Multi-Tiered System of Supports (MTSS)
A Multi-Tiered System of Support (MTSS) encompasses a range of evidence-based preventative and intervention strategies and resources designed to address academic and behavioral student needs through a systemic problem-solving process.
At Highland Park High School, we have a team at the Tier 1 level that is focused on adult learning and growth in service of supporting all students to reach their boundless potential. We have various Tier 2 teams that focus on supporting students through academic, social emotional, and behavioral interventions. Finally, we have Tier 3 programs that support students holistically to grow and achieve student success through intensive and frequent intervention.
Vision of our House on Vine
A GIANT community of empowered learners with the skills and knowledge to reach their boundless potential and become engaged citizens of tomorrow's world.
MTSS Staff Members
Tier 1 Design Team
Debbie Castellani
Professional Development Coordinator
I work with the tier one team to develop meaningful and supportive professional development programming for staff. Using Zaretta Hammond’s Ready for Rigor framework to guide our work, our focus is on growing staff’s capacity as responsive educators with the knowledge and skills needed to help the MTSS vision and mission become a reality. Our programming exists both within staff and departmental collaboration time and through opt-in experiences ranging from lunch & learns to credit-earning seminars.
Office Hours: available by appointment
Email: Dcastellani@dist113.org
Julia Kapelnikova, Emma Forquer, Melissa Szlachta
Instructional Coaches
We act as thought partners for staff as they experiment with new ideas, set professional goals, and reflect on their practices. This year, we offer group coaching to aid staff in the district-wide de-surveying effort. Our work with teachers is always confidential and never evaluative. Whether a short coaching conversation, a full coaching cycle or anything in between, we are here for teachers!
Office hours: available by appointment
Emails: jkapelnikova@dist113.org, eforquer@dist113.org, mszlachta@dist113.org
Genevieve Misfeldt
SEL Instructional Specialist (SELIS)
I serve our staff members and students in supporting the ongoing work of systemic SEL implementation. My work is focused on building capacity through departmental SEL goal development and implementation, course-team alignment (to ISBE SEL Standards), creating and supporting SEL goals, and robust 1:1 teacher support and celebration.
Office hours: available by appointment
Email: gmisfeldt@dist113.org
Lisa Berghoff
Director of Instructional Technology
I work with staff and to support the use of technology in order to help all students learn, improve productivity, promote innovative classroom strategies, and make best use of our blended learning environment. In addition to sending out the weekly Giant EdTech blog post and offering building PD sessions, I am available to work with staff 1:1, in course teams, and at the department level. I also come to classes to give hands-on support for technology use as it connects with curricular goals.
Office Hours: Available by appointment
Email: lberghoff@dist113.org
Tier 2
Drop in Group Support
Teagan Tran, Carly Shepard, Pablo Alvarez
Group counseling (like psychoeducation, affinity, and support groups) is available through the Drop-In Center. These groups are facilitated year-round by school-based providers and contracted clinicians from outside agencies, as well as interns. Students may be referred to groups by counselors, deans, staff, parents, or through self-referral.
Groups meet on Giant days once a week on a rotating schedule. This means the first week group will meet 1st period; the second week group will meet 2nd period, and so on. Students attending a group will be excused from class. Students need to scan in at the Drop-In Center and check with the teacher regarding missed assignments. Students are expected to attend class if a test, major assignment, presentation. etc. is scheduled that day. Otherwise, consistent attendance at each group meeting is expected.
Emails: Ttran@dist113.org, Cshepard@dist113.org, Palvarez@dist113.org
English Lab - Freshmen
Katie Zoloto & Alexis Enriquez
Freshmen English Lab is a small learning community that aims to support freshmen during their transition to high school, while nurturing and strengthening the development of their reading skills, writing skills, and academic identities. The overall goal of the course is to build the academic and content area literacy skills of our students in order to better prepare them for the academic rigor of high school and college. Placement in this support is a deliberate one. Teachers may group students flexibly and allocate class time based on skill-development, enrichment opportunities, interest, or targeted interventions; thus, the class may split at times and remain together at others. Students will set rigorous personal learning goals and will be pushed to their highest potential. The purpose of this additional time is to support students in their development of the Freshman English and Literacy Standards.
English Lab - Sophomores
Melissa Szlachta
Sophomore English Lab is a small learning community that aims to nurture and strengthen the development of a student’s academic identity through building their content area reading, writing, speaking, and listening skills. The overall goal of the extra time during the week with the student’s English teacher is to build the academic and content area literacy skills in order to better prepare students for the academic rigor of core English 2 course. Placement in this support is a deliberate one. Students are grouped flexibly to focus on skill-development, enrichment opportunities, or targeted reading and writing interventions.
