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Multi-Tiered Support System to help Youngstown students
YOUNGSTOWN
A new support system is being put in place to catch students before they fall behind in Youngstown City Schools.
“Here we have people working together far more than in the past,” said Linda Yosay, special-education consultant from the Mahoning County Educational Service Center.
The district’s new Multi-Tiered Support System is seeking to cut down on labeling students in need of special education prematurely.
“Just because a student is struggling behaviorally or academically doesn’t mean they’re special education [students],” Yosay said. “We are still looking for indicators if they might be, though.”
Currently, 23 percent of students in the district are labeled as in need of special education.
“We realize for some of those students, getting that extra assistance has been very helpful. However, if they don’t have a disability, they should be back in general population,” Yosay said.
The new system is being put in place first through educators’ professional development and second by passing it onto students, said Timothy Filipovich, city schools chief of academics, accountability and assessment.
“We are working on transforming our teachers,” said Amanda McGinnis, district deputy chief of transformation. “We’re empowering them. It’s our mission for them to help transform this district.”
Teachers, who are the people working the closest to students, are going to have more authority to monitor students and implement interventions to help and prevent problems at their first sign.
McGinnis said in addition to teachers receiving this authority, they will also be receiving support.
“Our teachers are going to have so much support,” she said. “We have instructional framework specialists, we will be providing tools to improve, and there is just so much out there to support these teachers.”
Another large part of the success of the new system is the students’ believing they can succeed, Yosay said.
“It’s about raising the expectations for our students,” Filipovich said. “If we do a good enough job, we can capture all students and close gaps for everybody.”