Montana Abstract or Conceptual Framework for State Systemic Change

Montana's State Improvement Grant has been designed to expedite the state's progress in creating an educational system in which all students receive the supports and services they require to be successful. Building upon the general education reform effort initiated during the 1987-88 school year - Project Excellence: Designing Education for the Next Century, this project encompasses identified initiatives that serve three purposes. First, project activities are focused on aligning concurrent activities occurring within general and special education to create a unified and coherent agenda of school improvement in Montana. The project's title - Excellence for All, Montana's Initiative for School Improvement is intended to communicate this intent. The second purpose of this project is to target specific areas of need unique to the delivery of services to students with disabilities, creating new partnerships approaches, and solutions to improve outcomes in areas known to be in need of improvement. Third, this project will target challenges that Montana faces in the area of personnel preparation, recruitment, retention and professional development.

The workscope aligned with these outcomes is organized within three goal areas. These include: (1) Standards-Based Reform; (2) Improved Outcomes for Students with Disabilities and (3) Personnel Retention, recruitment and Professional Development. Work in each of these areas will be coordinated by a team comprised of individuals whose collective knowledge, skills and current areas of responsibility create a context in which identified activities have the participation and resources necessary for completion. The teams bring together people so that an issue can be dealt with at multiple levels within the system. For example, coordinated responses to training needs can be developed when teams involve individuals representative of the preservice, inservices, and school implementation levels. All project initiatives are designed with this systems approach to maximize the impact of project initiatives.

Formal partnership agreements have been established with administrators of the divisions within the Office of Public Instruction that are involved in school improvement efforts. This ensures that project efforts are integrated with other State plans and will be aligned in a way that maximizes available resources. Agreements are also in place within the state's parent training center, institutions of higher education, and other organizations within the state who will be represented on project work teams. In addition, agreement to collaborate in efforts to achieve the six identified outcomes for young children and students with disabilities in Montana is evidenced in the many letters of support provided by others who play a role in the state's educational service system.

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Montana Basic Information

Project Title	Excellence for All, Montana's Initiative for School Improvement
Primary Contact Person	Susan Bailey-Anderson
Address	Division of Special Education Office of Public Instruction P.O. Box 202501 Helena, Montana 59620-2501
Phone	(406) 444-2046
Fax	(406) 444-3924
Email	sbanderson@state.mt.us
Web site	http://www.metnet.state.mt.us/SpecialEd/
Date SIG Application was Written or Submitted	December 15, 1999
Begin and End Dates for Funding	1st Year Period July 1, 2000 End June 30, 2001 5 Year Period July 1, 2000 End June 20, 2005
Funded Amount	$550,000.00
Who Wrote the Application	Montana's Universal Affiliation Rural Institute on Disabilities Co-authors: 1. Dr. Gail McGregor 2. Dr. Tim Vogelsberg 3. Mr. Ted Maloney 52 Corbin, The University of Montana Missoula, Montana 59812 Phone: (406) 243-5467

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Montana Improvement Strategies

1. What products or activities are planned by the SIG?

• Achieve a unified agenda for special and regular education school improvement.
• Identify specific areas of improvement needed within special education and develop solutions involving collaborative partnerships.
• Decrease personnel shortages in some areas, assist all school officials to achieve an understanding of methods to enable improved outcomes to occur for students with disabilities, and eliminate recruitment and retention barriers for teachers of students with disabilities.

2. What interstate connections are planned?

Related services personnel collaborative agreements within IHEs in neighboring states will be developed with other states to alleviate critical shortages. Additionally, specialized training programs will be developed in cooperation with a consortium of states experiencing similar shortages to produce a sufficient supply of teachers as well as a better trained teaching force.