Email: mszlachta@dist113.org
English Lab - Juniors
Kevin Lakani
Junior English Lab is a small learning community that aims to nurture and strengthen the development of a student’s academic skills with a strong focus on assessment literacy. The overall goal of the extra time during the week with the student’s English teacher is to build the academic and content area literacy skills in order to better prepare students for the academic rigor of the core American Literature or American Studies course or standardized assessments. Placement in this support is a deliberate one. Students are grouped flexibly to focus on skill-development, enrichment opportunities, or targeted reading and writing interventions.
Email: klakani@dist113.org
Algebra I Lab
Nancy Quiroga & Kristen Thomas
Algebra I Lab is a small group support class offered to students who are enrolled in Algebra I. Placement in this class is intentional, and at the start of the school year, is based on students’ grades in their 8th grade math course and their MAP/STAR scores. The goal of this course is to help students develop a growth mindset in mathematics by providing targeted content support. Students will work to fill content gaps as well as develop their problem-solving and critical thinking skills. Time in Lab is determined based on the students’ schedule; for the most part, students will attend Lab twice a week, for a total of 50 additional minutes of targeted algebra support.
Geometry Lab
Daniel Spychala & Nicole Watson
Geometry Lab is a small group support class offered to students who are enrolled in Geometry. Placement in this class is intentional, and at the start of the school year, is based on students’ grades in their Algebra I course and their MAP/STAR scores. The goal of this course is to help students develop a growth mindset in mathematics by providing targeted content support. Students will work to fill content gaps as well as develop their problem-solving and critical thinking skills. Time in Lab is determined based on the students’ schedule; for the most part, students will attend Lab twice a week, for a total of 50 additional minutes of targeted algebra support.
Tier 2 Village Team
Social Studies Support
Chris Kean
Using our district’s Guiding Principles, we provide support to our fellow learners in pursuit of developing social-emotional well-being, self-advocacy, and academic skills for success in school and beyond. Our curriculum focuses on student engagement strategies, relationship building, executive functioning, digital literacy, and developing confidence, fluency and discipline specific vocabulary through direct instruction.
Office Hours: 1-1:45pm (MTF)
Emails: Ckean@dist113.org
Math Support
Jonathan Hagberg
I provide a targeted Tier 2 Math Intervention to students who are identified by an academic, attendance, or SEL/Well-Being need for support to access their own potential. I use a whole-child approach to provide support through a math lens, focusing on the student’s math class. Students set a S.M.A.R.T. Goal, follow action steps, and self-reflect weekly. I am also on HP’s Data Team, which is a team that collects and analyzes data to create and implement tools for the purposes of school improvement and Tier 2 Interventions.
Office hours: Tuesdays, 8:00 - 8:30am
Email: jhagberg@dist113.org
English Support
Joe Bucolo
The English Tier 2 Intervention focuses on data-driven approaches, using research-based strategies for increasing literacy (vocabulary support, fluency, word recognition, decoding strategies, reading for meaning strategies), as informed by formative and summative assessments in a student’s English class. Students will routinely set goals and evaluate their progress, while addressing executive functioning skills in their work with us.
Office hours: by appointment
Emails: Jbucolo@dist113.org
Science Support
Darline Alonso & Dan Kleinschrodt
We support students who have been identified by needs that are demonstrated through academic, attendance, and SEL/Well-Being data collected via Panorama. While this is a Science specific intervention, a whole-child approach is used and done so through a Science lens. We created a list of relevant goals that we target while working with students to develop their Science skills and Science literacy. We also integrate standards set by various course teams within the department to align our Tier 2 interventions with the objectives of the Tier 1 supports they receive in the classroom.
Office Hours: by appointment
Check & Connect
Daniel Hoskin
We support students through a data-informed and evidenced based intervention called Check & Connect. The goal of Check & Connect is to increase student attendance and engagement in school and to help support students in accomplishing their goals and to be successful in school. An important component of Check & Connect is mentoring and relationship building. We meet with students weekly and work together to create goals, problem solve, and to make progress toward goals. We provide social-emotional support to students, monitor data, and focus on student strengths and growth throughout our meetings.
Office Hours: Please reach out and we can set up a time to meet!
Email: dhoskin@dist113.org
Attendance Support
Ambar Rizwan
We provide targeted Tier 2 and 3 attendance intervention to students who are identified by an academic, attendance, or SEL/Well-Being need for support. The Dean's office and MTSS team identify students who are in critical need of support in getting to school. Outreach and problem solving with families is included in this effort. The VAS interventionist has a caseload of students who have been identified as needing acute support once in the building. We use a whole-child approach to provide support through a relationship building lens, focusing on the student’s attendance and academic performance overall. Students set a S.M.A.R.T. Goal, follow action steps, and self-reflect weekly for the length of the intervention. Ambar is available to problem-solve chronic attendance concerns and help uncover the need that the behavior may be communicating.
