Session Descriptions

Tuesday, July 26, 2005

Keynote

Reforming Teacher Education: Research, Evidence and Politics
This presentation will examine the current scene in teacher education research, policy and practice, especially the discourse of teacher education reform. Competing agendas for reform as well as their political and historical contexts will be considered with emphasis on the role of research and evidence. In addition, the speaker will briefly describe the findings and implications of the AERA Panel on Research and Teacher Education, which has just completed its work. Special emphasis will be given to the new report from the AERA panel on Research and Teacher Education (Cochran-Smith & Zeichner, co-editors) which synthesizes and reviews the empirical evidence on the impact of teacher education.

10:30 a.m. – 12 noon Breakout Sessions

Multi-Site Research in Special Education: Challenges and Benefits
Multi-site investigations with common research samples and/or protocols are becoming more commonplace in educational and mental health research. The purpose of this session is to provide a facilitated discussion regarding the challenges and benefits of conducting large research projects across multiple geographic locations and with multiple investigators. Panel members will respond to focused questions concerning the advantages of multi-site research in special education, the challenges that are common in developing and implementing these investigations, as well as their experiences in resolving identified challenges.

Teacher Education Research and Evidence: Continuing the Discussion
This informal breakout session will continue discussion about teacher education research, evidence and politics that began during the keynote address. There will be ample opportunity for participants to raise questions, offer comments, and interact with both the speaker and one another.

Student Progress Monitoring: Developing an Independent, Centralized Source for Describing the Technical Adequacy and Implementation Information for Various Tools
This session will describe evidence-based practices of student progress monitoring that can be used effectively in elementary school classrooms. Research-based student progress monitoring tools that have met the seven standards for scientific rigor by national experts will be discussed, along with information on how educators can apply student progress monitoring in developing goals for IEPs, in the framework of Response-to-Intervention, and in improving instructional decision making to meet the AYP requirements.

Student Progress Monitoring presentation (pdf, 392kb)
Student Progress Monitoring handout 1 (pdf, 127kb)
Student Progress Monitoring handout 2 (pdf, 105kb)
Student Progress Monitoring bibliography (pdf, 118kb)
Review of Progress Monitoring Tools

IDEA 2004 New Law – Part B
This session will provide the highlights of changes to Part B of IDEA and the proposed regulations.  Topics will include: procedural safeguards, IEPs, discipline, early intervening, identification and assessment.  Limited time will be provided for questions.

IDEA 2004 New Law – Part C
This session will provide the highlights of changes to Part C of IDEA. Topics will include: implementing evidence based practices, funding flexibility, and the provisions for referring children who experience a substantiated case of trauma due to exposure to family violence. Limited time will be provided for questions.

Early Literacy for Braille Readers: From Research to Practice to Personnel Preparation
Presenters will describe recent, ongoing, and future research on this topic; summarize evidence-based practices for promoting early literacy in Braille readers; describe linking research to practice in personnel preparation programs; and demonstrate accessible, multimedia CDs that can be used to prepare personnel to provide evidence-based intervention and education.

Early Literacy for Braille handout (pdf, 25kb)

Improving Secondary Education and Transition Services Using Research-Based Standards and Indicators
This presentation will describe two current approaches on how research can be meaningfully aligned with nationally developed standards and indicators on secondary education and transition services to support state and local self assessment, planning, technical assistance, and improvement efforts. The session is intended for researchers, TA&D personnel, and administrators.

Improving Secondary Education presentation (pdf, 2,622kb)

Finding and Keeping the Best: Recruiting and Retaining Teachers for Children with Low-Incidence Disabilities
This session will describe collaborative program structures and teacher education curriculum strategies (Service Learning, Pupil Assessment, and BASICS) that facilitate partnerships with local school districts and surrounding communities to improve pupil performance by simultaneously addressing personnel issues and pupil learning needs.

Creating Capacity for Coherence among the Systems Reformers: New York State’s SIG experience
New York State ’s SIG project has leveraged collaboration among multiple technical assistance networks and state education department personnel in their support of high need/low resource districts. Increased collaboration revealed a need to be coherent in their approach to district needs. This presentation discusses the large-scale effort to bring all these personnel to a comparable skill level in school improvement as well as to develop a protocol for communication that will facilitate coherent approaches and make the process transparent to our client districts.

Assessing Impacts of Leadership Preparation: A Comprehensive Approach
This session will describe elements of a systematic impact evaluation of the Leaders for System Change project, using a theoretical framework of ‘socialization to leadership’ and an outcomes mapping methodology. We highlight impacts on student leadership development, impact of field experiences on host organizations, and graduate impact on employing organizations.

Inclusive Efforts for Recruiting/Retaining Personnel
The Arkansas State Improvement Grant (SIG) Goal 3 plans to increase the number of fully qualified teachers serving students with disabilities through development of programs that address recruitment, support and retention of special education teachers. In order to accomplish this goal, Arkansas has implemented financial support for individuals interested in obtaining special education licensure, mentoring specifically designed for special education teachers, and the development of statewide research based inclusive teaching practices.