3. What strategies are planned for service delivery?

A. For Standards Based Reform the following methods will be implemented:

• Guidelines developed to link standards and curricula for all students.
• Technical assistance will be available to all schools regarding comprehensive reform.
• Written guidelines and professional development for statewide assessment will occur.
• Clear expectations and performance goals will be developed for students with disabilities relative to the general curriculum.
• An integrated data management system will be developed among general and special education and vocational education.
• Develop a continuous improvement process of monitoring LEAs, targeting school level performance data to demonstrate accountability.

B. For Improved for Outcomes Students With Disabilities:

• Increase emphasis on improved quality of transition plans and develop a mechanism to track post-school outcomes.
• Develop more consistent and thorough involvement of adult service providers in students' post-school employment and education.
• Develop a collaborative model of service based delivery for mental health services to students with emotional support needs.
• Arrange for Low Incidence Disability Support Team to provide technical assistance to schools experiencing intense and unique needs of students that stress the school program.
• Support the infrastructure of Montana's Regional Planning Councils who identify professional development needs in their respective geographical areas in the state.

C. Personnel Retention/Recruitment and Professional Development:

• Implement collaborative agreements with personnel preparation programs in other states to alleviate shortages among related services personnel and educational interpreters.
• Through IHE collaboration efforts, develop graduate student programs and general education preparation to improve outcomes for students with disabilities.
• Effect Teacher Certification and IHE policy changes to eliminate personnel recruitment barriers.

Collaborate with institutions of higher education to provide preservice training and ongoing professional development for personnel working within the early intervention system.

4. What partnerships are intended?

• Montana's Institutions of Higher Education (IHEs) preparing teachers of students with disabilities at all age levels.
• Parents Let's Unite For Kids (PLUK).
• IHE personnel preparation programs in neighboring states.
• Montana's CSPD Regional Council.
• Mountain Plains Regional Resource Center.
• Montana's Office of Public Instruction Departments involved with school divisions' improvement efforts.

5. Who are the partners?

• IHEs in Montana and neighboring states
• PLUK (Parents Let's Unite For Kids)
• Regional CSPD Councils
• University of Montana Rural Institute for Disabilities

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

• Montana is participating in a regional training consortium for educational interpreters in the classroom with the objective of preparing a sufficient quantity and quality of interpreters within the next five years. The coordinating agency for this program is Mountain Plains Regional Resource Center and the training institution is Front Range Community College, Westminister, Colorado.
• Teacher preparation programs at the University of Montana and Montana State University will be contracted to provide preservice and inservice programs for both general and special education teachers having the responsibility of improving outcomes for students with disabilities.
• CSPD Regional Councils, Parents Let's Unite For Kids, and support agencies providing services for students with disabilities will participate in the project as work teams designing activities to accomplish project goals.

7. How will resources be pooled with other resources?

In all project areas, Montana's Part B funds will be used to augment activities designed to implement program objectives.

The three project goals, (1) Standards Based Reform, (2) Improved Outcomes for Students with Disabilities, and (3) Personnel Retention, Recruitment, and Professional Development, will be coordinated by a team comprised of individuals whose collective knowledge, skills, and current areas of responsibility create a context in which identified activities have the participation and resources necessary for completion. The teams bring together people so that an issue can be dealt with at multiple levels within the system. For example, coordinated responses to training needs can be developed when teams involve individuals representative of the preservice, inservice, and school implementation levels. All project initiatives are designed with this systems approach to maximize the impact of project initiatives.

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8. What specific SIG products, activities, initiatives and strategies are pertinent to Part C (birth to 3, infants, toddlers and their families) services and activities in your state?

• Special education teachers in Montana aren't required to have specific early childhood training in special education. This has resulted in programming deficiencies for very young students with disabilities such as in appropriate team planning effective transitioning from Part C to 619 preschool services. The University of Montana will be specifically contracted to perform the following activities:
  • Maintain a cadre of well trained personnel to work with very young students with disabilities and their families.
  • Coordinate preservice and inservice training efforts with the state's Part C coordinator and develop distance education programs to assist persons teaching very young students with disabilities