Branching Minds

Branching Minds is a browser-based program that helps teachers create personalized interventions for literature, math and student behavior. Simultaneously, it helps schools and districts report on and monitor the RTI and MTSS processes. Using teacher input, Branching Minds recommends strategies and tools to build skills in individual students. Branching Minds requires a license to use.

APPROACH

The first step in Branching Minds is to complete a survey of students’ observable performance across four areas: Academic, social emotional, cognitive and behavioral skills. This diagnostic can be completed alone or in collaboration with other teachers. The survey’s answers are automatically transferred into detailed results, identifying areas where a lack of skills may be hindering a student’s growth, for example in concept formation or auditory processing.

Branching Minds uses this data to recommend specific strategies and resources to address the needs of individual students. Resources are pulled from organizations such as Intervention Central, the Florida Center for Reading Research or the What Works Clearinghouse. Branching Minds can also recommend resources or tools that are already being used by teachers at the participating school. Both the questions in the survey and the recommended interventions are differentiated for ELL students.

Progress monitoring and reporting with Branching Minds is also a collaborative process. All of the educators who work with a student use the tool to document in a single location their interventions with, and observations of the student. Additionally, the tool will interface with the SIS to display a student’s benchmark scores. This information can be used to associate change in score with the implementation of interventions. Teachers can also use Branching Minds to prepare intervention reports to share with parents.

IMPLEMENTATION

Branching Minds can be accessed online through a web browser. The site is mobile optimized.

PRICING

Branching Minds offers a 1-year license. The price of the license depends on the number of students enrolled in the program and the features purchased, typically ranging from $1-$6 per student. Branching Minds is usually used across an entire school or district but special pricing structures are available for smaller groups of students if necessary.

WHO IS USING IT

As of March 2016, Branching Minds is used in 10 states and Washington, DC by more than 100 schools and districts.