2003 - 2004 Accomplishments
1.0 Project Impact
We continue to report our project's impact according to three general outcomes of 1) reaching Kansans across the entire state, 2) delivering customized technical assistance, and 3) providing customized professional development. 1.1 The Network will address the technical assistance and professional development needs across Kansas.The FBC Network is made up of 22 FBCs representing 15 different special education cooperatives or school districts across Kansas. To advertise the availability of the Network the project brochure was revised and three versions of the brochure created describing the student-specific and programmatic services for each of the three content areas. Over 1500 project brochures were then distributed to all special education directors and cooperative directors, KSDE student support services personnel, KU faculty, and at all Network professional development workshops.
We reached approximately 175 participants in 28 special education cooperative or districts in the state through onsite technical assistance consultation, impacting 11 special education cooperatives or school districts in eastern Kansas, 9 special education cooperatives or school districts in central Kansas, one school district in southeastern Kansas and 7 special education cooperatives or school districts in western Kansas.
Six professional development events occurred during Year 3 impacting 121 participants in 25 special education cooperative or districts in the state through professional development. The summer institute addressing three Assistive Technology sessions and one follow-up session on Alternate Assessment was held at the Capper Foundation in Topeka, Kansas (eastern Kansas). The Fall Seminar, Medication and Positive Behavior Support was held in Lawrence (eastern Kansas) and the Spring Seminar, in collaboration with the Annual KansTrans Statewide Transition Conference was held in Wichita, Kansas (central Kansas). Additionally, three district or special education cooperative sponsored professional development training workshops were held. One addressed curricular and teaching practices in western Kansas and two addressed positive behavior supports and student improvement teams in eastern Kansas. Participants were from all areas of Kansas.
1.2. The Network will deliver customized technical assistance.
The Network address topics associated with three content areas, positive behavior support, transition to adulthood and education of students with severe disabilities/deafblindness. Topics addressed this year through onsite consultation include: inclusion, curricular adaptations, eating/nutrition problems, medication, functional behavior assessment, environmental accommodations for problem behavior, emotional/mental health issues, determining appropriate behavioral consequences in a schoolwide context, enhancing reading skills through assistive technology, communication, fine motor accommodations, transition from middle to high school, community-based instruction, MAPs facilitation, writing PLEPs, short term objectives and alternate assessment, programming for a student with deafblindness, active engagement, facilitating planning meeting for student graduating high school, . In many cases the requests addressed multiple topical areas. Satisfaction evaluation suggests that the Network was very successful in meeting the requested needs of the site and a mean of 7 action steps were written for each consultation.
1.3. The Network will provide customized professional development.
Professional development was directed to both the FBCs and to other professionals during Year 3. The professional development activities relied on traditional large group presentation formats, discussion groups, small work groups, panel presentations, and case studies to augment learning. During the year positive behavioral supports, transition to adulthood, and assistive technology were addressed. All professional development sessions were limited in size at the speaker's request, room size and to ensure for application activities. In all cases the upper limit was met and slightly over. The workshop for assistive technology featured awareness, skills acquisition and application aspects. The workshop for PBS addressed awareness and skill acquisition, while the conference for transition was primarily awareness. Three professional development activities were held for the FBCs only and addressed strategies for bringing about change, brainstorming for family involvement, alternative assessment, sustaining connections with schools, site teams and families, acting as change agents in districts, and reading and literacy.
The Network offered excellent professional development during Year 3 as rated by evaluation collected at the conclusion of the Summer and Fall professional development activities. For the Summer 2002 three professional development workshops directed to Assistive Technology were offered. A total of 67 respondents rated the sessions between 5, 33 and 6.73 on a 7 point scale with 6 questions. And for the Fall 2002 seminar entitled, Medication and Positive Behavior Support: Making Informed Team Decisions satisfaction was rated between 5.82 and 6.71 and on a 7 point scale by 54 respondents.
2. Progress on Project Goals and Activities
Table: Project Goals, Objectives and Impact/Outcomes (2003-2004)
Goal 1: Provide field-based technical assistance to student teams in consultation contents (severe disabilities/deaf-blind; positive behavior support and transition to adulthood), including school- and program-wide consultation, and collaborating to provide consultation in Student Improvement Teams.