Accessible State and District Reading Assessments: Starting from Our Definition of Reading. Have We Got it Right?
Two projects have developed a definition of “reading proficiency.” The presentation will include an interactive discussion with researchers, practitioners, and those preparing personnel on the three definitions that have been created thus far.

Accessible State presentation (pdf, 143kb)

Empowering Hispanic and Native American Scholars in Doctoral and Specialist Level Programs: Systemic and Web-Based Approaches
NAU and SDSU both hold strong commitments to culturally compatible and rigorous graduate training for special educators and related services personnel. In this presentation, we share successful components of each project, from community connections to web-based approaches, and their relationships to the empowerment of our graduates.

Empowering Hispanic and Native American Scholars presentation 1 (pdf, 223kb)

Empowering Hispanic and Native American Scholars presentation 2 (pdf, 1,381kb)

Exemplary Instructional Units: Incorporating Transition Goals with Statewide Standards and Research-Based Unit Design
Session will demonstrate a research-based unit design process that incorporates transition goals as authentic and relevant, with a student-centered focus for standards-based instruction. Unit examples will include teacher-identified as well as research-identified topics that have been shown to lead to successful adult outcomes.

Establishing an Innovative Partnership to Prepare Teachers of the Deaf
The session will describe an innovative partnership dedicated to reduce the teacher shortage and prepare highly qualified teachers to meet the changing needs brought about by the advancement of technology. The program will present experts available nationwide to both pre-service and in-service teachers throughout Illinois by means of interactive video-conferencing.

Update on the Personnel Preparation Program Student Data Report: Purpose, Results, and Issues
In this session, presenters will describe the purpose of the Personnel Preparation Program Student Data Report, share analyses of data from the FY 2003 Data Collection, address outstanding data entry issues and respond to participant questions.  Personnel Preparation grantees who have entered student data for prior years as well as new (FY 04) grantees who will be entering initial data beginning this fall should find this session informative and are encouraged to attend.

TIME/RIME Online: Addressing Teacher Training in Early Literacy Intervention
This session describes an interactive online course that was developed to increase teachers’ knowledge of evidence-based instruction in early reading. The presentation will highlight course content, review research results from RIME projects, and show video clips of national experts describing research-based findings and interventions.

Long-Term Solutions for Providing Diverse, High Quality Personnel for Students with Disabilities
States, institutes of higher learning (IHEs), and local school districts are working together to plan and implement recruitment campaigns to attract persons from diverse backgrounds into special education-related careers. OSEP’s Personnel Center at NASDSE is providing training to implement these campaigns in nine states. SIG directors from Alabama and Kentucky will share experiences in their states.

Long-Term Solutions presentation (pdf, 54kb)

Applications of the Criteria for Evidence-Based Practice in Special Education
This session focuses on the criteria for evidence-based practice in special education proposed in the Winter 2005 issue of Exceptional Children. Presenters will provide examples of five potential applications: (1) planning and instructional intervention, (2) conducting a comprehensive review of the literature, (3) developing a pre-service course, (4) identifying areas for future research, and (5) reviewing conference proposals.

1:45 – 3:15 p.m. Panel Presentations

Achieving the Highly Qualified Goal in Special Education: Moving Beyond Compliance
Teacher quality research suggests that subject matter expertise is only one attribute of effective teaching. We describe evidence supporting the need for integrated state policy systems and seamless teacher education in meeting the highly qualified challenge. Representatives from New Jersey and the New Teacher Center describe efforts to align licensure requirements and strategies for preparing teachers to work with students with disabilities. Teacher induction programs are highlighted as one powerful, evidence-based practice for improving teacher quality.

Including Students with Disabilities in Large-Scale Assessment Systems: A Model for Validating Inferences
This session outlines a process for states to use to ensure that students with disabilities participate in a meaningful way in their statewide assessment. The presenters argue for the validity of collecting and organizing different types of evidence as a way of supporting inferences that are being made from large-scale assessments.

OSEP’s National Longitudinal Studies: Results to Inform Personnel Preparation and Practice
Researchers will provide select results from each of the four child-based national longitudinal studies developed by OSEP to assess the implementation of IDEA: National Early Intervention Longitudinal Study (NEILS); Pre-Elementary Education Longitudinal Study (PEELS); Special Education Elementary Longitudinal Study (SEELS); and National Longitudinal Transition Study-2 (NLTS2). Presenters will share developmental, academic, behavioral and health outcomes at the end of Kindergarten for former early intervention recipients; an initial snapshot of pre-school special education children, their classroom placements and the early special education services they are receiving; student characteristics, secondary disabilities, functional skills, classroom placements and standardized reading achievement test results of learning-disabled (LD) students 6 – 12 years of age; and the relationship of teacher expectations and student grades to actual student competencies in reading, math, social studies , and science of secondary age students.

