How Your Department Could Be Benefiting From Branching Minds Right Now

Just about every department and role in a school district benefits from the Branching Minds platform! Branching Minds is a comprehensive MTSS solution designed to transform the way school districts support students, making the work of education both practical and sustainable. 

• No more empty talk about breaking down silos and data-driven decisions, without the communication and data tools you need to actually accomplish it!
• No more wasted time and money on systems that don’t talk to each other and don’t provide the visibility you need to take action. 

Our MTSS solution puts the information teachers need to support all students right at their fingertips, enhancing the effectiveness in nearly every role within the district. Find out what’s in it for you! 

Superintendent and Administration 

You are accountable for improved student outcomes and a collaborative, data-driven culture for your staff. You need a bird’s eye view to make informed decisions about instruction, intervention, and resource allocation. 

✅ Systems-Level Visibility

With Branching Minds, you can: 

• Monitor the health of your student support systems for academics and behavior, ensuring accountability and effectiveness
• Improve student outcomes and address opportunity gaps 
• Save teachers and administrators time and effort with centralized, actionable data — all while meeting compliance needs. 
• Monitor and evaluate your resource allocation

Key Feature: Systems Reporting features, Early Warning System

“We considered a whole lot of products, but we could see that with Branching Minds, there was a whole other level of insight and commitment. Your product design was so appropriately aligned with the goal of helping kids.” - Dr. Ann White, Associate Superintendent for Student Services, Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools, NC

Curriculum & Instruction 

You are responsible for ensuring fidelity in implementation and providing appropriate resources and training for your staff. For you, it's crucial to translate outcome data into actionable insights and have the right tools to evaluate whether you have healthy core instruction and strong intervention resources.

✅ Fidelity Indicators

With Branching Minds, you can: 

• Audit delivery of curriculum and MTSS implementation fidelity
• Monitor growth and improve student outcomes
• Evaluate and establish a healthy core instruction 
• Access real-time evaluation effectiveness of interventions and supports
• Build and support teacher capacity 

Key Feature: Cohort Assessment Performance Report (CAPR)

Branching Minds helps district and school leaders leverage their benchmark assessment data to understand current performance level and rate of growth across schools and grades.

“The information we get from Branching Minds helps us identify what supports are working, what ones are used most frequently, and whether they are being implemented with fidelity And from a programmatic lens, that visibility really allows us as district leaders to strengthen the systems of supports that are in our schools and to make the best investments.” - Donna Cross, Executive Director of Research Accountability and Data, Evanston-Skokie 65, IL

Data collected from our district partners using NWEA MAP Growth showed that 76% of districts using BRM increased the number of students who met or exceeded growth expectations in both reading and math across the 2022-23 school year.

Student Services

You work district-wide to address challenging behavior, mental health, social skills, and attendance needs, all while striving to provide proactive support and intervention with limited resources.

✅ Early Identification and Support for Students at Risk

With Branching Minds, you can:  

• Implement universal screening for social competencies and behavioral risk, identifying students who need extra support
• Identify students at risk of school failure and drop out with the Early Warning System 
• Access a curated library with hundreds of evidence-based interventions
• Create scaffolded behavior intervention plans
• Track discipline incident data to see patterns, individually and across campuses and grade levels. 

Key Feature: Directly administer the SRSS-IE on the Branching Minds platform

"I use Branching Minds for one of my biggest things: discipline. I can pull up a student’s SEL/behavior health. I can look at their charts that teachers are filling out for their Check in/Check Outs and I can tell parents here's what we're working on with them. It just takes out the gray, and it moves it to black and white.” - Justin Petersen, Principal, Broken Bow, NE

Special Education  

You may have a high volume of referral requests, many of which don't meet criteria, or your district may have significant disproportionality in referrals and disciplinary actions. You rely on a healthy MTSS to provide universal screening and early, effective intervention, along with data that supports the special education evaluation process. 

