New
York Abstract or Conceptual Framework
for State Systemic Change
The New York
State Improvement Grant is designed to address the need to:
- Reduce the
performance gap in educational achievement between general education and
special education students in high-need and low-need districts, and
- Reduce or
eliminate the disproportionality of language and ethnic minority students
in classification and placement practices.
In cases where both low performance and disproportionality occur, there
is a likelihood that root causes of both are similar: the lack of parental
involvement and home school collaboration models; poor use of local data
to analyze needs and develop appropriate goals/benchmarks; inadequate
district and building policy for teaching reading and math; inappropriate
evaluation tools, techniques, and interpretation of results for language
and ethnic minority students; inadequate pre-referral strategies; inadequate
coordination of mental health programs; inadequate IEP development; and
a high turnover rate of teachers and leadership personnel.
The State Improvement
Grant incorporates the following strategies to effect systems change:
- Three SIG
Teams consisting of four professionals each will be established statewide
to provide ongoing regional training on the specific "root cause"
topics associated with low performance and disproportionality.
- Faculties
from institutions of higher education with teacher training programs will
be provided with the same training on topics associated with these "root
causes" as school personnel for inclusion in their teacher training
programs.
- Targeted
districts and schools in need of improvement will receive intensive, on-site,
job-embedded training from SIG teams tailored to the unique goals and
expected outcomes of each school/district.
- Three cohorts
of approximately 35 school district/buildings each, including all major
urban areas, will receive funding for two-year cycles to participate in
the project.
- Targeted
districts will provide personnel development programs based on a comprehensive
district planning process for both general and special education and will
develop and implement their comprehensive plans in partnership with Institutions
of Higher Education, Parent Information and Training Centers and other
state agencies involved with the education of students with disabilities.
- Evaluation
of this product will be based on actual district/school performance gains
as measured by data reported to the State Education Department.
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New
York Basic
Information
|
Project
Title
|
New
York State Improvement Grant |
|
Primary
Contact Person
|
Fred
DeMay, Coordinator, Program Development
and Support Services |
|
Address
|
Office
of Vocational and Educational
Services for Individuals with Disabilities
NY State Education Department
One Commerce Plaza/Room1606
99 Washington Ave.
Albany, NY 12234-0001 |
|
Phone
|
(518)
474-7462 |
|
Fax
|
(518)
473-5387 |
|
Email
|
fdemay@mail.nysed.gov |
|
Web
site
|
In
development |
|
Date
SIG Application was Written or Submitted
|
February
2001 |
|
Begin
and End Dates for Funding
|
September
1, 2001 – August 31, 2006 |
|
Funded
Amount:
|
$1,650,000 |
|
Who
Wrote the Application:
|
SEA
Staff |
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New
York Improvement
Strategies
1. What products are planned
for development?
- Twelve regional
training modules that present information about best practices in reading,
literacy, math, mental health, student planning, behavioral interventions,
home-school collaboration, pre-referral interventions, IEP development,
evaluation of language and ethnic minority students, and cultural diversity.
- School district
plans that will include: 1) prioritized "root causes," 2) goals
and benchmarks, 3) analysis of current referral systems, 4) analysis of
teacher practices, and 5) a plan for a new system for teaching and referring.
- A new Higher
Education Support Center including a website
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2. What interstate connections
are planned?
Because this
grant focuses on the entire state of New York, including the major urban
areas of New York City, Buffalo, Rochester, Syracuse, and Yonkers, the primary
target for connections will be in state.
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3. What strategies are planned
for service delivery?
There are three
primary goals and the strategies for achieving these goals are listed as follows:
1) To improve key performance measures in targeted districts by providing
intensive training programs and follow-up training/support to address specific
"root causes" that contribute to negative outcomes.
- To establish
SIG Teams,
- To develop
training resource materials for each of 12 sets of materials that present
information about best practices addressing "root causes."
- SIG Teams
deliver training to Regional School Support Centers and Special Education
Training And Resource Centers on identifying root causes.