National Longitudinal Studies Presentation (pdf, 286kb)
National Longitudinal Studies Presentation 2 (pdf, 138kb)

3 :30 – 5:00 p.m. Breakout Sessions

Preschool Expulsion: Prevalence, Impact on School Readiness, Evidence-Based Practices to Prevent Challenging Behavior and Promote Success
This session will report findings of a recent national study by Yale University’s Edward Zigler Center for Child Development and Social Policy documenting the prevalence of preschool expulsion and characteristics of programs most and least likely to expel children. One of the findings was that expulsion rates decrease significantly when classroom-based behavioral consultation is available and used. These presentations will include information on a model for providing behavioral support to children in early childhood settings.

Precursors to Systemic Change: Findings from Year 4 of the SIG Program Evaluation
During this interactive session, we will first present selected findings from Year 4 of the SIG Program Evaluation related to SIG projects’ leadership, outcomes, and evaluations. We will then facilitate a discussion with session participants around explanations for the findings, implications of the findings, and possible recommendations based on the findings.  

High Quality Special Education Teachers: Using Research and Teacher Education Practice to Make a Difference
This session is geared to special education researchers and teacher educators interested in studying the literacy practices of high quality special education teachers and designing teacher education programs that demonstrate potential for preparing such teachers.

IDEA 2004 New Law – Part D
This session will provide highlights of changes to Part D of the 2004 reauthorization of IDEA and the proposed regulations, with a focus on topics of particular relevance to Personnel Preparation Program grantees including highly qualified teacher requirements and service obligation requirements.  Limited time will be provided for questions.

Non-Technology Based Activities as One Component in Building a Statewide Teacher Training Consortium
The Kansas Low-Incidence Personnel Preparation (KLIPP) project proposed the development of a statewide consortium of IHEs for offering courses leading to initial licensure for teaching students with significant support needs. This presentation explains how non-technology components of KLIPP's annual summer institutes have made specialized content classes and field experiences available in areas of the state far-removed from the KU campus.

A Closer Look at Results from the Special Education Elementary Longitudinal Study (SEELS) and the National Longitudinal Transition Study-2 (NLTS2)
In the first half of this session SEELS researchers will provide more in depth data on the diversity among elementary/middle school students with learning disabilities, highlighting differences in functional skills and secondary disabilities of students who receive Language Arts instruction in general education vs. special education. In the second half of this session, NLTS2 researchers will present secondary age students’ performance in basic reading, mathematics and content area knowledge on a research version of the Woodcock-Johnson III along with a discussion of the implications of the design and implementation of the assessment procedures.

A Closer Look Presentation (pdf, 304kb)

What Works in Dropout Prevention for Secondary-Age Youth with Disabilities?
This presentation will summarize the original research literature in secondary special education over the past two decades on dropout prevention. The first half of the presentation will focus briefly on the results of three systematic reviews of interventions (cognitive-behavioral, behavior analytic, and counseling) as well as a literature map of the features of the original research literature. The second half of the presentation will be an interactive discussion of substantive and methodological issues associated with dropout research in secondary special education.

Becoming Culturally Responsive Educators: Rethinking Teacher Education Pedagogy
This session will provide teacher educators with ways of rethinking how diversity can be infused throughout their teacher preparation program and guidelines for developing culturally responsive teacher education pedagogy.

Strengthening Parent Involvement at All Levels of Intervention Systems 
The first of three linked presentations describes a strategy for working with parents of children with severe behavior problems who do not cooperate with or complete parent training. We then describe the long-term educational outcomes of an early intervention program that extensively integrated parents into the classroom as therapists. Finally, we describe a year-long professional training program in which students gain multiple perspectives on family roles in intervention for children with significant medical disabilities through participation in the family's activities.

Strengthening Parent Involvement Presentation (pdf, 696kb)

Cost Analysis in Educational Decision Making: New Developments, Challenges and Opportunities from the Field
Cost analysis has become an important educational decision-making tool in recent years, as educators are being asked to do more with less funding and provide tangible evidence of the effectiveness of educational programs. In this session we will review how various disciplines have adapted cost analysis methodologies to study intervention effectiveness, and how these methods are currently being applied by researchers within the field of education. We will consider the unique conceptual and practical challenges educational researchers in the field currently face in conducting economic impact studies of school-based interventions , and offer some practical solutions based on work conducted by the Coordination, Consultation & Evaluation Center for how future researchers can take advantage of emergent technologies and methodologies to streamline the data collection process.

Early Intervention and Preschool Education Personnel Preparation: The National Landscape
This session presents methodology and findings from The Center for Personnel Preparation in Early Intervention/Early Childhood Special Education (EI/ECSE) that demonstrates trends in licensure/certification, and provides a national perspective on training programs. The session will highlight relationships between personnel preparation standards, training programs, and supply and demand of EI/ECSE professionals.

Early Intervention presentation (pdf, 150kb)

Adolescents Born Preterm: Nurtured Beginnings
The session describes an early interventive–preventive approach to improved neurodevelopmental functioning for very early born preterm infants. Results of efficacy on a cohort of 107 infants are provided to 9 months corrected age, and a follow-up to adolescence is delineated. Implications for early childhood educators and policy makers are discussed.

