The Agency for Teaching, Leading, and Learning (ATLL) is excited to partner with Southwest Missouri School districts for their professional learning needs. If you have specific needs, please reach out to one of us and let the learning begin!

Please use the following link to view our 2023-2024 ATLL Staff Directory of coaches and consultants ready to assist you! 

New Leadership:

If you know of a new Superintendent, Administrator, SPED or Curriculum Director, or Professional Development Coordinator taking a position in your school district, please send their name and email address (if known) to Randy Luebbert and Ruben Berry so that we can update our records. RLuebbert@MissouriState.edu and

RubenBerry@MissouriState.edu

New/Retiring/Moving Counselors:

If you are a counselor that will be retiring this year, or moving buildings/districts, or know of a new counselor starting in the 2024-2025 school year, please contact Laura Harris and Ruben Berry so that we may update our records.

LauraHarris@MissouriState.edu

RubenBerry@MissouriState.edu

From Randy Luebbert, Leadership Specialist

Attention ALL Leaders! MLDS Has a place for you! Let us help you support your leadership journey! We hope to see you in 2023-2024!

Please contact Randy Luebbert for more information and to sign up: RLuebbert@MissouriState.edu or 417-380-4422

From Our PBIS Team:

Did you know that the ATLL can provide professional development for your staff at no cost to your district? Youth Mental Health First Aid teaches parents, family members, caregivers, teachers, school staff and other caring adults how to help youth who may be experiencing a mental health or substance use challenge or is in crisis.

Thanks to funding from Missouri’s Department of Elementary and Secondary Education, over 3,000 public school employees have been trained in Youth Mental Health First Aid (YMHFA) since March 2022. 

Policymakers and educators alike know that expanding people’s ability to recognize and respond to signs and symptoms of mental health and substance use challenges is an essential first step in the overall health of young people. Statewide efforts to implement mental health literacy trainings, including Youth MHFA, for adults who work with young people are underway.  

Here’s what one Missouri Administrator had to say: 

“The Mental Health First Aid Training offered great tools and examples for school personnel to use as they help students in difficult situations. I really appreciated the proactive approach to looking for early signs of mental health-related issues and ways to help work through them. Far too often we don't know about mental health issues until the situation is at the boiling point. These resources will allow staff and teachers to better understand what to look for and help schools get resources in our families' hands faster and act in a more preventative nature.”   Kaci Dorton, Assistant Principal Joplin High School

Contact us if you’d like to talk more about the program and discuss available dates. When you’re ready to sign up, complete this form http://mhfamissouri.org/dese-application/ and be sure to request the ATLL (SWRPDC) as your instructors. 

The Youth Mental Health First Aid course is free of charge to districts!

Jordan Politte:

417-836-5152

JPolitte@MissouriState.edu



Andrea Rockney

417-836-4084

ARockney@MissouriState.edu

From Andrea Rockney - PBIS Consultant

The MO SW-PBS Summer Institute is coming up June 4th-5th at the Tan-Tar-A Conference Center. Registration opens 03/01/2024.

Register HERE

From Betty Glasgow, Registered Youth Apprenticeship Consultant:

Don't get stuck on setting up your Registered Youth Apprenticeship program! Here are things I can help with:

• Assist with writing Standards and first work process
• Present to your stakeholders
• Serve as your point person until you get your feet on the ground
• Answer questions or come walk you through the process

417-836-4074

BettyGlasgow@MissouriState.edu

Youth Apprenticeship Week is May 5th thru 11th:

Here are the themes for the week:

Monday: “Parents and Guardians are a Priority” in Registered Apprenticeship

Tuesday: Youth Apprenticeships: Building Awareness, Myth Busting, Partnering with Educational Providers, and Creating Pathways through Pre-Apprenticeship. 

Wednesday: Expanding Youth Apprenticeship Opportunities for Underserved Populations

Thursday: National Youth Apprenticeship Signing Day

Friday: Federal Partners Day and Call to Action

Find out more information on Youth Apprenticeship Week HERE

From Laura Harris, Career Advisor/ Career Pathways Consultant

Teachers and Counselors:

How can we get students to connect their education with future career opportunities, and help them learn about community businesses, and skills they will need to know in the workforce?

As a teacher or counselor, you can get paid for a summer externship where you will receive professional development through experiences in business to take back to your students.