|
Objective |
Impact/Outcomes |
Evidence |
|
Provide up to 120 days of consultation statewide |
31 days of onsite consultation to 28 sites have been provided between July 1, 2001 and April 11, 2002. Of the 28 TA visits 9 addressed PBS assistance, 3 addressed transition issues and 16 addressed issues for students identified as having severe disabilities, deaf-blindness. It is important to note that many of the requests address more than one content area. |
-Consultation reports -Billing invoices from FBCs districts -phone records |
|
Provide oversight for each content area: recruit members, develop working procedures and meet regularly. |
The 2002-2003 oversight committee consists of: Gwen Beegle, Donna Wickham, Peter Griggs (INKs project staff), Wendy Blaauw (transition to adulthood expertise), Rachel Freeman (PBS expertise), Susan Bashinski (SMH expertise), Jeff Cook (DB expertise), and Dawn Miller (SIT expertise). Monthly oversight meetings were held in Topeka or Lawrence to plan for professional development, determine FBC needs and plan for coordination of service. Additionally an oversight listserv was operated to facilitate frequent contact. |
-Oversight Committee Meeting Minutes -Proceedings of the Oversight Committee listserv |
|
Recruit and select up to 30 qualified FBCs |
The Network currently has 22 FBCs representing all content areas and geographically located across the state. One new FBC, representing severe disabilities and deafblind expertise began participation in the network in April 2003. Although there was a targeted effort to increase the number of FBCs in our transition to adulthood component as a recommendation of the oversight committee and nine educators were contacted none applied. |
-FBC application procedures listed on the INKs website and mailed to districts -FBC portfolios -Transition recruitment letter |
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Build mission among new and former FBCs |
Each professional development activity during the past year has had at least ½ day devoted to building mission among FBCs as a part of the agenda. These activities occurred July 15, 2002, September 22, 2002 and March 10, 2003. |
Agendas, Kaizens |
|
Advertise availability of consulting and technical assistance services |
The project brochure was revised to more specifically feature the three content areas and the student specific and programmatic services. Each of the 3 project brochures were mailed to all directors, past recipients of FBC onsite consultation and attendees at the Network's professional development in the fall of 2002 The request for consulting services is available at www.ukans.edu/~inks. |
-INKs website -KSDE website -brochures |
|
Objective |
Evidence |
Impact |
|
Unify coordination methods and consultant procedures across all content areas |
The procedures adopted in Year 3 continue to be effective as demonstrated by evaluation and were continued during Year 3. |
-FBC only meeting agendas -FBC Procedural Manual |
|
Accept technical assistance and professional development requests |
The Network received a total of 51 requests between July 1, 2001 and April 21, 2002. All were considered appropriate for the scope of the Network. |
-TA requests -Phone logs -TA request records -TA reports |
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Provide consultation and resources as needed to support requests for technical assistance not resulting in on-site consultation |
Three requests were made for consultation that were resolved through phone consultation or referral to another geographically closer resource. |
-Phone logs -Correspondence |
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Match consultant to technical assistance (TA) request and negotiate TA agreements |
The Networks continues to use the same procedures of relying on the Coordinator to determine an appropriate consultant, describing the consult and transferring the contacts and information to the selected consultant. The Oversight Committee discontinued the use of a TA agreement after reviewing expressed dissatisfaction project data collected from sites. |
-Phone logs -Email correspondence logs -FBC procedural manual |
|
Update existing procedural manual and develop new procedural materials, as needed |
No substantial revisions were made to the manual during Year 3. Revisions reflected university directed policy changes in reimbursement. |
-Updated FBC procedural manual |
|
Secure employer agreements for FBC participation in Technical Assistance and Professional Development components of INKs |
Employer agreements were completed by October 2002 for the 2002-2003 school year. Each FBCs employer was contacted by one of the Project Coordinator. Each employer agreed to allow each FBC to consult up to 5 days during the school year and donated 2 days for professional development through the Network. |
-Letters to each FBC employer |
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Maintain payments to employers and consultants |
We continue to reimburse employers in December and May of each year. The Coordinator writes a letter to each of the employers listing the FBCs consultation activity for the specified time to be reimbursed. |
-Employer letters to signal invoice preparation. -invoices |
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Provide communication among all Network participants and partners |
A listserv, established in the fall of 1999 continues to serves as a highly effective, timely and active means of communication among FBCs. In April 2003 guidelines for communicating were created and disseminated for the listserv. Additionally, Oversight members were removed from the FBCs listserv as well. Employers of each FBC received correspondence from the Network three times since July 1, 2002, describing their FBCs contributions, Network updates and upcoming professional development. |
-Listserv proceedings -Correspondence to FBC employers |
Goal 3: Provide an array of Field Based Professional Development activities corresponding to RBSD performance.
