Here we go. All right. So what I have up here, and what I've put together for this evening, is my hope is that it illustrates the heart of the work that we're doing at YDOWN around MTSS, as you see a unified system of where we're going and what we're doing as students go between the different tiers and what we're doing as a building. This is a cycle for continuous improvement with the growth for all learners. I will tell you that this work started this summer with tier one, when we're really talking about growth, even before the 2025 data came in. This was a conversation that we knew we needed to have. And so we started this summer by meeting with our department chairs, the coordinators, Robin and others who came together to say, what is the data and where do we need to go? So I'll start with science for tier one. If you ever want to dig into data, sit with two scientists, and they will really get to the heart of things. And what was great about that meeting was, and I attribute this hard work to them, is before we got there, they had really dug into the questions. And over the years that they looked at the data, they indicated that we have kind of hit and missed on different standards, but had done pretty well. But what we were really missing out was the constructed response questions. And we call them claim evidence and reasoning questions.

But what we were really missing out was the constructed response questions. And we call them claim evidence and reasoning questions. And if you looked at that consistently across the board, our students were not scoring high there. They were doing fine on the selected response. In fact, they were doing pretty well, but we weren't really hitting those marks. So the science group took that lead, and they said, okay, we're gonna really address this. So they came together as a team, they developed checklists to use for kids, they developed scaffolds, they're using it as their educator plans for growth across the board, really diving into that work of what we need to do. So that's a really good example of a tier one. Every student is looking for that because every student we want to grow. Not just different groups of students, but every student across the board needs to grow when it comes to that. We also took that CER and that common language out and tried to look and see what is it doing in social studies? How does that look in a social studies class? How does that look in other different classes? Because as we know, as we use common language across the building, it's easier for kids to know and understand how to do it. And they've even started on their own, using checklists across the curriculum and different things as they work together in their teams, which is great.

Because as we know, as we use common language across the building, it's easier for kids to know and understand how to do it. And they've even started on their own, using checklists across the curriculum and different things as they work together in their teams, which is great. The other area that we knew that we needed to address was literacy. Our ELA scores have not been where they needed to be over the last couple of years, and so we knew we had to come together with that. And actually in, I guess, February of the previous year, we started a literacy redesign where we really looked at what was happening in fifth grade, what was happening in ninth grade, and our reading and writing at the same rigor and hitting those guide points across the board. So the teachers all worked independently. We looked to see how many, about how many books kids should be reading, about how many written essays should be happening, and really trying to increase that as we went across those pieces. But we also know that reading does not just need to happen in literacy. There's no way we can get done what we need to get done if it's just in literacy. So we took on reading as a full building-wide goal, and as Dr. Patel can tell you, I wanted just to have reading as my goal for my school improvement plan.

So we took on reading as a full building-wide goal, and as Dr. Patel can tell you, I wanted just to have reading as my goal for my school improvement plan. And I was about there until about September, and she called me and said, no, you need to have a math goal too. So I went back to my math department, we got a math goal kickin' and we were rollin' with that too. But it just shows that we really wanted to focus on reading across the building. How are we dealing with nonfiction and social studies? How are we looking at vocabulary and science? How are we doing all these different pieces? Because when you come to take the tests and the different tests, they're not just looking at literature. They're looking at all these different pieces. And so we were leaving a whole bunch of information and learning on the table. We also just looked at reading during pack time. We started off with how many kids were just reading during pack time and dedicating reading for individual reading and all those different pieces that we went through. And also just a specific framework on nonfiction reading. Those are just kinda some things that got a little bit left off in literacy. So we tried to bulk it up in literacy and spread it across the board for our elective classes for everything.

Those are just kinda some things that got a little bit left off in literacy. So we tried to bulk it up in literacy and spread it across the board for our elective classes for everything. Part of the work we did on tier one this year with our department chairs is that we all met to talk about what does MTSS mean across the building? What does it look like in health class? What are the reading strategies that you can do in all the different classes when you're reading an article in speech and debate? What are the ways that we can approach this reading curriculum? Because we know that it goes across the piece. And then we also looked at just generally edgy climber on those proficiency scales. So in January we stopped and said, okay, now we have two benchmarks. Who's growing, who's not growing, what do we need to do? And looking at those kids' faces with their teachers, looking at them to say, okay, we're in January, we still have half of a year, where do we need to go? So really taking what was going on at the district and trying to coordinate it for where we needed to go. Then you move on to tier two. And tier two at the secondary level is incredibly hard. I think Dan would probably agree that it's just not something that most secondary teachers are trained in, that it's not something that they're used to.