Welcome to the official Kentucky State Personnel Development Grant (SPDG) website. Grant Awarded for 2007-2012
In a collaborative effort to increase student achievement and post-school success for students with disabilities throughout the Commonwealth of Kentucky, the Division of Exceptional Children Services (DECS) submitted a proposal for the 2007 State Personnel Development Grant (SPDG) and are proud to present a five year initiative linked in partnership with numerous agencies throughout the state.
Listed below are five outcomes that have been targeted by this group:
- Improve the instructional climate of Kentucky’s schools through a Positive Behavioral Interventions and Supports (PBIS) model,
- Improve postsecondary outcomes for Kentucky’s students with disabilities,
- Build the capacity of Kentucky’s schools to increase academic achievement for students with low incidence disabilities,
- Increase and retain the number of special education teachers,
- Improve early childhood transition and over representation in early childhood programs.
Kentucky State Personnel Development Grant - Partnerships
The Kentucky Department of Education, Exceptional Children Services is collaborating with several agencies to address the five targeted outcomes identified in the Kentucky State Personnel Development Grant 2007-2012. It is our hope that this active partnership will not only foster collaboration among the agencies involved, but provide sustainability for the targeted initiatives. The ultimate goal of these collaborative partners is to increase student achievement in Kentucky.
Some of the partners in this effort include:
Special Education Cooperatives:
Central Kentucky Educational CooperativeMarti Ginter, Director
2331 Fortune Drive, Suite 110
Lexington, KY 40509Phone (859) 402-8610Fax (859) 842-0714 Green River Regional Educational Cooperative
Donna Link, Director
230 Technology Way
Bowling Green 42101
George Wilson, Executive DirectorPhone: (270) 563-2113Fax: (270) 563-2208 Jefferson County Exceptional Child Education Services
Terry Ray, Director
P.O. Box 34020,
Louisville 40232-4020Phone: (502) 485-8500Fax: (502) 485-3776 Kentucky Educational Development CorporationStephanie Little, Director
904 West Rose Road
Ashland, KY 41102Phone: (606) 929-2209Fax: (606) 929-2109 Kentucky Valley Educational CooperativeEddy Wilder
J. Marvin Jolly Classroom Bldg.
One Community College Drive
Hazard, KY 41701Phone: (606) 439-1119Fax: (606) 439-1322 Northern Kentucky Cooperative for Educational ServicesLinda Alford, Director
5516 East Alexandria Pike
Cold Springs, KY 41076-3540Phone: (859) 442-8600Fax: (859) 442-7015 Ohio Valley Educational CooperativeR. Larry Taylor, Director
P.O. Box 1249
Shelbyville, KY 40066Phone: (502) 647-3533
, ext. 218Fax: (502) 647-3581 Southeast/Southcentral Education CooperativeMelissa Reynolds, Director
707 North Second Street
Richmond, KY 40475Phone: (859) 625-6048Fax: (859) 624-4529 West Kentucky Special Education CooperativeCynthia Jackson, Director
420 Wells Hall
Murray State University
Murray, KY 42071Phone: (270) 809-6980Fax: (270) 809-2485
Parent Technical Assistance Center:
Kentucky Special Parent Involvement Network (KYSPIN)
Institutes of Higher Education:
Eastern Kentucky University
521 Lancaster Ave., Richmond, KY 40475
Kentucky State University
400 E. Main St., Frankfort, KY 40601
University of Kentucky
South Limestone, 101 Main Bldg., Lexington, KY 40506
Related State Agencies:
Kentucky Office of Vocational Rehabilitation
209 St. Clair St., Frankfort, KY 40601
Kentucky Center for School Safety, Eastern Kentucky University
105 Stratton Bldg., 521 Lancaster Ave.,
Richmond, KY 40475
Kentucky State Personnel Development Grant-Five Target Areas
Based on needs expressed in the Kentucky Department of Education, Exceptional Children Services State Performance Plan, and consensus of personnel from the Division of Exceptional Children Services, Special Education Cooperatives, Kentucky Special Parent Involvement Network and a local Director of Special Education, five outcomes were targeted.
- Improving the instructional climate of Kentucky’s schools through a Positive Behavior Intervention System model.
- Improving post-secondary outcomes for Kentucky’s students with disabilities.
- Building the capacity of Kentucky’s schools to increase academic achievement for students with low incidence disabilities.
- Increasing and retaining the number of special education teachers, particularly minority teachers.
- Improving early childhood transition and over representation in early childhood programs.
- Supporting this work is a strong focus on evaluation, utilizing both internal and external evaluators. Evaluation data will not only be used for reporting and accountability purposes, but will be an active component of project management and program improvement efforts.
Kentucky State Personnel Development Grant-Goals and Objectives
The Kentucky State Personnel Development Grant includes a series of research-based goals and objectives for the five proposed initiatives. It is our hope that these goals and objectives will be a catalyst in this comprehensive effort to improve teaching and learning and support rigorous academic standards for students.
