MN Pyramid Model Executive Summary
2022-23 school year
As part of the Pyramid Model and PTR-YC implementation, programs establish systems of proactive family engagement and collaboration. The PTR-YC framework emphasizes the importance of a collaborative team approach, which includes the student's family or guardian, educational professionals, and community support as needed. This collaborative effort ensures insights are gathered and enables the team to work together to best support the individual needs of the child and family.
PTR-YC provides a structured system for creating a comprehensive written plan through a four-step process, facilitating the student's full participation in programming. This process involves data collection, analysis, and progress monitoring of the child's growth. By systematically documenting and tracking progress, PTR-YC enables educational professionals to tailor interventions and supports effectively.
The collaborative approach of PTR-YC creates a system to explore and support additional needs for the child and family. This includes providing supportive educational interventions, connecting families with resources, and facilitating referrals to special education services as necessary. By addressing diverse needs holistically, PTR-YC ensures that every child receives the support they need to thrive.
Growing a Legacy
LeAnne Johnson, PhD
Associate Professor
Coordinator for Special Education Programs
Department of Educational Psychology / University of Minnesota
Minnesota Multi-Tiered Systems of Support (MnMTSS) in preschool programs? YES! Long before Minnesota formalized implementation supports for MTSS, early childhood programs had been implementing the Pyramid Model, a research supported, tiered framework for developing social, emotional, and behavioral skills of young children before they start kindergarten. Piloted in 2010 in three school districts, now over 92 programs around Minnesota have been trained to not only implement the Pyramid Model, but sustain it.
Initially, the Pyramid Model was intended to help Minnesota address significant issues related to exclusionary discipline practices that were common place in preschool programs. Today, due in part to the attention Pyramid Model implementation brought to the use of exclusionary practices, Minnesota law now prohibits the exclusion and dismissal of preschoolers. The research supported practices that comprise the model are enhanced by efforts to embed culturally sustaining practices and equity mindsets – fostering opportunities for all of Minnesota’s young children and families to feel valued and supported by their community-based preschool programs.
By helping preschool classrooms become more universally effective, children are spending more time engaged in early language, literacy, and numeracy learning – a necessary foundation for addressing achievement and opportunity gaps in Minnesota. A robust system of professional development and data-based coaching over multiple years, informed by implementation science and refined through the experiences of Minnesota teachers, continue to help early childhood programs meet their goals for the families they serve. In addition, Minnesota’s experience and expertise are regularly lifted up to guide nationwide implementation of the Pyramid Model. To expand the promise of Pyramid Model as part of a lasting legacy, continued participation by early childhood programs and increased support from state and local leaders is needed.
Pyramid from an External Coach Perspective
Betsy Peters Rust - SLP, CCC
ECSE Professional Development Facilitator Region 3
What does your role as an external coach look like? My role as an external coach to Pyramid Model teams varies based on where they are at in implementation. I participate in implementation team meetings by sharing resources, communicating updates from MNCoE, sharing ideas from other Pyramid Model teams, answering some questions, sharing content, and asking coaching-type questions to help teams consider impacts and systems. I support teams to use their data to make data driven decisions. I help teams get familiar with and use the tools that have been created to support implementation of the Pyramid Model. I support the coaches by participating in internal coaching meetings, looking at and using data, partnering with the coaches to complete TPOTs, and offering coaching on their coaching. I coach teams to consider scale up and sustainability and to problem solve.
What words of wisdom would you like to share with interested parties such as legislators, higher education, district administrators, staff, etc? Implementation is hard work. It can be hard to stay motivated when the barriers and challenges build up. The effort and the hard work is worth it! Stay strong. Be ok with small steps towards the end goal. Just keep moving forward. Reach out to your external coach for help, ideas, supports, and resources. We are here ready and excited to jump in and to be at your side to help you with the work.
Pyramid from an Internal Coach Perspective
Sarah Ridgeway
Internal Coach
ECSE Teacher/Parent Educator
Minnetonka Public Schools - MCEC
We are currently in year 4 of our Pyramid Implementation and as an Internal Coach, the things that I see as the most valuable are the collaborative partnerships, the shared goals and action planning, the focused observations and the reflection/feedback which are all part of the practice based coaching model.
