The West Kern Consortium for Full-Service Community Schools (WKC) connects six small and rural school districts across the west side of Kern County, CA.  The districts and partners have been recognized nationally for their innovative approach to partnership and community school implementation.  WKC serves nearly 4,000 TK-12 students with this project serving 600 of those students in grades TK-8. Leaders from the participating districts support each others leadership through a standing steering committee. PBIS teams receive boots-on-ground support from a local Koru improvement coach. 

 

In 2019, the WKC received a federal School Climate and Transformation grant. The group emphasized the need for coaching support with PBIS and MTSS and recruited Koru to fill this important gap. Through years of challenging work and deliberate collaboration, each of the three districts became eligible for California’s PBIS state recognition program with Lost Hills scoring Platinum and Semitropic and Elk Hills scoring Gold.

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​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​The Challenge

 

While teams had been trained in implementing PBIS and foundational structures were in place, implementation was, oftentimes, not prioritized by administrators, or met with resistance from staff and students. Teams were hungry for implementation coaching, a desire to understand what solid implementation looks, sounds, and feels like. Questions that often surfaced included:  What tasks should we prioritize and why?  What do we do when structures are not followed? How do we improve communication amongst stakeholders? Given these challenges, the school teams knew they needed local, ongoing, and intensive support.

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​​​​​​The Solution

 

To respond to these challenges, Koru and WKC worked together on the following elements:

• Implementation coaching: through regular coaching and support to PBIS teams via meeting co-construction and co-facilitation, developing data-informed actions plans, and communicating the work across school stakeholders.  

• Regular support with assessment and data: adopt and use systemwide and student-level measures to create aims or goals and track progress over time, incorporating responsible data use in all coaching and training experiences with school teams and district leadership. 

• Cross-district problem solving: work through steering committee and common implementation coach to establish a vision for implementation, address common problems of practice, share resources and best practices.  Schools utilized the gold standard criteria established by the California PBIS Recognition Program as a common aim.

 

Over five school years, from 2019-2024, Koru directly supported three school teams, including 25 staff members and parents, and provided mentorship and coaching to three leaders across the consortium, who met eligible criteria to earn platinum and gold certifications from the California PBIS Recognition Program.