School & System Partnership

We believe that all learners deserve access to high quality, inclusive educational opportunities. Solutions that improve access for diverse learners are community-centered and build on strengths of the school team. That’s why we design solutions aligned with the unique needs of the students, community, and school team. We are dedicated to supporting teams to create schools where diverse learners thrive.

The DLC collaborates with schools and systems to identify and remove barriers to learner access. One example of this work is with STRIVE Collegiate in Nashville, Tennessee.

Through a year-long collaboration, the DLC supported STRIVE in implementing Universal Design for Learning (UDL) in order to improve outcomes for all learners in the general education classroom.

Watch this short video to learn more about this partnership and its impact!

How We Do It

All of our schools and their learners are diverse, and our School Partnerships reflect this. We engage with all schools and organizations using the Diverse Learner Cycle of Improvement:

1. Identify the Focus

2. Gather and Review Data

3. Make an Action Plan

4. Implement the Plan

5. Reflect on Progress

What We Do: Impact Partnerships

DLC partners with school teams to identify and remove barriers to learner access. Through a specific combination of high-impact services and supports, schools teams build capacity to create schools where diverse learners thrive.

Impact Focus Partnerships

Accessible Instruction

Build team capacity to support academic achievement of diverse learners, centering Universal Design for Learning, collaborative instruction, and Multi-tiered Systems of Support.

Positive Behavior

Build team capacity to support positive student behavior, including practices that center school-wide preventative strategies.

Student Support Systems

Build team capacity to design and deliver high-quality specialized services consistently and in accordance with compliance standards.

DLC provides additional consultation services related to diverse learner priorities, including charter review, resource development, and other technical assistance. Please contact our team for more information.

RTI-B² Case Study

Problem

A Nashville public charter network wanted to improve access for students with challenging behavior across their network of schools. In order to engage in this system-wide culture work, they sought the support of the DLC.

DLC's Support

The DLC engaged in a needs assessment to better understand the scope of the project. With clear goals in place, the network and DLC collaborated in order to create behavioral support systems designed to help decrease challenging student behavior and increase prosocial behaviors.

Results

Across the network, culture teams worked to implement RTI-B, with the strategic partnership of DLC. One impact of this work was seen at the network’s elementary school where out-of-school suspensions dropped 20% from the previous school year.

The network’s educators reported feeling more equipped to identify student needs, develop and apply function-based interventions, and measure progress.

What They Said

“Thank you for our meeting today! Each week, our meetings are the time that I feel the most productive and proactive.”

“Our DLC coaching support pushed our thinking and helped us plan out how to invest teachers in the new school-wide systems.”

Co-Teaching Case Study

Problem

A Nashville public middle school identified the quality of co-teaching as a limiting factor to student access. They enlisted the DLC to help support them in developing co-teaching as an effective model.

DLC's Support

The DLC partnered with the middle school to identify schoolwide co-teaching goals, design and deliver staff professional learning, provide instructional coaching, and conduct co-teaching walk-throughs with leadership. This resulted in improved co-teaching instruction and collaboration.

Results

Using a DLC-created co-teaching walkthrough tool, results indicated that teachers were applying a wider variety of co-teaching models and with greater impact. The majority of teachers were communicating effectively and respectfully with each other when compared to baseline. As a result, the middle school’s students regularly accessed more prepared and confident co-teachers.

What They Said

“Our collaborative planning meeting with the DLC was a helpful support for us to take a deeper look into our students’ accommodations. This meeting was an excellent reminder about the expectations we have for our students in exceptional education and all students.”

What Partners Are Saying

The Cooperative's support has positively impacted my students because they provide our team with a go-to resources for best practice, daily problem-solving, and ways to tackle annual challenges.

We wouldn’t be where we are serving every single child in our building without the DLC.

Working with the DLC the last 4+ years has been a wonderful experience. They have helped to provide support and specific products in a way that our team could not. They have been responsive to feedback, improved their services year over year, and support our very specific needs at high levels. We have been so grateful and lucky to work with the DLC.

Another focus of the process was to help leaders and teachers take ownership of all kids, including the kids that were having behavior challenges. We’re trying to shift the mindset that because they’re a special education student, only the special education teacher can help them. That’s what the partnership gave leaders the capacity to do – they felt confidence like they had never felt before – they could manage situations because of the partnership we formed.

DLC has been a great thought partner in the work I do serving diverse learners. Working with Brooke and her team, we’ve extended the capacity of our network to support teachers in better serving diverse learners.

This has been the most informative workshop I have participated in this year by far. Thank you for being such a great asset to our organization.

Partner with us to support teachers and help all students succeed.

When you give to the Diverse Learners Cooperative, your gift directly supports our work with teachers. We offer personalized coaching, valuable collaborative networks, and high quality resources so that teachers (and their learners) can succeed.

Join us in creating more inclusive and equitable schools.

Sign up for our twice-monthly newsletter to see how educators are making an impact in their schools. You’ll be the first to hear about DLC news and opportunities to be a part of our vision for increasing diverse learner teacher retention and implementing high-quality resources for diverse learners.