In our program, we usually have bi-monthly observations and coaching sessions. It has proven difficult to find time to meeting regularly with the whole classroom team (lead teacher, para/assistant, additional support staff: Early Childhood Special Education (ECSE) staff, etc.) Our observations include all adults in the room. Our coaching sessions are usually just with the lead teacher. During those coaching sessions, we're reflecting on the observation. We set goals specifically for the teacher but then also goals for the whole classroom and individual students. The lead teacher usually shares the goals with the rest of the team because they lead the effort in their classrooms to incorporate the actions steps. When we do our TPOTS, we go over the data with the whole team. In order for Pyramid to be implemented to fidelity, it means working as a team! All these things support the collaborative partnerships and the shared goals and action planning.
I have been a coach for different teams (3's preschool: general education and special education, 4's preschool: general education and special education, 3's childcare, 4's childcare and special education only). The most incredible discussions have come out of building on the strengths of each team member and then problem solving and wondering about how different interactions, environments or routines could benefit the classroom or individual children.
Pyramid from a Group Coaching Perspective
Becky Gamache
Internal Coach
Duluth Public Schools
In what ways has group coaching been useful for your program to sustain and move the implementation of the Pyramid Model forward? Last year it was very challenging to fit in individual coaching with the number of teachers and coaches we have available. All coaches are coaching in addition to their current position, so having multiple coaching meetings and observations with multiple teachers per month was incredibly hard to accomplish. Using group coaching has supported coaches by having less meetings to set up and facilitate.
What has been successful in your use of group coaching? Teachers have enjoyed being able to have time to collaborate and give each other feedback and encouragement.
How did you overcome those challenges? Offer virtual options or take turns meeting at sites. If meeting time went over scheduled work time, teachers were able to submit for their "conference make up hours"
Pyramid from a Behavior Coach Perspective
Caitlin Hadrava
Behavior Coach for Year 1 Pyramid Model Team
Laporte School Behavior Specialist
"Behavioral support looks at the need and understanding where it’s derived from. Without communication with families, the team, and the child, understanding behavior can be daunting, focusing on the child’s needs versus the actions seen will help us support and grow with our students. Finding time to communicate and collaborate is crucial to success for our students."
Administrator Observations
Janna Thoma
Early Childhood Program Lead
Little Falls Early Childhood Center
The Little Falls Early Childhood Center is in their first year of implementing the Pyramid Model. Implementing Pyramid has helped this team recognize the importance of intentional connection time with teachers and paras to support use of tiered interventions. Particular areas of celebrations for this team during their first year include recognizing super friends on our district website and parent newsletter, seeing students utilizing the solutions toolkit, and having a strategic plan for responding to student behaviors through use of coaching practices.
Sustainability Reflection
Laura Lamb
Prek Teacher and Internal Coach
Perham-Dent Public Schools
The Perham team is wrapping up our seventh year of Pyramid Model implementation. There are several strategies we’ve used to sustain our implementation after the original grant was phased out. First, we stayed committed to ensuring all our staff was trained, including lead teachers, special education, and our paraprofessionals. The opportunity to attend training virtually has made this more realistic financially. We also maintain monthly implementation team meetings, regular coaching, and goal setting, and we hold monthly meetings with all staff in our program to train, collaborate and reinforce Pyramid strategies. We have been fortunate to have consistent, on-site coaches and people able and willing to create and provide training.
Moving forward, we’re looking ahead to how we can re-imagine our coaching system. In the past, the district was willing to put forth extra funding to hold coaching and training meetings after school hours, but with budget cuts that will be changing. Additionally, all our classrooms are maintaining fidelity on the TPOT, changing the coaching requirements and needs. We’re considering how to provide coverage during the school day, once per month, for each classroom team to meet for reflection, collaborative teaming and problem solving, as well as a monthly meeting for those in similar roles (e.g., a group of teachers, a group of program paras, a group of special education paras, etc.) for training, goal setting and targeted coaching. The hope is that this group coaching will strengthen relationships and consistency throughout our program and build the capacity of all our team members to coach and support each other.