✅ Accurate Data Access to Reduce SPED Referral Disproportionality

With Branching Minds, you can: 

• Identify and provide early intervention for all students who need it, preventing unnecessary SPED referrals and providing a rich source of data when a referral is necessary.
• Streamline referral and evaluation process with intervention details, comprehensive data, and a holistic student overview.
• Reduce disproportionality in referrals and disciplinary actions. 
• Make the IEP, 504, and BIP information that teachers need available at a glance.
• Support collaboration across all stakeholders.

Key Feature: Student Overview Page

“Our SPED and LEP and 504 departments load all of the teacher bundles into Branching Minds so that there's always access to student accommodations. All meetings are logged into Branching Minds, so we really use every aspect of the platform in almost every department and everything that we do. Our principals and APs absolutely love it. Our instructional specialists and teachers are in it daily, multiple times a day.” - Pennie Graeber, RTI and At-Risk Coordinator, Waco Independent School District, TX

Finance

You are responsible for ensuring that approved education technology investments deliver substantial returns and drive meaningful improvements in student outcomes. With limited funds, it's crucial to prioritize tools that streamline processes, make life easier for teachers, and have the greatest impact on student outcomes. 

✅ Cost-Efficient Consolidation 

With Branching Minds, you can: 

• Access a comprehensive MTSS solution at a reasonable cost
• Streamline MTSS while replacing several other systems 

”Branching Minds is helping all of the schools in our district move towards a systematic MTSS process. It has provided the platform we needed to more consistently document the work we are doing with students. This documentation is aiding in our analysis of student data to continually improve student outcomes at all tier levels.” - Tina Inghram, MTSS Coordinator, Crook County Schools, WY

Human Resources

You are entrusted with enhancing teacher retention rates, ensuring teacher satisfaction within their roles, and implementing strategies to mitigate teacher burnout.

✅ Improved Teacher Retention and Job Satisfaction

With Branching Minds, you can: 

• Support teacher and team efficiencies with easier decision-making, less delay of student support — freeing teachers to focus on instruction.
• Help teachers help their students, with insight survey results tied to the Branching Minds evidence-based intervention library. 
• Providing on-demand asynchronous learning for teams through our MTSS Hub.

Key Feature: Tailored Professional Development and The MTSS Hub 

	“My teachers can't see doing MTSS Structures without Branching Minds anymore. They finally have a mechanism to record all this great collegiality, time, and effort they're putting towards students and you can clearly see that effort tangibly through data.” - Christine Downing, Director of Curriculum, Instruction and Assessment, Plainfield School District, NH
	“Branching Minds is the most user-friendly for teachers. Branching Minds has made it a simple process, it's not cumbersome. They use it with ease, and they love it. I can't imagine, honestly, life without it right now. There's just enough difficulty, so it's nice to have a platform that teachers enjoy using.” - Pennie Graeber, RTI and At-Risk Coordinator, Waco Independent School District, TX

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Technology

You're grappling with numerous systems, dealing with overwhelmed staff, facing unresponsive customer support, and worrying about potential data breaches. 

✅ Robust Data Security, Optimal Management and Access to Best in Class Customer Support

Branching Minds supports you with: 

• A designated data implementation specialist 
• Single sign-on
• Data Interoperability
• SIS (Student Information System) and assessment integrations
• Data security certifications
• A friendly and intuitive interface for staff, complete with in-the-moment help desk support. 

🏅 Branching Minds’ customer support first response time is maintained at under a minute, allowing educators to instantly speak to a live person about their questions and receive immediate assistance.

 

Key Feature: Data Interoperability and Security

Learn more about our certifications and awards

 

“I'm confident in saying this, when you get to Branching Minds, it is going to provide you with tools that you never even thought to ask for. And they are so convenient, they are so helpful.” - Ron Dumais, Technology Educator, Middletown Public Schools, RI

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Conclusion

A Multi-Tiered System of Supports touches just about every department and role in a school district, and when it runs well, everyone benefits — especially your students! Branching Minds is the best-in-class software solution to make your MTSS vision a reality. See how the Branching Minds solution can start working for you today.