- SIG Teams
conduct regional training programs.
- SIG Teams
provide direct on-site and job-embedded training for funded targeted districts.
- SIG Teams
provide direct in-district training for non-funded targeted districts.
- Training
materials are provided to the Higher Education Support Center.
2) To improve
performance on measures which indicate disproportionality and targeted "participating
and non-funded" district by providing intensive training programs and
follow-up training/support to address specific "root causes."
- Targeted
districts are selected.
- A CSPD Plan
is developed and approved for each targeted district.
- The district
plan is implemented.
- The program
outcomes are evaluated.
3) To enhance the quality of teacher performance through linkages with Institutes
of Higher Education, teacher training programs that are knowledgeable about
the research-proven processes, instructional strategies, intervention strategies
and related factors that contribute to improvement in key performances measures.
- 10% of each
district’s allocation is used to support an IHE member in each target
district.
- Higher Education
Support Center provides or coordinates training.
- The Higher
Education Support Center disseminates resource materials to other Institutions
of Higher Education.
- The Higher
Education Support Center maintains a website on effective practices.
- A New York
task force on Quality Inclusive Education is convened regularly to monitor
progress and evaluate IHE outcomes.
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4. What partnerships are
intended?
The New York
Office of Vocational and Educational for Individuals With Disabilities (VESID)
will collaborate with the following:
- Sinergia
– parent training institute;
- Rochester
Family Center – parent training institute;
- New York
State United Teachers – collective bargaining association;
- National
Education Association of New York – collective bargaining association;
- United Federation
of Teachers – collective bargaining association;
- New York
State Business Council – business and community;
- New York
State Speech and Language and Hearing Association – professional
organization;
- New York
State Physical Therapy Association – professional organization;
- New York
State Occupational Association – professional organization;
- Council
of the Big Five Cities – community association;
- New York
State Association of Teacher Educators – professional association;
- New York
Association of Institutions of Teacher Education – professional/institutional
representation;
- Special
Education Training and Resource Centers – professional organization;
- Teacher
Centers – professional organizations;
- Local educational
representation from each urban, suburban, and rural LEA.
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5. What type of contracts
or subgrants are intended to partners, LEAs, IHE, PTIs, and others (including
lead agency under Part C)?
Although many
groups have already been listed as part of the advisory group established
for the State Improvement Grant implementation, others will have active
involvement with grant activities, either as technical assistance providers
or as members of the grant management team. These groups include:
- Parent constituencies,
including Parent Training and Information Centers;
- The New York
State Parent Teachers Association;
- Persons with
disabilities and organizations representing individuals with disabilities
represented through the Commissioner’s Advisory Panel for Special
Education Services;
- The Independent
Living Centers of New York;
- The New York
State Department of Health as the Part C Lead Agency, including the Early
Intervention Coordinating Council;
- General and
special education teachers, represented by the New York State United Teachers
and the National Education Association of New York State;
- Institutions
of Higher Education, represented by the New York NYSATE and NYACTE;
- The Office
of Mental Retardation Developmental Disabilities;
- The Office
of Mental Health;
- Other state
agencies that serve school-age children and youth.
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6. How will resources be
pooled with other resources?
The State Education
Department has agreed to supplement the anticipated award with three times
the funds, through use of IDEA Part B discretionary funds. Monies will be
shared through the infrastructure that includes:
- Special Education
and Training Resource Centers and local district Comprehensive Systems
of Personal Development;
- Regional
School Support Centers, centers designed to close the performance gap
in educational achievement for low-performing districts and buildings;
- Targeted
districts selected for participation in submitting grant applications
for approximately $50,000 per year, 10% of that to be used to support
the participation of a representative from an institution of higher education;
- A Higher
Education Support Center – which will work directly with the institutions
of higher education in the targeted districts.
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7. How 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?
It is anticipated
that some of the targeted districts may be dealing with issues related to
the provision of Part C services.
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