|
Objective |
Evidence |
Impact |
|
Develop annual plan to provide results-based professional development on best practices |
The Network continues to provide professional development in three content areas following awareness, demonstration and integration levels. It was determined that Summer Institute would address the content areas of SMH/DB with awareness and demonstration levels; Fall Seminar would address PBS awareness level; and Spring would address Transition awareness level. Additionally, through a partnership with Dr. Dawn Miller's Student Improvement Training Project a training workshop was developed to teach school teams how to conceptualize and plan for Schoolwide PBS with SIT Teams. |
Summer Institute, Fall Seminar, and Spring Seminar brochures, agendas, handouts, evaluation data |
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Promote awareness of effective and best practice in the content areas through partnerships with IHEs, state organizations, and state organizations and grant projects |
For all professional development activities conducted from July 1, 2000 – April 30, 2001 workshop evaluation was collected. For all sessions the attendees indicated that attendance at the workshop would provide beneficial. |
-summarized evaluation for each of the professional development activities |
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Provide professional development designed to integrate skills into proficient/excellent practice, through mentoring and coaching |
One professional development activity, Literacy and Reading Skills for students with moderate to profound disabilities begun in July 2001 was directed to increasing participants' ability to integrate the content into their practices and was completed during the Fall 2002 seminar. Study groups operated during the 2001-2002 school year with product development occurring during summer 2002. This group created a resource manual and inserviced 19 professional during the Fall Seminar. Evaluation data among participating members is incomplete at this time and are not summarized into this report. |
-Study group assignments -Study group listserv correspondence -Resource Manual |
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Provide support for FBCs to transfer their skills and knowledge to others in the Network through support for consultation, mentoring, and coaching |
All professional development for the FBCs only was directed to either integration or transfer. |
-Professional development agendas -FBC consultation records |
|
Objective |
Evidence |
Impact |
|
Partner with IHEs, state agencies, state and federal projects, and state organizations to co-sponsor the professional development array |
University of Kansas graduate credit was offered for the 2002 Summer Institute and Fall 2002 Seminar. Additionally, INKs is co-sponsoring the 2003 Summer Institute with Project KLIPP, a KU personnel preparation federal grant and the KSDE Deaf Blind Services Project to offer the full array of Results Based Staff Development. |
-Oversight Committee minutes -Summer 2002, Fall 2002 and Summer 2003 Institute Brochures |
|
Develop resource sharing agreements to support shared professional development for the Network |
The Spring 2003 Seminar is a collaboration with KSDE's Transition Conference and entails joint advertising and free attendance at the conference for the FBCs. Three training workshops were conducted to teach school teams to conceptualize and plan for schoolwide PBS and SIT teams. The 2003 Summer Institute will involve shared resources by INKs, Project KLIPP, Lawrence Public School District and the KSDE Deaf Blind Services Project. |
-Oversight Committee minutes -Budget summary sheets Brochures and workshop agendas |
|
Collaboratively link FBCs with IHE programs |
The FBCs are written into a personnel preparation grant (Project KLIPP) operated through the University of Kansas Department of Special Education to oversee some practicum experiences beginning in June 2003. |
-Meeting minutes -Grant proposal |
Goal 5: Improve Field-Based Technical Assistance and Professional Development processes based on continuous improvement evaluation.
|
Objective |
Evidence |
Impact |
|
Create unified evaluation processes and targets across content areas that address systems improvement and student outcomes |
A unified evaluation procedure was adopted in March 2001 and continued to be followed in Year 3. |
-Revised FBC Procedural Manual -FBTA reports |
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Ensure that FBCs and others collect data needed for project evaluation, including levels of implementation and student change data |
Data was collected by FBCs during the 2002-2003 school year according to the new evaluation procedures adopted in March 2001. |
-Revised FBC Procedural Manual -FBTA Reports |
|
Summarize evaluation data from Field-Based Technical Assistance and Professional Development activities |
Professional Development. Satisfaction data are collected at the conclusion of each professional development activity. For the professional development activities conducted in Year 3 a 7 point Likert type scale was used to rate 6 general questions. For each workshop means are calculated for each question. Means ranges from 5.33-6.73. Field-Based Technical Assistance For Field-Based Technical Assistance satisfaction and implementation data are collected for each site. Satisfaction. Satisfaction is collected from the site team and through a self-assessment from the FBC. Site Team Satisfaction. Site team satisfaction evaluations are continuing to come in at the end of the school year. To date all report that the consultants are skills in PBS, SMH, DB and Transition content, they are credible and rate the consultation as satisfactory or excellent Self Assessment. are collected for FBC to assess their collaboration and team building skills as well as materials and strategies suggested using a 5 point scale responding to a total of 14 questions. Implementation. Thus far 10 sites have reported implementation data on 28 team recommendations and 47 student specific recommendations. Of the team recommendation, 71% were fully implemented, 11% were partially, 7% were initiated, and 11% had not been attempted. Of the student specific recommendations, 57% were fully implemented, 32% were partially, and 11% were initiated. |
-Individual FBTA data and reports -Field Based Consultant Self-Evaluation forms -Site Team Satisfaction Evaluations -Workshop evaluations |
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Review and interpret evaluation data with the Oversight Committee |
Evaluation data from professional development and onsite technical assistance was routinely shared and discussed at oversight meetings. |
-Oversight Meeting Minutes |
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Revise network operations, coordination efforts, Field-Based Technical Assistance and Professional Development activities based on evaluation |
Procedures for assisting families were established after meeting with KSDE staff in May 2002. This procedure has resulted in several phone consultations and one onsite consultation. |
-Oversight Meeting Minutes |