Parent Perspective
Parent
ECFE Pyramid Model Classroom
Mankato Area Public School
"The environment created by the teachers was amazing for my child and I can't express that enough. They did a fantastic job. The parent time was very helpful to discuss child behaviors. As a first-time parent I soaked in a lot of information."
Tier 2 Professional Development and Coaching Resource
Laura Lamb
Prek Teacher and Internal Coach
Perham-Dent Public Schools
Grab & Go PD link on Share Site
At last year's statewide retreat, I led an intensive session focusing on Tier 2 explicit instruction of social/emotional skills. However, due to the abundance of content I had prepared, I found myself rushing to cover everything within the allotted time. After the session, it was discussed how each topic could benefit from its own dedicated training. The idea of hosting quick webinars on each topic, which could be accessed at any time was suggested. Topics, templates, and resources were gathered. Throughout the summer, webinars were recorded, which effectively leveraged the opportunity to disseminate valuable information in a convenient and accessible format.
Teachers & TPOT Data
McKenna Beam
Early Childhood Teacher
Kids Adventure Preschool
Perham-Dent Schools
"I truly enjoyed looking through the TPOT data, because it helped me reflect on how I've grown as an early childhood educator and it has shown the Implementation Team (IT) how our program has grown over the years. The time flew by because we were so engaged in the data and everyone was actively reflecting. It was a team effort and the time spent will help us improve our program in the future. Looking through data is fun!"
Demonstration Classroom
Congratulations to Minnesota's 11 demonstration classrooms! We recognize these 11 classrooms for their outstanding dedication and consistent investment in Pyramid Model Practices! These classrooms have been nominated by internal staff, reviewed by the Pyramid Model State Implementation Team, and have been recognized by the Minnesota Commissioner of Education.
- Circle of Friends Preschool -Trodee Jore, Courtney Stephens, Heather Smith, Ann Pieper
Circle of Friends Preschool -Trina Olson
Stewartville Public School -Brianna O'Brien (Behrens)
ECFE at Parkside Elementary-Emily Pearson - Sara Cich, Courtney Gusel, Alexis Eitel
Parkside Early Childhood -Miranda Weber, Cheryl Laney, Melanie Stenson, Mary Radtke, Angella Stern and Christine Hyatt
Pearson Early Learning Center - Miranda Avalos
Sauk Centre -Jamie Hoover, Angela Arceneau, Molly Anderson, Kim Howe, Cindy Olmschenk
Ready, Set, Grow Preschool at Hanover -Annette Rabusch, Colleen Williams, Nicole Tuchscherer
Parkside Kid Kare -Anais Bersie, Cheryl Kienholz, Tina Jeske
Kid Kare Hanover -Renee Kalinowski, Karli Levchak, Dawn Keeler
ECFE Ready, Set, Grow! -Jennifer Robeck, Becky Burmeister, Cami Schrepfer
Pyramid Model Retreats 2022-23
The Retreats were a welcoming sight to have back last Spring! In May 2023, we held the Classroom Engagement Model and Pyramid Model retreats together, as we have a growing number of sites implementing both innovations. We had 89 registered participants across 20 teams attend our North Retreat on April 28th in Bemidji. Our Metro/South Retreat was held on May 5th in Brooklyn Center with 123 participants across 26 sites. Some of the highlights from this year's retreats were: On the Pyramid Model Share Site tab for Training Handouts, scroll all the way to the bottom to access materials and presentations from the Pyramid Model Implementation Retreats.
Tucker the Turtle stopping by for a visit
Swag bags for participants
Great variety of spotlights, intensive sessions, and poster walkabouts.
Pyramid at Home Series
The Pyramid at Home series is designed to provide implementation sites with easy to use handouts to share with families that include helpful hints on how to support social emotional development at home and in the community. Currently there are 4 handouts in the series: Emotions, Routines, Sharing, and Problem-Solving. Each handout is available in English, Hmong, Somali, and Spanish.