The IRIS Center: Free Web-based Course Enhancement Materials Related to the Effective Inclusion of Students with Disabilities
During this session, IRIS staff will demonstrate the resources available to college faculty at the IRIS Center website using laptop computers. Conference participants can bring laptops to the session and will spend approximately an hour using the materials and discussing how IRIS products can be incorporated into their courses.

Standards-Based Instruction and Large-Scale Assessment Knowledge: Barely Scratching the Surface for Understanding English Language Learners with Disabilities
The numeric and disperse growth of English language learners with disabilities and emerging research to improve standards-based instructional and large-scale assessment practices and policies for these students raise numerous educational issues. A dynamic, highly interactive discussion with the audience will focus on implications for researchers, practitioners, and those preparing personnel.

Standards-Based Instruction presentation (pdf, 5,678kb)

Current Issues in Alternate Assessment on Alternate Achievement Standards
This session will outline the unique work of both the National Alternate Assessment Center and Developing Alternate Assessment Technical Adequacy projects in two distinct areas: 1) reviewing the population and developing a theory of learning for students with the most significant cognitive disabilities and 2) defining technical adequacy for alternate assessments on alternate achievement standards.

Current Issues in Alternate Assessment presentation (pdf, 130kb)

Exceeding Expectations: A Case Study on Students’ With Disabilities Transition to Postsecondary Institutions
Lessons learned from the Exceeding Expectations Project (CFDA 84.32M) about effective strategies for students, teachers, and parents to increase student access and retention in postsecondary institutions are discussed. Themes developed from focus groups and surveys for increasing postsecondary success were a) belief systems, b) preparation efforts, and c) institutional competence.

Exceeding Expectations Presentation (pdf, 1,716kb)

Critical Issues and Perspectives in Conducting Scientifically Scaled Up Research on Promising Interventions within Today’s Schools
This session will discuss critical issues and provide both school district and university perspectives on the challenges involved in conducting scientific research on promising interventions under conditions that exist in today’s schools.  Today’s schools represent a stressful context in which to conduct research due to ongoing pressures for school reform, increased accountability, lack of parental and societal support, underfunding of school budgets, larger class sizes, increased diversity levels, an expanding at risk student population, and the impact of federal and state regulations.  A large number of school staffs are suffering burnout as a result of these factors and view participation in research efforts as an added burden.  The tensions and conflicts between school district operations and the requirements of scientific research are often difficult to resolve and they impose constraints even when negotiated successfully.  This session will address these issues and suggest some strategies for responding to them.

Wednesday, July 27, 2005

7:45 – 8:45 a.m. Affinity/Discussion Groups

Access, Participation, and Learning of the General Curriculum by Students with Labels of Significant Cognitive Disabilities
This discussion group will concentrate on the supports and structures that help students labeled as having significant cognitive disabilities learn the general education curriculum content. Issues to be discussed include the watering down of participation in standards-based assessment for students with significant cognitive disabilities, as mandated by the Individuals with Disabilities Education Improvement Act, as well as the influence of assumptions about intelligence, the role of augmentative communication, and implications for personnel preparation.

Access and Accountability for Students with Disabilities in Schools of Choice and Alternative Schools
Choice and alternative schools are a growing sector in public education systems nationwide. We will introduce the burgeoning menu of options available to students with disabilities and lead a discussion regarding the issues these choice and alternative settings raise for stakeholders related to access and accountability associated with IDEA and NCLB.

Advancing Leadership Training and Research in Special Education Administration
This session will generate ideas for advancing special education administration as an essential area of practice and research. Preliminary topics include (1) the state of practice; (2) the need for research on conditions and outcomes; (3) licensure patterns and standards; and (4) training approaches, including greater emphasis on evidence-based practices.

How Are Teacher Preparation Programs Responding to the “Highly-Qualified” Requirements for Beginning Special Educators?
How are teacher preparation programs responding to the "highly-qualified" requirements for beginning special educators? One option is additional program credits for a core academic subject; another would replace special education credits with core academic subject credits. The presenters will examine the implications of these choices and identify alternatives to these choices.

Providing Speech and Language Services in Contextually-Based Settings
This affinity discussion group will focus on issues that impact speech-language service delivery in contextually based settings, such as the preschool or elementary classroom. Issues discussed will focus on student and transdisciplinary training, data collection, and capacity building processes.

Developing Resources and Networking Strategies to Provide American Sign Language (ASL) Resources for Cultural Events for the Deaf
Equity rules, translation issues, and other issues effect how we distribute materials to the Deaf population in the US. This group will discuss ways to integrate ASL instruction through cultural resources like drama.

Paraeducator Training: From College Courses to Support of Children with Disabilities
Group participants will share how they are helping paraeducators link knowledge from college courses to (1) their practice in the classroom and (2) evidence of progress in the children with disabilities they support. Please bring examples of paraeducators' reading assignments, field assignments, and evaluation approaches or measures to share.