Goal: To improve student results and successful transition to adult life by increasing the capacity of schools and communities
- Objective 1: To create a unified, multiagency positive behavior support/system of care approach created for children and youth with challenging behavior.
- Objective 2: To design and implement a system to sustain a unified positive behavior support and systems of care initiative.
- Objective 3: To expand and improve PBIS professional development, support and technical assistance provided by KYCID to schools and districts.
Goal: Increase instructional capacity of schools to provide meaningful access to the general curriculum to low incidence populations.
- Objective 1: Build a Curriculum Framework for aligning curriculum and instruction to chronologically age/grade appropriate standards for students K-12; and develop program indicators for students ages 18-21, for transition to community-based independent living.
- Objective 2: Develop and implement a comprehensive professional development curriculum & training delivery system that promotes and sustains teacher capacity and student achievement.
- Objective 3: Develop a sustaining technical assistance network to support teachers and paraprofessionals serving students in low incidence populations to a) enhance access to the general curriculum and b) use research-based instructional assessment and practices.
- Objective 4: Convene faculty from the higher education institutions across the state to update coursework related to general curriculum access and coordinate with efforts in the local education agencies and Cooperatives in their region.
- Objective5: Develop parent-training materials for dissemination through the state parent information network, parent resource centers, and parent advocacy groups related to access to chronologically age/grade appropriate general curriculum and transition services.
- Objective 6: Evaluate the effectiveness of the Consensus Framework, training materials & support networks using data-based approaches including teacher retention, teacher practice, parent satisfaction, student achievement data and post school outcomes for students.
Goal: To increase post-school success for students with disabilities through development of a state-wide, data driven personnel development system.
- Objective 1: Develop a scientifically rigorous tracking system for collection of student post school plans and outcomes.
- Objective 2: Use post school outcome data to increase the secondary transition knowledge base through pre and in-service training.
- Objective 3: Enhance collaboration with transition partners by facilitating opportunities for information sharing and brainstorming.
Teacher Recruitment & Retention
Goal: Promote instructional equity so experienced teachers, as well as, pre-service teachers can have a customized program to meet their individual needs and address instructional issues unique to his/her region or teaching assignment.
- Objective 1: Increase the number of students in the distance learning Special Education Program at Kentucky State University
- Objective 2: Develop an in-depth professional development program to provide highly trained educators competent in both special education and culturally responsive instruction to close achievement gaps.
- Objective 3: To develop an in-depth continuing professional development program for current special education teachers and parent training by using distance learning technologies to deliver these training materials available at all times in an effort to close the achievement gap in special education.
Goal 1: Children with a disability and an IEP by their third birthday will experience a successful transition.
- Objective 1: To provide professional development for public school, head Start, and Child Care personnel and service coordinators.
- Objective 2: To provide technical assistance to regional and local groups to implement the new interagency transition agreement.
- Objective 3: Provide training for parents about effective transition strategies.
Goal 2: To increase the number of young children (birth to five) with a disability receiving services in the natural environment.
- Objective 1: Increase the number of regular early childhood classrooms in the state funded preschool program.
- Objective 2: Decrease the number of children over-identified with a disability in the state funded preschool program.
- Objective 3: Increase integrated therapies and consultative service delivery models in Part C & B.
Kentucky State Personnel Development Proposal-Evaluation
Evaluation of the Kentucky State Personnel Development Grant Proposal is critical to ensure the proposed goals and objectives have been achieved and completed in a timely manner.
The Goals and objectives will be evaluated using a learning orientation approach to evaluation (McLaughlin, 2001) focusing on:
- What factors in our initiatives are influencing emerging outcomes and in what ways? (formative causal inferences)
- What factors in our initiatives are influencing final outcomes and in what ways? (summative causal inferences)
- What factors in the context or implementation environment of our initiatives may have influenced success- positively or negatively?
- What unintended effects are occurring or have occurred?
- What unintended effects are occurring or have occurred?
Project evaluators will be an active part of project management. We expect to use insight from our evaluators to (1) learn more about how to use and incorporate data into our work and (2) inform our policy decisions with the best quality data available (Grob, 2006).
Evaluation staff at the Human Development Institute at the University of Kentucky
Pacific Institute for Research and Evaluation (PIRE)
Kentucky State Personnel Development Grant-Resources
This section includes information and resources for the Kentucky State Personnel Development Grant Proposal. Links have been provided for each target area to assist you in learning more about Kentucky’s efforts to improve teaching and learning and support rigorous academic standards for students.
Kentucky Center for Instructional Discipline
Kentucky Center for School Safety
OSEP Technical Assistance Center on Positive Behavioral Interventions and Supports
Post Secondary Transition
Transition One Step
Human Development Institute
Kentucky Post School Outcome Data Collection
Teacher Recruitment and Retention
The Education Alliance at Brown University
Department of Oregon Education
National Child Care Information and Technical Assistance Center