Office Hours: Vary by day, send me an email and we can set something up!
Email: arizwan@dist113.org
Village Dual Language Support
Debbie Lewicki & Ambar Rizwan
We provide targeted Tier 2 support and intervention to students who are identified by an academic, attendance, and/or SEL/Well-Being need for support to access their own potential. We use a whole-child approach to provide support through a dual language lens, focusing on the students language and dual language classes. We use strategies to build students’ literacy and oracy skills and provide them with scaffolding to transfer skills between languages.
Office Hours: Debbie -Tuesdays 8:00-8:30 (A309), Ambar - Vary by day, send me an email and we can set something up!
Tier 3
Drop-in Individual Counseling
Teagan Tran, Carly Shepard, Pablo Alvarez
The Drop-In Center is dedicated to providing individual services, crisis intervention, and referrals to community resources to students in the most caring and safe environment possible. We advocate for the mental health needs of students by exploring strategies that enhance self-awareness and promote interpersonal skill development with the goal of successful reintegration into the academic setting.
Goals:
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Provide a space for students to promote positive, healthy behaviors by building and practicing skills to manage discomfort, grief, or difficult transitions
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Provide referrals to school and community resources that treat mental health issues (suicidal ideation, violence, abuse, and depression) with the intent of removing barriers to learning
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Advocate, collaborate, and coordinate with school and community stakeholders to ensure students have access to mental health services
Emails: Ttran@dist113.org Cshepard@dist113.org Palvarez@dist113.org
Flex
Bobby Hanson & Karina Arango-Ocampo
The Flex program is tailored for students who need more support than what they are currently receiving through general education. Flex offers time-limited intervention with a focus on building awareness, independence, and empowerment in students as we teach concrete strategies in a small group or 1:1. These strategies will help students to build upon their academic, social-emotional, and/or executive functioning skills. Students are scheduled for a period of Flex 3-4 days a week during 1st, 2nd, 7th, or 8th periods.
Office Hours: Fridays 8-8:30
Wellness
Melissa Zientara & Daniel Hoskin
Wellness, our Tier 3 MTSS Intervention Program, provides a safe space and community for co-regulation, healing, and restorative interventions that are rooted in the 4 Pillars of Applied Educational Neuroscience (Educator Nervous System, Co-Regulation, Touch Points, and Language of the Nervous System), the 4 Universal Needs of the Circle of Courage (Belonging, Mastery, Independence, and Generosity, Polyvagal Theory, and Restorative Justice.
In order for students to access educational attainment and achievement, our Wellness Community holds space for students to activate their social engagement systems (ventral vagal nervous system states) so that they are ready to engage in productive struggle and learning.
Each student’s healing journey includes co-regulation, sensory interventions, mind-body interventions, healing-centered resilience interventions, and restorative experiences to guide them as they improve nervous system awareness and regulation, heal experiences of toxic stress and trauma, and highlight their resilience.
As a part of each student’s healing journey, they build “dream boards”, set goals, and monitor progress as they incorporate learned skills (i.e. nervous system awareness, breathing exercises, sensory tools, music/art, etc.) into their daily lives.
Students who graduate from Wellness, as they continue on their own healing journeys, have the opportunity to return to our Wellness Community as mentors in order to cultivate leadership skills and help guide new students as they embark on their healing journeys.
Office Hours: Vary by day - Drop by Wellness anytime or contact us to meet!
Emails: mzientara@dist113.org, dhoskin@dist113.org
Reading
Reading 1: Lenny DePasquale, Mike Czajkowski, Ruth Albarran, Amy Robinson
Reading 2: Mari Brown, Richenda Petersen
Reading I is structured to support students as they become increasingly aware of their preferences and growth as readers. Students learn a variety of strategies to access and interpret information from multiple texts (including personal choice novels), while teachers provide support and strategies to develop independent readers who can navigate a range of texts. A goal for this course is for students to become independent and collaborative learners as they reflect on their own thinking and growth in multiple skill areas including reading, writing, speaking and listening, research, and language. A major component of the course is engaging in Reading Plus, an on-line, adaptive, differentiated reading program that assesses students’ comprehension skills.
Reading II runs in a workshop model around practices to increase proficiency in reading, writing, and test taking. Texts and writing instruction are differentiated for skill or interest levels using whole group, small group, and individualized instruction. Reading skills highlight vocabulary, reading comprehension, and fluency and may be connected to other content areas. Writing instruction may include workshops centered around developing habits of strong writers. This class also prepares students for standardized assessments. A component of the course is to continue engaging in Reading Plus, an on-line, adaptive, differentiated reading program that assesses students’ comprehension skills.
Emails:
ldepasquale@dist113.org
mczajkowski@dist113.org
ralbarran@dist113.org
arobinson@dist113.org
mbrown@dist113.org
rpetersen@dist113.org