2006 North Dakota State Personnel Development Grant Abstract

Grant/Contract#	H323A060003
Program	State Personnel Development Grants Program
Competition	State Personnel Development Grants
Title	North Dakota State Personnel Development Grant
Project Director(s)	Dollar, Alison
Organization	North Dakota Department of Public Instruction
Address	Office of Special Education, 600 E. Boulevard Ave, Dept. 201 Bismarck, ND 58505-0440
Telephone	701-328-2277
Fax	701-328-4149
E-mail	adollar@nd.gov
Beginning Date	9/30/2006
Ending Date	9/29/2010

Purpose
In this project, North Dakota will develop and implement a personnel preparation and professional development system for teachers and related services personnel in order to address needs identified through baseline data in the North Dakota State Performance Plan and Annual Performance Report.

Method
The project will utilize professional development activities to improve the knowledge and skills of special education teachers and speech-language pathologists serving students with high-incidence disabilities in North Dakota. Effective strategies will be implemented to recruit, hire, and retain highly qualified special education teachers in the state's most rural communities. The state will also implement practices to improve and sustain the knowledge and skills of personnel with respect to the use of scientifically based instruction.

Products
The efforts of this project will result in: (a) a comprehensive and unified personnel development planning and implementation system; (b) increased numbers of highly qualified speech-language pathologists and teachers trained to provide services in challenging rural environments; (c) a systematic model personnel development program for preparing rural cross-categorical special education teachers; and (d) evaluation data that will be used to monitor the effectiveness and impact of the project.