Welcome!
Thank you for reading the February issue of the Targeted Support and Improvement (TSI) newsletter. We hope that this newsletter is a source of information and support for schools identified for TSI and additional targeted support and improvement (ATSI).
In this edition, you can read about High Leverage Practices for Students with Disabilities, Progress Monitoring for CSIPs and the TSI/ATI Plan, and new English Learner resource.
Exceptional Education Essentials: High Leverage Practices for Students with Disabilities
When a TSI/ATSI school’s identified subgroup includes students with disabilities, improvement planning must translate into consistent instruction and services across classrooms – not just compliance.
For schools identified for TSI/ATSI based on outcomes for students with disabilities, reducing variability is especially important. Students with Individualized education programs (IEPs) can experience uneven access to grade-level instruction, inconsistent accommodations and fragmented follow-through across teachers and settings.
One practical way to strengthen consistency is to anchor comprehensive school improvement plan (CSIP) activities in IRIS’s High-Leverage Practices (HLPs). HLPs are a set of 22 essential special education practices developed by the Council for Exceptional Children and the CEEDAR Center to guide educator actions that improve outcomes for students with disabilities.
HLPs are not a program to purchase or an added initiative. They describe the high-impact moves that make IEP supports work in real classrooms, particularly in inclusive settings and within tiered systems. IRIS organizes the practices into four domains: Collaboration, Data-Driven Planning, Instruction in Behavior and Academics, and Intensify and Intervene as Needed.
Across these domains, High-Leverage Practices address common breakdowns by emphasizing shared ownership through collaboration, planning grounded in multiple data sources, strong daily instruction and timely intensification when progress monitoring shows students are off track. In CSIP terms, HLPs provide concrete activities schools can implement to carry out their chosen strategies. They also help the CSIP clearly describe what adult practice will change, what evidence will demonstrate implementation and how those actions should improve results for students with IEPs.
Progress Monitoring for CSIPs and TSI/ATSI Plans
The Comprehensive School Improvement Plant (CSIP) is not meant to be written, submitted in January, and revisited the next year. Progress monitoring should be treated as year-round work. It is an ongoing process that checks whether strategies and activities are being implemented as intended and whether early evidence suggests they are producing the desired changes.
Strong monitoring goes beyond confirming that tasks were “done.” It focuses on fidelity and impact. Are the planned activities happening consistently across classrooms or settings? Are staff using the agreed-upon practices? Are the interim measures moving in the right direction?
When monitoring is limited to the principal, it becomes vulnerable to competing demands and blind spots. Instead, responsibility should be distributed across multiple roles. For example, school councils, instructional leaders, interventionists, department/ grade-level leads and teams, and classroom teachers should be involved in monitoring so evidence is gathered closer to implementation and follow-through is more reliable.
Finally, progress monitoring should occur on a pre-determined timeline. Establish monitoring checkpoints before implementation begins, define what evidence will be reviewed at each checkpoint, and assign who brings it. When monitoring is routine, shared and scheduled, the CSIP functions as a living implementation tool rather than a compliance document.
Featured Spotlight School: South Warren Middle School
South Warren Middle School (Warren County) offers a strong example of how a school can pair a positive, shared culture with a tight set of instructional priorities to drive results. The school attributes its success to a collaborative partnership with the wider community and a mission focused on a rigorous, supportive and engaging environment that ensures learning for all students, reinforced by consistently high expectations throughout the year. Clear behavioral and academic expectations are communicated daily and visible across the building, helping create a setting where students are encouraged to take ownership of their learning and grow as empowered learners and collaborators.
Academically, South Warren maintains focus through three evidence-based “Big Rocks”: daily writing across classes, increased engagement through Kagan cooperative learning structures and cognitively engaging tasks, and powerful tasks designed to span the rigor divide. Professional learning community structures support the work by using multiple data sources to personalize instruction, set success criteria and communicate daily learning goals. The school also schedules targeted intervention in reading and math for students performing at or below the 40th percentile, with supports adjusted based on multiple data points and reviewed regularly to ensure the right level of support.
After being designated TSI in 2022 due to the performance of students with disabilities, the school responded by prioritizing professional learning in co-teaching and inclusion, with ongoing training and coaching to strengthen implementation. The result has been sustained high performance. The Kentucky School Report Card provides overall performance ratings for schools and districts. The ratings show the school has been in the ‘blue’ performance category (the highest level) for the past three years, with strong statewide rankings across content areas.
Whether you prefer an on-site tour or a virtual discussion, you'll find the contact information for arranging your experience on each Spotlight School's story card. For general inquiries about the Spotlight Schools program, please use the contact details in this newsletter.
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