’s citation as a learning catalyst and seized the opportunity to make improvements. One staff member said, “We were able to accomplish in one year what would have otherwise taken three years!”

The CIMS-2 reports for Suttons Bay Public Schools indicate that for the past three years the district showed a gradual decrease in the overall percentages of students identified as needing special education services. “This can be directly attributed to the concerted efforts to increase interventions within the general educational setting,” Young said.

Young further noted that Suttons Bay’s success is the result of a number of people working together to build on their respective strengths and address the challenges of disproportionate representation. This new level of collaboration at Suttons Bay is supported by several evidence-based practices that have been researched and are being adopted by the district, including the Reaching and Teaching Struggling Learners (RTSL) Initiative.* For more information, refer to the FOCUS on Results article Reaching and Teaching Struggling Learners Initiative: A Whole Student, Whole Team, Whole Building Approach.

When asked about the key factors in the Suttons Bay Public Schools’ improvement process, Young highlighted the following:

• (1) Collaboration between CIMS-2 (formerly CIMS) and RTSL. (2) The school district’s positive response to the monitors and technical assistance personnel. (3) The new superintendent’s vision of education, which includes the adoption of a Response to Intervention (RtI) tiered approach to instruction.
• Districtwide staff development sessions including presentations by Isadore Toulouse. He is a member of the Ojibwe/Odawa Wikwemikong Unceded First Nation located on the Manitoulin Island, Ontario, Canada. Toulouse has been actively involved with the Toronto Aboriginal community for the past 25 years.
• Supporting new and expanding perspectives, Traverse Bay Area Intermediate School District (TBA ISD) staff revised their diagnostic template to include specific environmental/cultural considerations, specific interventions, and documented results. This template is used by Suttons Bay Public Schools for all initial evaluations and redeterminations of eligibility.
• A written hierarchy of interventions is continually being updated. Interventions, often in collaboration with TBA ISD, include Instructional Consultation Teams (ICT), Proactive Behavior Intervention Plans (PBIP), Early Elementary Interventions, and the Scholastic reading intervention program—READ 180. ICT and Michigan’s Integrated Behavior and Learning Support Initiative (MiBLSi) are being considered for future implementation.
• The first revision of a comprehensive districtwide procedures manual is complete. Pertinent sections are currently being implemented. Full adoption by all local districts in TBA ISD is anticipated for the fall of 2009.
• A Child Study Team process allows special education teachers a common planning time.
• The district purchased laptop computers for all special education staff as a tool for improving record-keeping and compliance accountability. Outlook calendars are shared by staff and administrators and include all required dates for Multidisciplinary Evaluation Team (MET) and Individualized Education Program (IEP) team meetings. General education staff meetings are now being held with special education and core team members.
• Staff are provided with detailed instructions for obtaining allowable extensions on initial evaluations when required.