Monitors (CoP)

Monitors (CoP) / June 2016

Focus Areas: Program Evaluation, Skilled Staff, Specially Designed Instruction (SDI)

MOTOR CITY HERE WE COME!!! Region 4 proudly announces that the 2016-17 Michigan Monitors Conference will be held in Detroit, May 11-12, 2017. Look for more details in the Fall.

Announcement! Darla Jackson, Monitor at Bay Arenac, will be the new co-chair of the Monitors CoP for the 2016-17 school year.

Welcome, Darla and THANK YOU to Michelle Wolschlager for a great year as co-chair of the Monitors CoP!  WE appreciate your planning, organization, hard work and dedication to our community of monitors.

NEW: The MDE-OSE has released the Technical Assistance Provider Grant, formerly titled EOSD grant, and so the Monitors CoP is working collaboratively to understand grant details in order to identify common activities and expectations, and ensure the highest level of support for our locals and charters.

B12 CAPS that were issued in the CIMS April Workbooks have been removed from everyone’s Workbooks.

Timely IEP CAPS have not yet been removed, but the CIMS team is working hard to review and make determinations on the appropriateness of removing specific student files from Workbooks.  Due to the need for review, CAP deadlines for B-Timely IEP has been extended, but the extension date is pending approval.

Monitors (CoP) / April 2016

Focus Areas: Program Evaluation, Skilled Staff

The Monitors CoP met on April 11th at 4:30PM with 42 Monitors in attendance.

Annual State Monitors Conference

May 5&6 @ Mackinac Beach and Bay

51 Monitors are currently registered, which means they all get t-shirts!

Agenda items include:

• MDE Updates presented by Teri Chapman
• Mediation – conflict Resolution presented by MSEMP
• Data Mining
• Indicator Tamers
• and more…

Monitors, there is still time to register, you’re just not guaranteed a t-shirt.  Register at www.oaisd.org

We debriefed as a whole group after the OSE meeting for ISD Directors and Monitors on April 11.

As an activity, the OSE asked that we identify a list of challenges and opportunities that we, as a group, feel come along with the proposed restructuring.  The majority of our CoP time was spent doing just that.  Below are a few of the topics we came up with.  

• How do we maintain involvement with complaints
  • Mediation: Formal vs. Informal
  • Facilitated IEP
• What are the challenges and opportunities we see for monitoring and TA
  • No communication thus far with current TA’s
  • Questions from Monitors not being answered until OSE has time to debrief and then address at next venue of information sharing. Each meeting scheduled provides more and more clarity, but never complete clarity.  Building plane while flying it.
• Suggestions for Communication
  • Increased transparency
  • Use communication protocol: potentially from MI Excel
• Challenges
  • Authority over LEA’s and PSA’s: Michigan is a local control state and so it is not realistic to think we can just walk in and take control of a local in order to change practices as a means to improving student outcomes.  It sounds nice, but it’s not realistic.
  • There is currently no expectations or structure for ISD Technical Assistance providers and so there are more questions than answers
  • What will be our avenue for input?  MAT was disbanded and there is no current avenue for input
• Opportunities
  • When final report is complete, TA role should include:
    • Verification of CAP activities
    • Providing technical assistance to locals more frequently than the current TA’s are able to (2 times).
  • Coaching Model versus Technical Assistance

***We charted out all of our concerns as a group and presented the work to Jan W.  Additionally we have recommended that the OSE meet with a few Monitors so that detailed information regarding the notes recorded on the chart paper can be shared more in-depth.

Additionally, there was important information shared on the April CIMS Workbook Webinar that was discussed:

April 15 Workbook: Recording of the webinar www.bit.ly/CIMSApril

• B-Complaints activity is new to CIMS and will involve 7 districts in this workbook.  Systemic level corrective action will now be issued through and monitored by CIMS whereas the student level corrective action will be monitored by the ISD Monitor.
• Cross Indicator Analysis is a new activity that 600 districts will participate in if they had les then 95% compliance for Timely IEP’s and more than 5 IEP’s were late.  This replaces CAP activities for either Timely, B11 or B12 and forces the district to look at each of these indicators and how they impact each other. One of the required activities will be to put the results of the Cross Indicator Analysis as a Board Meeting agenda item.
• Workbooks must be acknowledged by May 15, BUT in preparation for the May 15 Workbook, CIMS is going dark on May 8-14.  Districts can still acknowledge on May 15 (Sunday).
• B13 Verification Activity is a new activity for ISD Monitors.  Must do an on-site visit to each district who received a B13 CAP in the fall and do a file review for 8 students.  The 8 students can be 8 of the students who are already included in the B13 checklist activity.

B-13 update

• Different interpretations of the checklist items again.  If you did not participate in the B13 webinar on April 11, then you will want to watch the recorded version www.bit.ly/CIMSB13

Monitors (CoP) / February 2016

Focus Areas: Skilled Staff

Upcoming State Monitors Conference May 4-6 registration information will be released soon.

• New Monitors CoP meeting dates and times due to the restructuring of MAASE and conflicts with other committees that the Monitors participate in. Monitors CoP is moving to Monday’s from approx. 2:00pm – 4:00pm after Monday Monitor Trainings.  Although MAT has been dismantled, that group will continue to meet after Monday Monitors CoP, so that there continues to be a voice that can relay messages to the department.
• Catamaran continues to be on hold and LEAs and PSAs will continue to complete activities in CIMS for the remainder of the school year.  B13 and GSM activities are now part of the April workbooks.  Monitors will be required to complete a verification activity for each district with a B13 CAP from September.  Even though districts were told they did not have to complete the CAPS, Monitors will still need to conduct verification activities to close them out.  There is uncertainty about what that means for districts that cannot be closed out, as they will then be completing past and current B13 activities.
• State Complaint Task Force: 7 monitors were invited to be part of the focus group conducted by Pingora Consulting.  The group in attendance seemed to be well balanced and bring a variety of perspectives.  There was an obvious end goal for the conversation and so the facilitators did a good job of moving us into that direction and keeping the conversation focused.  Weakness areas that were identified by the group: Timelines and communication
• The group has discussed the need for developing some parent-friendly procedural safeguards.  Where this is not an action item at this time, if you have parent-friendly procedural safeguards to share the group would appreciate if you could share.