Interpreter Training—After OSEP Funding, What’s Next?
Funding via federal grants is decreasing, which has been a “life-source” for ASL/English interpreter training programs. Institutions of higher learning enjoy having specialized programs but the low number of graduates causes the same institutions not to put hard monies towards sustaining of such programs.

Are There Specific Competencies for Rural Special Education Service?
The discussion leader and her colleagues have conducted some research on the question of whether the same competencies can lead to success in both the in inner city and rural areas. We would like to hear what others have to say. If we can define priorities, then personnel prep programs could include work on the competencies within curriculum and extra-curricular experiences.

Are There Specific Competencies 1 handouts (pdf, 48kb)
Are There Specific Competencies 2 handouts (pdf, 23kb)
Are There Specific Competencies 3 handouts (pdf, 211kb)

Increasing State, Local and IHE Capacity to Recruit, Prepare and Retain Diverse Special Education-Related Personnel
This affinity group will discuss challenges and barriers to special education-related personnel development, including recruitment, preparation and retention, along with strategies that are being developed and implemented by states, districts, Part C programs and IHEs to address each of those challenges/barriers. Interest in a “personnel needs” community of practice will also be discussed.

Keynote Presentation

High Quality Evaluation: Empowerment Evaluation
What principles should guide an empowerment evaluation? And how can these principles actually be put into practice? One of the primary tasks in an empowerment evaluation (EE) is to increase the capacity of program stakeholders to plan, implement, and evaluate their own programs. Dr. Fetterman will present the most current formulation of EE and the tools that professionals can use to put these principles into practice. He will also discuss case studies of diverse evaluation projects, key concepts and important lessons learned. The presentation will also cover how to balance program improvement efforts with accountability requirements; how EE can be used to guide standards-based work; how to use EE in a learning organization; and the differences among empowerment, collaborative, and participatory evaluation.

High Quality Evaluation presentation (pdf, 3,204kb)

10:30 a.m. – 12 noon Breakout Sessions

History Instruction in Inclusive Classrooms: What Have We Learned About Teaching and Research?
In this session, researchers who have been systematically investigating ways to improve students’ understanding of history will discuss their experiences designing instructional interventions that have a disciplinary focus but also meet the needs of learners with mild disabilities. The panel also will discuss the implications of their research programs for the design of intervention studies and for ways to document student learning.

History Instruction 1 presentation (pdf, 33kb)
History Instruction 2 presentation (pdf, 353kb)

Teaching Students with Mental Retardation to Read: Current Large-Scale Research Projects
Three large-scale research grants have recently been funded to address the need to develop and evaluate scientifically based reading interventions for students with mental retardation (MR). An overview of each of these projects, including research questions and methods, will be shared.

Teaching Students 1 presentation (pdf, 52kb)

Teaching Students 2 presentation (pdf, 414kb)

Using Technology in Evaluation
The purpose of this session is to highlight some technological tools of the trade. The most important technological tools presented include: online survey software, file sharing (including Yahoo Briefcase and iDisk), virtual conference space and online classrooms, and videoconferencing on the Internet. These tools have been collecting data (from remote sites), maintaining communication with sites, documenting critical findings (with face validity), and reporting findings in an effective manner.

Using Technology presentation (pdf, 10,534kb)

A Closer Look at Results from the National Early Intervention Longitudinal Study (NEILS) and the Pre-Elementary Education Longitudinal Study (PEELS)
In the first half of this session, NEILS researchers will provide an opportunity for additional discussion of findings with a focus on implications of the kindergarten outcomes and what has been learned from NEILS about the results of early intervention. In the second half of this session, PEELS researchers will explore factors that may be associated with various outcomes for pre-schoolers with speech/language impairments.

Response to Intervention and School-Based Problem Solving: Statewide Approaches in Idaho and Illinois
This presentation will provide an overview of two states’ efforts to implement Response to Intervention and school-based problem solving as a means to improve student outcomes, as well as determine special education eligibility. The approaches are part of Idaho’s five-year federal State Improvement Grant and Illinois’ Flexible Service Delivery Project. Examples of student and school progress monitoring tools and outcome data will also be shared.

Response to Intervention presentation (pdf, 825kb)

Accessing the General Education Curriculum: Count Us In!
Alabama ’s three-phase training model is centered on curriculum guides that provide skills prerequisite to grade-level academic content standards. Curriculum guides, training, technical assistance, and support are provided to district leadership teams to scale-up the training goals and increase student achievement.

Universal Approaches to Early Behavioral Screening: Key Issues, Current Status, and Recommended Models
This session will provide an overview of the current knowledge base on early screening approaches in school contexts to identify youth who display serious school adjustment problems and who are in need of intervention supports and services to address their needs. Critical screening issues will be discussed with audience members.

Monarch Center: Supporting Special Education Program Development and Improvement
The Monarch Center provides technical assistance to personnel preparation program faculty at Minority Institutions of Higher Education through hands-on seminars, electronic communications, mentoring, and collaborations with state educational agency (SEA) personnel. Results of our technical assistance to date will be presented including grant proposal development efforts.

