Playing in the Sandbox: Scaling up
Technical Assistance by Integrating
OSEP and OESE Resources
August 1, 2006
OSEP Project Directors Conference
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Judy Shanley, AIR
Steve Fleischman, AIR
Cynthia Ward, MSU
We Hope you Will….
 Acquire information about national and regional technical
assistance resources.
 Obtain examples of cross-project collaboration strategies that
bring together OESE and OSEP resources.
 Hear about how a university-based State TA system capitalized
on this collaboration.
 Learn from our successes and challenges.
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Agenda
 Overview of each of our projects
 The Access Center: Improving Outcomes for All Students K-8 - OSEP
 Comprehensive School Reform Quality (CSRQ) Center – OESE
 The Center for Educational Partnerships – The Program for Research
and Evaluation in Public Schools (PREPS), Mississippi State U.
 Why collaborate – the obvious and not so obvious benefits
 Impact of this collaboration on a State TA system
 Our learning – we would recommend…and you should avoid…
 Discussion, thoughts, feedback
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I KNOW THE
STUDENTS ARE
DEMANDING and
TEACHERS DON’T
LIKE YOU…BUT,
YOU HAVE TO GO
TO SCHOOL..YOU
ARE THE
PRINCIPAL!
®
The Challenges of Collaboration
 Competing demands on time and resources
 Differing program objectives from sponsoring
agencies
 Misunderstanding by technical assistance recipients
 Co-mingling funds and staff resources
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And the Story Began…
 Access Center
Funded in 2002
Strengthen state and local capacity to help
students with disabilities learn through
general education curriculum.
Three kinds of TA: Direct TA, Information
Sharing Communities, and Web based TA
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CSRQ Center: Who WeCSRQ
Are Center
 The Center is a three-year U.S. Department of
Education-funded resource center to help education
consumers answer the question:
Which CSR models and approaches work well to raise
student achievement or accomplish other important
student outcomes?
 The Center complements other ED-supported quality
initiatives that support CSR implementation and the
achievement of NCLB goals.
 The Center aligns with ED efforts regarding the use of
scientifically based research.
®
CSRQ Center: What We Do
CSRQ Center
 Produce and make widely available
consumer-friendly CSRQ Center
Reports.
 Develop partnerships to promote
knowledge and use of CSRQ Center
Reports and Center tools.
 Provide technical assistance to selected
states, districts, and schools.
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AIR Resources for Evidence–Based School
Improvement
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Center for Effective Collaboration and
Practice
http://cecp.air.org
Center for Implementing Technology in
Education
http://www.citeducation.org
Comprehensive School Reform Quality
(CSRQ) Center
http://www.csrq.org
K8 Access Center
http://www.k8accesscenter.org/
National Center for Mental Health
Promotion and Youth Violence
http://www.promoteprevent.org
National Center for Technology
Innovation
http://www.nationaltechcenter.org
National Center on Education,
Disability and Juvenile Justice
http://www.edjj.org
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National Center on Student Progress
Monitoring
http://www.studentprogress.org
National Coordinator Training and
Technical Assistance Center
http://www.k12coordinator.org
National Evaluation and Technical
Assistance Center for the Education of
Children Who Are Neglected,
Delinquent, or At Risk
http://www.neglected-delinquent.org
National Reporting System for Adult
Education (NRS)
http://www.nrsweb.org
Supplemental Educational Services
Quality (SESQ) Center
http://tutorsforkids.org
Technical Assistance Partnership for
Child and Family
http://www.air.org/tapartnership
What Works Clearinghouse
http://www.whatworks.ed.gov
The CEP Mississippi Sandbox
What we do
Integrating Federal Projects
The Comprehensive School
Reform Quality Center
 U. S. Department of
Education, Office of
Elementary and
Secondary Education
(OESE).
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The Access Center:
Improving Outcomes for
All Students K-8
 U.S. Department of
Education, Office of
Special Education
Programs (OSEP).
Why Collaborate?
 Consistent with Federal funding and programs
 Labs, Centers
 Efficient use of resources
 Build staff knowledge and skills across professional
disciplines
 Serves as a model for State and district TA systems
and individual recipients
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What We Did…Technical Assistance
 Moving Forward: A Guide for Implementing Comprehensive
School Reform & Improvement Strategies
 Train-the trainer workshop and materials
 Builds on work of the Access Center/EMSTAC and the CSRQ Center
 Objective is to enhance ability to select and implement school reform
models and improvement interventions
 Workshop addressed a systems-wide improvement strategy
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Pyramid of Influence
Federal Legislation & Policy
State Legislation & Policy
District and
School/Building Policy
CSRQ
Classroom
Access
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Student Outcomes
The Benefits for a State TA system
 Why we were interested
 Challenges of TA systems to meet
demands of initiatives in high need
state
 Need for scientifically-based research
 Shared core beliefs and values of
partners
 Perfect timing—designation of TA
Center for compliance with state
consent decree (Mattie T)
 Cost efficiency for high quality services
The Benefits for a State TA System
What we got out of the national collaboration
 Extensive access to meaningful, high quality resources for
local districts, schools and CEP
 Opportunity to dialogue with national project leaders about
strategic implementation ideas
 Enhanced body of knowledge about addressing complex
goal of success for students with disabilities in general
education curriculum
 Valuable partnership with outstanding staff of national
centers
 Increased credibility of CEP and MSU with practitioners and
policy-makers at local, state and national levels
 Promotion of use of technology as a tool for
communication and professional development (website
resources, web-links)
The Benefits for a State TA System
What the benefits are for state and local educators
 Immediate access to scientifically-based models of success
 Quality, meaningful professional development, strategies
and ideas in easy-to-use format for practicing administrators
and teachers
 Model of successful collaboration for use by administrators
and teachers in Mississippi
 Short-term success of project establishes foundation for
sustained implementation and enhancement
 Enhancement of our own skills of collaboration
 Increased visibility and credibility for our State TA system
What We Did…Products and
Resources
 Enhancing Participation Guide
 Specific model features that address the needs of students with disabilities.
 Suggestions regarding strategies to enhance the engagement and progress of
students with disabilities in school reform models.
 Questions That Educators Can Ask About the Participation of Students With
Disabilities in School Reform and Improvement Models
 Considerations checklist
 Assess the capacity of school reform and improvement models to address the
needs of students with disabilities
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Learning and Lessons
 The Good
 Playing in the sandbox is important
 Ideal way to leverage resources
 Additional resources – Enhancing Participation and Questions Educators can
Ask
 We would do differently
 Communicate more effectively to TA recipients regarding each project
 Bring clients together early in the process
 Identify cross-project work in the early years of a project
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What Lessons have you Learned
through your own Experiences?
 Share thoughts and ideas
 Questions and comments
 Thank you & Feedback form
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Visit our Centers
 The Access Center www.k8accesscenter.org
 The CSRQ Center www.csrq.org
 Mississippi State University – College of Education
Center for Educational Partnerships
http://www.educ.msstate.edu/cep/index.html
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Contact Us
American Institutes for Research
1000 Thomas Jefferson St, NW
Washington, DC 20007-3835
Judy Shanley, jshanley@air.org
Steve Fleischman, sfleischman@air.org
Cynthia Ward, cward@preps.msstate.edu
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