District Spotlight: Dr. Regina Redd, Director of Curriculum and Instruction for Lyons School District 103
Meet Dr. Regina Redd, a Director of Curriculum and Instruction for Lyons School District 103, with a passion for igniting educational leadership. With over 20 years of experience in education as a teacher, assistant principal, principal and district administrator, she has developed a strong set of skills in building a strong school climate and environment.
Dr. Redd has presented educational research-based strategies for improving student academic achievement at the Illinois Principal Association (IPA) Women in Leadership Panel in February, 2024, the Multilingual/ESSA Conference in December 2023, and the Northern Illinois University Equity Journey Symposium in October 2023.
We sat down with Dr. Redd to learn more about her district’s MTSS journey – and how instructional coaching has helped them to more fully support teachers in implementing MTSS.
Can you tell me a little bit about when your district started working with the Illinois MTSS network and what that has been like for you?
We started working with our MTSS network coach, Ruth Poage-Gaines, about 6 years ago, and it’s been amazing. She’s been a leader and a thought partner for the district, and we meet with her very frequently.
Throughout the past six years, we have developed our MTSS Handbook manual that we use at the district and the building level. That MTSS manual has guided the systems that we have in place, and we’ve continually improved those systems over the past six years.
When we began working with Ruth, we originally started at the district level with data-based problem solving. First, we looked at our district data and developed our District Improvement Plan based on the data. Then, looking at our District Improvement Plan, the principals each developed their individual School Improvement Plans with their building leadership teams.
Through this whole process, we have one guiding principle: we don’t do anything in isolation. We do everything with the team. That way, everything we do at the district level supports the building level and vice versa. The Illinois MTSS Network had a huge part in that.
For our Fall 2023 newsletter, we’re focused on providing support for teachers as they work hard at this challenging and stressful job. Do you have any advice on how coaching and MTSS can help to support teachers and combat burn out?
Yes! Along with our MTSS coach, Ruth, and our district leadership team, one of the most important supports we have in place is the instructional coaches in each building. Our instructional coaches work directly with our teachers. They are a support system so the teachers don’t have to go it alone, and we’ve intentionally worked on building staff competencies through coaching.
During this six-year period Ruth has met with our instructional coaching team and trained them on how they can coach teachers more effectively through coaching cycles.
One of the things she’s really helped them understand is how important it is to build relationships and trust with classrooms teachers, so the teachers know that they’re able to rely on the coaches for additional support and instructional strategies.
We know that the support the teachers receive from the instructional coaches improves student achievement and student outcomes, as well as decreasing teachers’ stress.
Do you have an example or story that might inspire other districts?
I remember a few of years ago when we first started talking about data-based problem solving with our tier one level. At first it was a real challenge to think about – how do we help everyone within our instructional culture understand the process of the data-based problem-solving system?
There are four steps to the system, so what Ruth did was, she met with a group of us –including our principals and instructional coaches – and she took us step-by-step though the data-based problem solving protocol.
First, we identified a problem based on data. Then we analyzed the problem. Then we determined a goal based on the data. Then, finally, we evaluated the goal. That was two years ago.
Fast forward to now. Now, when we go into our PLCs (Professional Learning Communities), that data-based problem-solving process is natural and comfortable for them. The teachers are bringing data to PLCs. The instructional coaches are facilitating the PLCs to work through the problem-solving process with that data. They are having rich conversations and setting goals for a particular grade level based on the data.
Two years ago, data-based problem solving was just an idea, but now it’s a normal occurrence that we use in our PLCs every time they get together. Each time we implement something new, we check the data: is what we’re doing working? Are the competencies evident in what we do?
That’s an example of how far we’ve come with our MTSS Network Capacity Coach!
Is there anything else you want to share with our audience?
I would say just trust the process when working with your MTSS Network Coach! Lean on them, rely on them. They are a rich source of knowledge that you can use and an additional thought partner to help you come to solutions.