Career Ladders Postsecondary Project: Solving the Paradox of Personalization and Transition Through Longitudinal Follow-up and Ongoing Availability of Transition Services
The Career Ladders Postsecondary Project (CLPP) is a four-year model demonstration grant in Seattle Public Schools that connects school students to adult services. Session will address embedding a rigorous research methodology within practitioners’ routines, and the replication and sustainability of such high-grade results programs. Longitudinal outcomes will also be shared.

Virginia and Maryland–Kicking Up Professional Development a Notch
This session presents two unique statewide approaches in building capacity to improve instruction and provide professional development in the KU-CRL Strategic Instruction Model (SIM) routines/strategies. The presentation overviews the processes used to increase the number of SIM professional developers and school-based instructional coaches. Success stories and lessons learned during implementation will be highlighted.

Kicking-Up presentation (pdf, 2,032kb)

Positive Behavioral Interventions and Supports: Going to Scale and Preparing Teachers Who Are Experts
This session will describe two ways to bring positive behavioral interventions and supports to schools. A State-Academic-School System partnership will be presented that disseminates a universal youth violence prevention strategy. Also, a personnel preparation program that prepares teachers to implement primary, secondary, and tertiary levels of prevention will be explained.

Positive Behavioral Interventions 1 presentation (pdf, 445kb)
Positive Behavioral Interventions 2 presentation (pdf, 157kb)
Positive Behavioral Interventions Triangle (pdf, 17kb)

Service Coordination: What We Know and How to Make a Difference for Children and Families
This session will highlight o utcomes and practices of service coordination at the family, service coordinator, and system administrator levels. The focus will be on practices associated with the tasks of service coordination. Discussion will include plans to develop training materials and disseminate information through a national service coordinator conference.

East Carolina University–Wachovia Partnership East: An Innovative University-Community College-Private Sector Partnership for Preparation of Special Educators
Partnerships between four-year and community colleges offer promising approaches to reducing the shortage of highly-qualified special educators in rural communities. Session participants will discuss infrastructure considerations, distance education and technology implications, and effective instructional strategies that result in teacher candidates earning K-12 special education and reading licensure.

Describing and Predicting Special Educator Supply and Demand: One State's Efforts
State initiatives to address shortages of qualified special educators require both data and ways to use data to direct policies and practices. This session describes Minnesota's efforts to develop a special educator supply and demand model, the model's characteristics and capabilities, and recommendations that can assist others pursuing similar initiatives.

Describing and Predicting Presentation (pdf, 334kb)

Using Technology to Enhance Training, Academic Achievement, and Transition
This session provides presentations by three technology-based projects. The first project presents strategies to determine the effects of evidence-based online early childhood workshops. The second project builds math skills of adolescents with emotional/behavioral disorders. The third project presents a standards-based system designed to increase reading achievement, technology and transition skills.

Using Technology to Enhance Training presentation (pdf, 482kb)

Assessing the Cost and Cost Effectiveness of Teacher Preparation Alternatives
A model of teacher preparation cost effectiveness will be presented and discussed, and its application to the problem states face of using limited training funds to maximize the supply of highly qualified special education teachers will be demonstrated.

National Instructional Materials and Accessibility Standard (NIMAS) and Beyond: Accessible and Strategic Learning Technologies for Improved Outcomes
Developing and implementing the technologies, policies and business strategies for the timely development and delivery of accessible educational materials remains critically important but these methods remain insufficient to remove the barriers for children . Learn how the foundations for access will be established under IDEA 2004 and then how Universal Design for Learning will help support improved learning outcomes.

A Comprehensive, Collaborative Approach to Early Intervention for Children with Challenging Behaviors
The Center for Evidence-based Practice: Young Children with Challenging Behaviors, in partnership with professional and advocacy organizations, has contributed to improved knowledge and practice concerning young children affected by challenging behaviors. This session will describe activities and impacts in research, training, dissemination and policy, focusing on issues of school readiness.

2:00 – 3:30 p.m. Panel Presentations

Scaling Up and Evaluating Professional Development: How the Georgia SIG has Positively Impacted Hundreds of Schools through Professional Development Initiatives
During the implementation of the Georgia SIG, professional development (PD) has changed radically from one-shot workshops with no outcome data to data-driven, job-embedded PD resulting in positive student outcomes. The panel will discuss how one school-wide initiative has grown from small pilot projects to implementation in over 300 schools. Outcome data will be provided.

Research and Practice on Early Intervening Services
Early intervening services (EIS) is a new authorization under IDEA. One might anticipate that schools and districts might be interested in expenditures appropriate to this authorization of special education funds. Researchers might be interested in research and evaluation findings and potential questions of further study. The three panelists will provide a review of the statutory language, congressional intent, and research findings of school districts’ implementation. A framework of what is included under EIS will be provided including supporting research. One district’s experience will be described and how they are integrated to provide a cohesive framework of assisting students. In addition, information from a sample of implementation sites will be shared.

