Maryland's educational goals and the Maryland School Performance Program accountability system effectively include all students. The state's approach to restructuring education contains the necessary elements for creating a unified system of instruction and accountability. The remaining challenge is to improve instruction for all students in keeping with the principles of a unified system. The Maryland State Department of Education (MSDE), Division of Special Education, in partnership with local education agencies, parents, institutions of higher education, and other agencies proposes to design enduring initiatives for systems unification and improvement, through a five-year State Improvement Grant whose results will improve education and outcomes of students with disabilities.

Goal 1: Objective data on academic performance and other outcomes of students with disabilities will be routinely collected, analyzed, disseminated, and used to drive professional development, personnel preparation, and technical assistance for school reform and system improvement. 

Goal 2: Professional development will be designed and delivered on the basis of student performance data that demonstrate needs for building competencies and capacities to improve education and outcomes of students. 

Goal 3: Pre-service programs will increase their productivity and capacities to align personnel preparation with standards-based reform and with professional development to improve education and outcomes of students with disabilities. 

Goal 4: The state-wide early intervention system will improve its capacities to provide high-quality services for infants and toddlers with disabilities and their families, and to promote readiness to learn.

Goal 5: Capacities for improving instruction and outcomes of students with disabilities will be strengthened throughout Maryland's education community as a result of technical assistance for improvement of education and management of change.

Project Title:	Maryland State Improvement Plan for the Education of Students with Disabilities
Primary contact person:	Lucy Hession
Address:	Division of Special Education Maryland State Department of Education 200 W. Baltimore Street Baltimore, MD 21201
Phone:	410-767-0241
Fax:	410-333-8165
Email:	Lhession@MSDE.state.MD.us
Web site:	http://www.msde.state.md.us/
Date SIG application written/submitted:	October 1, 1998
Round funded:	First
Begin/end dates for funding:	1998-2002
Funded amount /year:	$1,100,000
Who wrote the application?	SEA Staff and External Consultant
Length of application:	Narrative: 238 pages Appendices: 5 Partnership documentation Vitae of key personnel MSDE Mission, organization chart and student Performance data for ’97 Statements of all qualitative outcomes and Quantitative indicators reorganized for evaluative purposes Extended five-year timeline

 

1. What specific products are planned for development?

 Goal 1.

Permanent databases, annual reporting formats and schedules for a range of types of reports on:

• Student performance, participation in general education, and high school certificates and diplomas:
  • Post-school activities.
  • Performance of eligible students on alternative assessments.
  • Suspensions, expulsion, and highly challenging school behaviors.
  • Attendance and dropout incidence.
  • Analysis of racial enrollment in special education by disability categories.
• Task-analyzed priorities for improving education for students with disabilities.

 Goal 2.

• Regional conference packages on IDEA regulations and the SIG initiatives.
• RFPs for District-IHE Design Teams and District professional development for immediate needs.
• Statewide menus of professional development offerings, Professional Development Schools, Regional PD Networks and parent partners centers.
• Documentation of research and effective practices for behavior management, discipline, alternative settings and environments, and functional assessment.
• Training program in cooperation with vocational rehabilitation in transition services.
• Training of trainers program and handbook on effective instructional and school organization strategies for inclusion of students with learning disabilities in general education classrooms and curriculum.

 Goal 3.

• Training programs on autism, vision, and speech-language pathology.
• LEA-IHE training programs on generic special education for grades 6-12, hearing impairments, and severe and profound disabilities.

 Goal 4.

• Descriptions of service delivery models.
• Analyses of families' satisfaction.
• Utilization survey and Statewide TA and professional development plan.
• Revised policies and procedures that reduce barriers to services.

 Goal 5.

• TA model for using R&D information to improve practice.
• Information packages developed through clearinghouse functions.
• Small conferences.
• Newsletter.
• Web site.
• Showcases. 

2. What interstate connections are planned? 

• Sub-grants to Salisbury State College to collaborate with the University of Louisville on use of its distance learning courses in Vision; support to the Pennsylvania College of Optometry to bring vision training to Maryland LEAs.

3. What strategies are planned for service delivery?

Goal 1.

• Organize and orient a participatory committee that will use data on performance and other outcomes of students with disabilities to establish priorities for professional development, pre-service preparation, and improving the supply of qualified personnel and technical assistance leading to instructional improvement.

 Goal 2.

• Integrate SIG professional development with MSDE professional development guidelines and initiatives for standards-based reform.
• Initiate informed and cohesive statewide participation in the implementation of the IDEA 97 regulations, the Maryland SIG and its professional development initiatives within the context of the MD School Improvement Plan.
• Organize collaborative adoption, design, and delivery of sustained professional development programs within the context of standards-based reform.
• Respond in 1999 to immediate needs for professional development.
• Establish parameters for involving the spectrum of school personnel, parents, and others in professional development.

 Goal 3.

• Integrate SIG pre-service preparation alignment activities with MSDE initiatives for teacher education redesign.
• Improve pre-service capacities for preparing personnel, aligned with standards-based reform and a professional development continuum.
• Assist pre-service programs in general and special education in meeting new requirements in reading theory and methodology for initial certification or re-certification.
• Reduce the number of personnel who are providing instruction to students with disabilities without full qualifications to do so through subgrants, stipends, and scholarships to address specific categories and regions.
• Increase the supply of new personnel who are qualified through broadened reciprocity, thorough data collection of graduation and employment patterns, an RFP for cooperative follow-up studies of teacher preparation graduates, and funding for creative district-IHE projects designed to increase the numbers of new personnel.

