Leadership Team

The first step for a program implementing the Teaching Pyramid model is to establish a program-wide Leadership Team. At a minimum, the Leadership Team consists of:

• An administrator
  • This should include a site-level administrator as well as a program-level administrator if multiple sites from a single program are participating
• Supervisors
• A classroom teacher or teachers
• Support specialists who may be anyone who would facilitate and develop behavior support plans (individuals could work with multiple sites), including mental health partners, school psychologists, disability specialists, educational coordinators, special education partners, etc.

Responsibilities of the Leadership Team:

• Meet regularly to lead program-wide implementation
• Provide support for training, coaching, and classroom practices
• Develop a vision and action plan for long-term systems change and sustainability
• Attend all training sessions to gain an understanding of the concepts and to provide meaningful support for implementation
• Model concepts of the Teaching Pyramid:
  • Promote healthy social-emotional development through positive interaction with adults and children
  • Promote the “Expectations for Behavior” in all aspects of the program including the Leadership Team
  • Determine the meaning of challenging behavior
  • Identifies policies and procedures for preventing and addressing challenging behavior
  • Demonstrate the parallel process: treating teachers the way that they expect teachers to provide for children
• Champion and provide support for implementation and sustainability

Leadership Team Meetings

Generally, there are at least five (5) leadership team meetings during the training cycle. The Leadership Team meets one full day prior to the training and continues to meet regularly during the training. This team becomes a model of shared decision-making within the program and continues to meet after training is finished to act as the Steering Committee for implementation of the Teaching Pyramid approach, to monitor technical assistance and additional training needs, and to problem-solve as needed for classroom- or site-specific issues.

Provided by WestEd

WestEd provides facilitation for building and sustaining a program-wide Leadership Team. WestEd will work with a contact person or small team to set-up an initial Leadership Team Meeting. In addition to the five meetings with the Leadership Team, WestEd will be available to provide a recruitment session to interested administrators to explain the program and commitment. The Leadership Team also attends the training sessions. This participation is crucial in order to help the training become more meaningful during the training and effective during implementation.