PTR-YC Collaboration
MNCoE is in its third year of participating in a national project around implementation of PTR-YC. We are supported by Dr. Phil Strain, one of the authors of PTR-YC, in monthly case rotations. Dr. Strain meets virtually with 7 Behavior Coaches/Internal Coaches to work through real PTR-YC cases. Our goal in sharing these "Lessons Learned" is for Pyramid Model sites throughout the state to gain access to the same information and be able to apply it to their PTR-YC work. Enjoy this current publication of PTR-YC Lessons Learned with Dr. Phil Strain.
The Second Edition of Prevent, Teach and Reinforce for Young Children is now available for purchase: PTR-YC 2nd Edition. Great additions and revisions to this Second Edition include, but are not limited to:
Downloadable forms and checklists from the manual (the forms are no longer on a CD-Rom)
Improved Behavior Intervention Plan (BIP) template
A new chapter addressing preventative classroom practices that is designed to be used at the beginning of the PTR-YC process
A new chapter addressing interim procedures for managing dangerous behaviors until a Behavior Intervention Plan (BIP) can be put in place
EC-SWIS Implementation in a Pyramid Model Program
Amy Goette
Early Childhood Coordinator
Austin Public Schools
EC-SWIS is a user friendly, online platform that districts can utilize for all their early childhood behavior data needs. In the Spring of 2023, the Austin district began a pilot with EC-SWIS after diving deeper in their MTSS processes. Wanting a more uniform and real-time way of analyzing data – EC-SWIS was an easy choice for the district. SWIS was already being implemented in the older grade levels, it was cost effective, and the platform modeled itself after the Behavior Incident Reports (BIRs) which the district had been successful in using for the past 10 years.
Immediate feedback was positive from staff that were piloting it. Teachers cited that it was easy to enter data and administrators liked having everything in one location. The drill-down features within EC-SWIS were also found to be highly valuable when reviewing data at MTSS meetings.
In the Fall of 2023, EC-SWIS was fully implemented by the Early Childhood Department. It is now being used in 10 classrooms with 13 teachers completing incidents regularly. Staff buy in has been high and behavioral entries have been consistent between all classrooms. Our pyramid model internal and behavioral coaches have access to school-wide data to ensure that classroom teachers are able to utilize their data for tiered instruction. Our MTSS site teams are also using the data routinely when meeting. It has been a positive addition to our MTSS process.
For more information about EC-SWIS check out https://www.pbisapps.org/products/ec-swis .
BI-CAP Head Start's TPITOS Data Story
The Infant/Toddler classrooms at BI-CAP Head Start are using Pyramid Model in a way that is meaningful for the children and families their program serves. Jen Anderson and Rena Nipp, BI-CAP PD coaches, shared " we use the same expectations program wide: Always Safe, Always Kind, Always Do Your Best but teach them in a way that is more developmentally appropriate using the rules in our classrooms. We are also offering our families Positive Solutions training which implements the Pyramid model in the home. We use positive stated expectations like “feet on the floor”, “our teeth are for chewing food” (for our biters!), and “gentle hands with friends” and then model gentle touches. Common language between home and school is the key to successful implementation with our youngest learners. We find visuals (from routines to solution kits) to be so helpful and powerful with infants and toddlers, especially when they are used properly by teachers. We also use BIR’s to identify transitions that may need tweaking or students who need extra support. We have also implemented comprehensive coaching with our Infant/Toddler teachers based on TPITOS (equivalent of the TPOT in preschool classrooms) and BIR data."
Learn more about TPITOS Resources on the Pyramid Model Share Site.
Thank you for learning more about the Pyramid Model Initiative in Minnesota! If you are interested in learning more or have questions about Pyramid Model, reach out to your Regional ECSE Professional Development Facilitator MNCoE Website.
This initiative is made possible with grants from the Minnesota Department of Education using federalfunding CFDA #84.173 special Education – Preschool Grants and CFDA #84.181 Special Education – Grants for Infants & Families. Unless otherwise specified, this activity does not necessarily represent the policy of the MN Centers of Excellence, Brightworks, federal Department of Education or the state Department of Education and you should not assume endorsement by the federal or state government.