Goal 4.

• Organize a permanent Steering Group to guide activities and inform all stakeholders on plans for the state-wide outreach and evaluation activities to improve early intervention capacities.
• Conduct specialized outreach and evaluation activities to ensure that all infants and toddlers who are potentially qualified to receive services are identified and that their families are informed about available services, especially under-served and culturally diverse populations.
• Conduct evaluative activities that will ensure needed service delivery options through profiles, cross-analyses, and surveys.
• Conduct evaluative activities to improve the utilization of early intervention services as identified in IFSPs.
• Conduct evaluative activities that will improve the preparation of families for transition of their children to preschool special education or other community-based services.

 Goal 5.

• Adopt and communicate a model for delivery of technical assistance (TA).
• Provide information and TA to promote the adoption and implementation of research and effective practices through showcases and links to the national TA & D network.
• Organize a broad-based Consumer Review Group for quality control and continuous feedback of information needs.
• Convene annual conferences in using research and effective practice.
• Provide needs-based assistance to LEAs in collaboration with the Challenge School Program administered by the Unit on Reconstituted Schools of the Division of Instructional and Staff Development.
• Reward high performing schools with monetary awards.
• Provide assistance with reviews of State and local polices.
• Secure and leverage additional resources that will complement the work of the SIG through parallel MSDE and discretionary Part B, requiring districts to align their requests for discretionary funds with standards-based reform and to complement SIG goals and principles.

4. What partnership strategies are intended?

• Broad-based participation through: SIG Advisory Committee, Committee on Priorities (data analysis and interpretation), Professional Development Steering Committee, Early Intervention Steering Group, Consumer Review Group (quality control for products and information distribution), task forces, and ad hoc groups and other ongoing links with practitioners and families.
• Contractual relationships and sub-grants through arrangements with:
  • Vocational Rehabilitation on Professional development on transition services.
  • Partner with IHEs on training personnel in vision, autism, and speech&emdash;language pathology.
  • RFPs for new partnerships to address personnel preparation in generic Special Education grades 6-12, hearing impairments and severe and profound disabilities.
  • Partner with IHEs and school divisions to develop training programs.
  • Partner with PTIs in Partners for Success centers.

5. Who are the partners?

• Advisory partners: SIG Advisory Committee, permanent participatory groups named above and associated groups including the State Special Education Advisory Committee, the State Coordinating Council, and the State Interagency Council for Early Intervention.
  
• Contractual partners: LEAs, IHEs, and PTIs (district-based Partners for Success in MD).
  
• State agency partners: The Governor's Office for Individuals with Disabilities, Division of Planning, Results and Information Management, Division of Certification and Accreditation, Division of Career Technology and Adult Learning, Division of Compensatory Education and Support Services, Division of Rehabilitation Services, MD School Performance Program, School Performance Assessment Program, The Challenge School Program, Pupil Services Programs, MD's Tomorrow Middle and High School Programs, Career Connections, and School Accountability Funding for Excellence.
  
• MSDE-Federal Program Partners: Title I, II, IV, VIII, and the Comprehensive School Reform Demonstration Program.
  
• Interagency Partners: DD Planning Council, MD Disability Law Center and MD Mental Health Association, MD State Interagency Plan for Transitioning Students with Disabilities, MD Intra-Agency Cooperative Transition Planning Agreement links, Interagency Employment Management Team, Mental Hygiene Administration Transition Committee, MD Transition Initiative, Dropout Prevention Task Force, Corrections Transition Task Force, Partners in Policy Making, MOUs between MSDE, Departments of Juvenile Justice and Health and Mental Hygiene and the Community and Public Health Administration.
  
• Voluntary Partners: Maryland Business Roundtable, Office of Civil Rights, Center for Technology in Education (at JHU).
  Advocacy Partners: Autism Society of America, Brain Injury Association of MD, CEC Federation of MD, Council of Administrators of Special Education/Maryland Chapter, Epilepsy Foundation of Maryland, Five-County Task Force for Occupational and Physical therapists, Learning Disabilities Association of Maryland, members of the deaf community, and members of the Jewish Orthodox clergy.

6. What types of contracts or subgrants are intended to partners, LEAs, IHE, PTIs, and others (including lead agency under Part C)?

• Contracts with 3 IHEs for certification training programs in specified categories and regions of the State.
• RFP for LEA-IHE professional development Design Teams.
• Sub-grants to each LEA's Partners for Success (PTI) center and two State operated programs.
• Stipends and Scholarships.

7. How will resources be pooled with other resources?

• Part B discretionary grant applications must be aligned with SIG priorities. Over $2 million will be allocated to: CSPD plans for 24 LEAs at $500,000, additional grants to 16 LEAs, the Department of Juvenile Justice and Office of Administrative Hearings at $1, 012,036, and grants to the Center for Technology in Education at $525,000.
  
• 50% of the Part C program budget ($584,307) is allocated to preschool discretionary grants on SIG priorities at $461,544, early intervention incentive training grants to lead agencies at $72,375, family focus conference at $7,388, and early intervention/ early childhood conference $43,000.
  
• MSDE Division of Instruction and Staff Development: $1 million in State funds.