Glossary
Unfamiliar with all these new abbreviations and school-based jargon? We got you covered!
Introduction to MTSS.mp4Multi-Tiered System of Support (MTSS)
Multi-Tiered System of Support (MTSS) is a framework that brings together both RTI and PBIS along with other frameworks like restorative practice. MTSS aligns all the supports to serve the whole child.
MTSS relies on data gathering through universal screening, data-driven decision making, and problem solving teams, and focuses on content standards.
MTSS brings together academic, social, and emotional interventions.
Positive Behavioral Interventions and Supports (PBIS)
Positive Behavioral Interventions and Supports (PBIS) is an evidence-based three-tiered framework for improving and integrating all of the data, systems, and practices affecting student outcomes every day. It is a way to support everyone to create the kinds of schools where all students are successful.
PBIS isn’t a curriculum you purchase or something you learn through quick trainings. It is a commitment to addressing student behavior through systems change. When it’s implemented well, students achieve improved social and academic outcomes, schools experience reduced exclusionary discipline practices, and school personnel feel more effective.
pbis.org is a great resource to learn more!
Project Cal-Well
Funded by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA)
A project to promote mental health awareness and wellness among California's kindergarten through twelfth grade students.
Designed to raise awareness of mental health and expand access to school and community-based mental health services for youth, families, and school communities.
First started, 2014-2019, by the California Department of Education (CDE) in partnership with three Southern California local educational agencies (LEAs): Garden Grove Unified, ABC Unified and San Diego County Office of Education (COE).
Second cycle, 2019-2024, the CDE is partnering with three LEAs in Northern California: Humboldt, Stanislaus and Sacramento COEs. The University of California, San Francisco School Health Services Research & Evaluation Team is evaluating the initiative.
Project Cal-Well is what funds the Stan State MSW clinical interns that are at Hughson Unified School District.
Response to Instruction and Intervention (RTI²)
An framework that focuses on individual students who are struggling academically and pulls together resources from the local education authority (LEA), school, and community to promote students’ success before they fall behind.
It is systematic and data-driven with tiered levels of intervention to benefit every student.
Social-Emotional Learning (SEL)
According to the leading organization in social emotional learning, the Collaborative for Academic, Social and Emotional Learning (CASEL), "Social and Emotional Learning (SEL) is the process through which children and adults understand and manage emotions, set and achieve positive goals, feel and show empathy for others, establish and maintain positive relationships, and make responsible decisions".
Integrating SEL means that educators are providing students with the opportunity to develop and strengthen their five core competencies: self-awareness, self-management, social awareness, relationship and responsible decision-making skills.
Self-awareness: The ability to accurately recognize one’s emotions and thoughts and their influence on behavior. This includes accurately assessing one’s strengths and limitations and possessing a well-grounded sense of confidence and optimism.
Self-management: The ability to regulate one’s emotions, thoughts, and behaviors effectively in different situations. This includes managing stress, controlling impulses, motivating oneself, and setting and working toward achieving personal and academic goals.
Social awareness: The ability to take the perspective of and empathize with others from diverse backgrounds and cultures, to understand social and ethical norms for behavior, and to recognize family, school, and community resources and supports.
Relationship skills: The ability to establish and maintain healthy and rewarding relationships with diverse individuals and groups. This includes communicating clearly, listening actively, cooperating, resisting inappropriate social pressure, negotiating conflict constructively, and seeking and offering help when needed.
Responsible decision-making: The ability to make constructive and respectful choices about personal behavior and social interactions based on consideration of ethical standards, safety concerns, social norms, the realistic evaluation of consequences of various actions, and the well-being of self and others
casel.org is a great resource to learn more!
Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire (SDQ)
The Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire (SDQ) is a brief behavioural screening questionnaire to better understand the student's difficulties along with their strengths. Hughson Unified School District uses the SDQ. The SDQ includes components related to emotional symptoms, conduct problems, hyperactivity/inattention, peer relationship problems, and prosocial behaviors. The initial questionaire is filled out by teachers or parents. Then there is follow up assessments that are completed by teachers, parents, or the counselor working with the student.
For more information on SDQ go to: SDQinfo.org