You will learn valuable lessons in what essential skills they need from employees in the current workforce through a variety of local businesses. For more information, and to register for this summer teacher externship please click HERE

From Sandy Humbyrd - MTDS/GYO Consultant

Please check out the Grow Your Own Network video in the link below!

We look forward to seeing you at a GYO session!



https://vimeo.com/825614171/094772087d?share=copy



From the Literacy Team: Jana Loge, Annette Tankersley, Melinda Odom and Jenny Dunagan



Register on Frontline for face-to-face cohorts ASAP. Manuals will be ordered six weeks prior to the first session.

Please visit the link below for selecting your face-to-face workshops.

2024-2025 LETRS Offerings Registration Links



DESE has extended funding related to SB 681 that includes reimbursement opportunities for your district. If you have given stipends for training in LETRS, and/or Science of Reading professional learning, and substitutes for teachers attending SoR related professional learning (ref. DESE Admin. memo July 2023).See the link below for DESE’s ‘Introduction to Missouri’s Evidence-Based Reading Instruction Program Funding’

https://dese.mo.gov/media/pdf/reimbursement-grant-one-pagers

Mo Read, Lead, Exceed is not extended to Early Childhood LETRS

You can view the Reading Success Guidance Plan Here

Interested in Elevating Literacy Skills Within Your District?



Consider the opportunity to host a LETRS (Language Essentials for Teachers of Reading and Spelling) training cohort right at your school!

This unique offering allows your district to become a hub for literacy excellence. You're welcome to invite neighboring districts to join, aiming for a collaborative cohort of 25 participants. Our dedicated Literacy Consultants

are ready to bring this transformative training directly to you. For further

details and to explore this opportunity, please reach out to our Literacy

Consulting team.

DESE has reopened the application for the Evidence-Based Reading Instruction Program.



This new application window will allow local education agencies (LEAs) to request reimbursement of expenses for resources and programs implemented in the 2023-24 school year.

Funds received under this grant must be a reimbursement to the LEA. LEAs will submit a grant application to the Department by May 15, 2024. https://dese.mo.gov/application-reopened-evidence-based-reading-instruction-program-fund

Join DESE’s literacy team and Missouri’s K-12 public school educators from across the state, on July 17-18 at The Lodge of the Four Seasons in Lake Ozark for the 2024 DESE Literacy Summit, “Every Teacher is a Literacy Teacher.”

Conference registration click HERE

Hotel Reservations click HERE

From Melynda Van Note, Special Education Improvement Consultant:

The 2024 Transition Training Institute Conference will be held June 26-28 in Columbia, Missouri.

Lodging is open, and conference participants are responsible for making their own reservations. A block of rooms has been reserved for the Transition Training Institute at the discounted rate of $103.00 per night. A tax-exemption letter must be provided to the hotel in order to receive this rate. This rate is available until May 26 based on availability.

Please reserve your room early as the hotel will sell out quickly. Conference Hotel: Holiday Inn Executive Center in Columbia 2200 I-70 Drive S.W. Columbia, MO 65203

Click HERE for link to conference and hotel information.

From Shanna Hight, DCI Consultant

Great news! Registration is open for the DCI 2024 Summit at Tan-Tar-A Convention Center, Lake of the Ozarks. 

Secure your spot by registering and booking your hotel accommodations today! The summit is the highpoint of our year for sharing everyone’s successful work and learning together. Participation in the DCI Summit is strongly recommended.

We are pleased to announce that Doug LeMov will be our keynote speaker this year. Doug Lemov is a former teacher and school principal. He helped found Uncommon Schools, a network of high performing schools in under-served communities. His Teach Like a Champion books (now in the third edition, Teach Like a Champion 3.0) describes techniques used by exceptional teachers. Through the techniques, Lemov explains how to Check for Understanding, raise academic expectations, increase the ratio of the cognitive work students do, motivate and engage students, make classrooms more writing-intensive, improve discussions, and anticipate when it is necessary to redirect student behavior so it is positive and productive.

Go to the MoEdu-Sail website to REGISTER TODAY!

We look forward to another great DCI Summit!

From the MLDS Team:



MLDS wants to thank you for responding to our annual surveys for both MLDS and the MLDS SEED Grant. Over 1,500 Superintendents, Principals, Mentors and Teachers took this year's surveys and participated in the survey interview process.

The response rates for 2024 exceeded 2023 for every group. Thank you for helping MLDS grow in Missouri! When the data and reports are published, we will share those with you! Again, thank you @MLDSLeaders!