Research and Practice 1 presentation (pdf, 23kb)
Research and Practice 2 presentation (pdf, 19kb)
Research and Practice 3 presentation (pdf, 113kb)

Instruction and Learning for 2% and 1% Populations
This session is in response to the new flexibility under NCLB that addresses instruction and learning for children with disabilities who do not respond adequately to high quality instruction and evidence based interventions.  Data and implications from two of the projects funded under the early reading and behavior grants that addresses tertiary level interventions will be presented.  In addition perspectives, implications and data addressing children with significant disabilities will be shared.

Early Childhood Outcomes: Issues and Considerations
This panel will discuss critical issues related to outcomes data collection from the local, state and national perspectives. Updates will be shared on progress toward collecting national outcomes data, approaches to measurement, and uses of outcomes data to monitor progress and improve programs at the local and state level. Time will be allotted for discussion after the presentations.

Early Childhood Outcomes Presentation (pdf, 367kb)
Early Childhood Outcomes Handouts (pdf, 237kb)

What It Takes for Youth with Disabilities to Succeed in High Schools
This session will present results of studies conducted in high performing high schools where students with disabilities are achieving positive, standards-based outcomes, despite high poverty rates in many of these schools. The panel will present features of high schools that work to support instruction in general education curriculum, including levels of student engagement, collaborative culture, inclusive supports, and core content focus, as well as effective, classwide interventions. This presentation is a collaborative effort of two directed research projects (Educational Development Corporation and the University of Wisconsin-Madison) and the Institute for Academic Access at the University of Kansas. This session will begin with a brief introduction about the President's High School Initiative.

Ensuring Positive Outcomes for Students in High Poverty Schools
The practices that researchers, practitioners, teacher educators, leaders, and technical assistance providers engage in ultimately have an impact on students. This session will focus on how culturally responsive practices infuse our work and how we apply these practices to improve outcomes for students.  The discussion will be organized around cases to focus on our own practice and deepen our understanding of how culture, experience, history and assumptions influence our practice in working with students.

3:45 – 5:15 p.m. Breakout Sessions

Responsiveness to Intervention (RTI): Component Features and Implementation Considerations
Staff of the National Research Center on Learning Disabilities, who have been involved in researching numerous features and outcomes of RTI will describe results of research activities that provide the scientific basis of RTI in prevention and learning disability determination. Current thinking on a process for RTI as a component of specific learning disability (SLD) will be presented. The guided discussion will engage the participants in topics that local districts and states will need to consider as they implement RTI. For example, all students are responsive to high quality interventions but when is a student considered responsive enough?

RTI presentation (pdf, 158kb)

Performance Measures for Personnel Preparation Projects
This session will provide an overview for all Personnel Preparation project directors on the current performance measures for the Personnel Preparation Program. Long-term and annual measures, along with methodology, will be presented and discussed. Presenters will also address how individual projects contribute to data on program measures and how project directors should respond to these measures on the new continuation and final report forms.  

School-wide Positive Behavior Support: Links to Student Academic and Behavioral Gains
The session will present three research efforts focused implementation of school-wide (SW) positive behavior support (PBS) and the impact of SW-PBS on student behavior and academic gains.

A Whole-School Reform Model for Ensuring Academic Access for Secondary Students with High-Incidence Disabilities
This session will be a follow-up session to the large panel session focusing on high school programs that are producing successful results. It will focus on details associated with the Content Literacy Continuum, the whole-school reform model developed by staff members of the Institute for Academic Access to ensure that secondary students with high-incidence disabilities have real access to and success in the general education curriculum. Issues to be discussed will include administrators' roles, preparing schools to begin work, working with segments of the school staff, intervention details, and ensuring implementation fidelity. Examples will be drawn from experience with several high schools, including the high schools featured in the large panel session.

Georgia SIG: Scaling Up and Evaluating Professional Development
The presenters will describe several professional development initiatives in Georgia, including the evaluation methods that have been used to document changes in adult practices and student performance. In addition, mechanisms and processes that are used for scaling up the initiatives will be discussed.

Positive Behavioral Self-Management Support (PBSS) Systems: Successful Efforts at Scaling-Up in Two States
Two successful State Improvement Grant approaches to scaling-up school-wide positive behavioral supports are described. Arkansas uses a “top-down” Training of Facilitators model implementing the evidence-based Project ACHIEVE PBSS approach with integrity. Nebraska uses a “bottom-up” practitioner approach whereby selected schools successfully influence PBSS involvement across entire districts over time.

Positive Behavioral Self-Management presentation (pdf, 1,354kb)

Turnover of Special Education Teachers: New Research on the Extent and Impact of Exit Attrition, School Transfer, and Switching to General Education
Contrary to common perspectives, national research demonstrates that the turnover of special education teachers is comparable to turnover in other teaching fields. Evidence is presented with participant interaction on the assets and liabilities of turnover for developing a qualified teaching force, as compared with the impact of inadequate teacher supply.

Turnover of Special Education Teachers presentation (pdf, 365kb)

A Randomized Control Study of Teacher Supports to Scale Up and Sustain An Evidence-Based Reading Program (Peer-Assisted Learning Strategies)
In this project, the presenters target two grade levels with substantially different scaling challenges: kindergarten, where early-childhood educators define “developmentally appropriate” practices and where, according to most reading specialists, an important reading objective is word-level skills; and 4th grade, which is guided by more uniform academic standards and where the major challenge is to transition from learning to read to reading to learn. The presenters look at whether peer-assisted learning strategies (PALS) can be implemented and sustained and, if so, with what levels of teacher support. Second, the presenters examine whether schools can realistically deliver improved reading outcomes. They also investigate how teacher characteristics (e.g., perceptions of self-efficacy), skills (e.g., classroom management), and views of school climate affect PALS implementation and sustainability as well as cost factors.

Ramdomized Control Study presentation (pdf, 494kb)

Studying Professional Practice as Cultural Work: Theoretical and Methodological Considerations
This session describes an approach to study special education practices in schools, LEAs, and SEAs as situated in cultural contexts and mediated by technical and historical forces. Power issues are considered to be at the center of professional practices. The analysis of professional practice emphasizes the examination of social interactions where professionals’ agency and structural factors interact. The approach is illustrated with efforts to address the disproportionate representation of culturally diverse students in special education that are being carried out by the National Center for Culturally Responsive Educational Systems in various states and school districts.

Lessons Learned for Translating Research Findings into Practice: Experiences from the Research and Training Center on Early Childhood Development
A research to practice framework for identifying characteristics of early childhood education practices accounting for different child outcomes will be described, with a focus on practice-based research syntheses and the development of evidence based practice guides. The three presentations will examine different aspects of bridging the research to practice gap.

The Connecticut Birth to Three System Observation Checklist: A Tool for Using Authentic Observations in Credentialing and Professional Development
This session will introduce participants to an assessment used for early intervention professional development and credentialing through observation of actual practice in evaluation, individual family service plan development and home/community interventions. Participants will try a component of the assessment and discuss how their organization might integrate observations of practice into their professional development and training system.

Connecticut Birth presentation (pdf, 175kb)

The Current State of Methodological Knowledge and Emerging Practice in Evidence-Based Evaluation: Applications to Social and Behavioral Prevention Research
This session will provide an overview of recent developments in evidence-based intervention evaluation across the disciplines of Education, Mental Health, Juvenile Justice, and Social Work, highlighting key issue areas across these disciplines, connecting these issues to prevention programming, and discussing related implications for prevention research and resultant real world practices.

The CO-TOP Paraeducator Training Model Evaluation Outcomes
This session presents the essential components of the CO-TOP paraeducator training program including curriculum development, content validation, field testing, and rigorous evaluation. Findings from evaluations and skills and application assessments of 643 classes offered over four years to more than 10,000 paraeducators will be presented. Project directors and SEA personnel who have provided paraeducator training will appreciate the scope of this evaluation data and implications for additional paraeducator training efforts.

CO-TOP presentation (pdf, 266kb)

The Role of Pivotal Behavior in Parent Mediated Interventions for Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD)
Recently the procedure of Pivotal Response Training (PRT) was reported to increase the effectiveness of behavioral interventions for children with autism. This session will discuss intervention data which indicate that the concept of pivotal behavior may in itself provide a highly effective framework for designing parent-mediated developmental interventions for children with ASD and other Developmental Disorders.

Organizing to Learn & Learning to Organize: Integrating Think-sheets Across the Curriculum
The Makes Sense Strategies Model (MSS) is a differentiated instructional model that focuses on four critical areas of academic success: reading, vocabulary, content-mastery, and writing. MSS is designed for inclusive education classrooms, grades K-12. The MSS software offers over 400 think-sheets and/or instructional routines for differentiating instruction. Numerous think-sheets and routines will be featured during this session.

Measuring the Outcomes of Early Intervention and Early Childhood Special Education
Programs for young children with disabilities are under pressure from local, state, and federal policy-makers to document the outcomes being produced. In follow up to the panel presentation on this topic, the session will describe and seek input on the approach being recommended by the Early Childhood Outcomes Center for measuring child and family outcomes.

What Works Clearinghouse: Update and Progress
This session will provide an update on the work of the WWC, progress to date and future activities.  There will be time for questions and feedback.

The OSEP Technical Assistance and Dissemination (TA&D) Initiative
This session will discuss the work of the OSEP TA&D program.  Information on the new vision, RTP and MSIP collaborations, collaborations with OESE, and the OSEP TA&D Matrix will be shared.  Implications for this work will be discussed and feedback will be solicited from participants regarding the TA&D network and its role in improving results for children with disabilities.

Thursday, July 28, 2005

Experimental Studies of Non-Responders in Reading and Math
Presenters will describe two large-scale, school-based, longitudinal, randomized control trials—one in reading, the other in math—to explore RTI as early intervention and as a means of identifying children with disabilities. Findings from these studies and their implications will be discussed.

Retrospectives of a Who's Who in Special Education Panel

Gersten presentation 1 (pdf, 219kb)
Gersten presentation 2 (pdf, 161kb)

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