This article describes the Division of Career Development and Transition’s (DCDT) position regarding Career Technical Education (CTE) and provides recommendations regarding more intense collaboration to improve access to and persistence in CTE for students with disabilities. Professional groups, such as the DCDT and the Association for Career and Technical Education, as well as policy makers, should strengthen collaboration in this area. This position paper: (a) explores CTE’s effectiveness as a secondary special education and transition service; (b) summarizes relevant federal legislation; and (c) presents key recommendations for policy, practice, personnel preparation and professional development, and research. Policy and practice recommendations emphasize access and equity, personnel preparation and professional development recommendations promote an understanding of related legislation and instructional practices, and research recommendations emphasize collaborative high-quality research.

This study is a summary of themes found in the meeting notes of school teams implementing school-wide Positive Behavior Support. Positive Behavior Support (PBS) is a systems change process of reorganizing a school's discipline structure to put in place a positive, teaching and reinforcing focus for the improvement of student behavior (Sugai & Horner, 2006). In recent years, education researchers have established that school-wide PBS is an effective way to deliver research- based interventions to improve student behavior (Colvin & Kameenui, 1993, Gottfredson, Gottfredson, & Hybl 1993; Taylor-Green & Kartub, 2000). This study focused on the implementation process in order to gain insights on successes and difficulties encountered by school teams during implementation of PBS. This study utilized meeting notes from 22 school teams that received implementation support from Utah's Academic, Behavior and Coaching Initiative (ABC-UBI). These school teams had at least 3 years of implementation support from ABC-UBI and 3 years of data from the School-Wide Evaluation Tool (SET). The SET provided data indicating the fidelity of implemenation of PBS. From these 22 school teams, 628 total meeting notes were examined using grouded theory and an open-coding process. School teams were divided into 3 implementation patterns according to their SET data: consistently high implementing schools, increasing implementation schools and inconsistently implementing schools. A total of 13 themes were established, through multiple measures of inter-rater reliability, as being present in the meeting notes. According to prevalence rates, there were 2 major themes and 4 minor themes indicated in the meeting notes. The major themes indicated that making assignments and data collection were important to successful school teams. The minor themes indicated that meaningful individual rewards for students, regular staff professional development, utilization of tools provided by ABC-UBI and teaching and posting expectations were important to successful schools. Difficulties with data collection were indicated as being associated with inconsistently implementing schools. From the themes it was inferred that public accountability and the creation of professional learning communities were important factors in consistent and successful PBS implementation.

Yes / Many interventions that are delivered within public health services have little evidence of effect. Evaluating interventions that are being delivered as a part of usual practice offers opportunities to improve the evidence base of public health. However, such evaluation is challenging and requires the integration of research into system-wide practice. The Born in Bradford’s Better Start experimental birth cohort offers an opportunity to efficiently evaluate multiple complex community interventions to improve the health, wellbeing and development of children aged 0–3 years. Based on the learning from this programme, this paper offers a pragmatic and practical guide to researchers, public health commissioners and service providers to enable them to integrate research into their everyday practice, thus enabling relevant and robust evaluations within a complex and changing system. Using the principles of co-production the key challenges of integrating research and practice were identified, and appropriate strategies to overcome these, developed across five key stages: 1) Community and stakeholder engagement; 2) Intervention design; 3) Optimising routinely collected data; 4) Monitoring implementation; and 5) Evaluation. As a result of our learning we have developed comprehensive toolkits (https://borninbradford.nhs.uk/whatwe-do/pregnancy-early-years/toolkit/) including: an operational guide through the service design process; an implementation and monitoring guide; and an evaluation framework. The evaluation framework incorporates implementation evaluations to enable understanding of intervention performance in practice, and quasi experimental approaches to infer causal effects in a timely manner. We also offer strategies to harness routinely collected data to enhance the efficiency and affordability of evaluations that are directly relevant to policy and practice. These strategies and tools will help researchers, commissioners and service providers to work together to evaluate interventions delivered in real-life settings. More importantly, however, we hope that they will support the development of a connected system that empowers practitioners and commissioners to embed innovation and improvement into their own practice, thus enabling them to learn, evaluate and improve their own services. / Big Lottery Fund as part of the A Better Start programme. The Big Lottery Fund. NIHR CLAHRC Yorkshire and Humber.

The purpose of the present study was to record Cedar Middle School's (CMS) response to intervention implementation journey. It is a qualitative case study that examines one school's efforts to bring school improvements under the response to inventory (RtI) umbrella in order to achieve a more systematic approach to providing high-quality educational services to every student enrolled at CMS. Participants included the 10 members of the school's Student Success Team along with the principal and assistant principal. The recorded journey included: (a) a description of the RtI consensus and infrastructure-building processes, (b) an exploration of the SST perceptions of school-wide intervention efforts both past and present, (c) a review of the school's accomplishments and the barriers to implementation encountered, and (d) the implications for further school improvement efforts and research. Participants submitted to interviews, observations, and focus group meetings. Although the purpose of the study was not to measure program effectiveness, preliminary data are included that report the school's efforts toward systems change was helpful for students and is having a positive effect on student performance in reading comprehension. Participants were also able to share anecdotal evidence of increased student motivation and other behavioral changes that were natural consequences of their efforts. This evidence is reported in the narrative found in Chapters IV and V. Conclusions were based on participant input, recorded measures, and analyses conducted as part of the present study. Cautions were also discussed, including the limitations and delimitations. Finally, implications of the present study were provided for RtI and the field of schoolwide systematic interventions and support.

This study examined the relationships between pilot school status and Problem-Solving/Response to Intervention (PS/RtI) implementation, educator variables and PS/RtI implementation, and PS/RtI implementation and student and systemic outcomes following the final year of a 3-year PS/RtI implementation Project. School-Based Leadership Team (SBLT) members from 34 pilot schools in seven demonstration districts received training, as well as ongoing technical assistance and coaching, related to PS/RtI implementation. Data on educator's beliefs, perceptions of educational practices, and perceptions of PS/RtI skills; PS/RtI implementation; and student and systemic outcomes were collected from the 34 pilot schools, as well as 27 comparison schools. To examine the research questions in this study, multilevel models were conducted. Results of the analyses suggested that pilot school status appeared to be positively related to increases in PS/RtI implementation over time, while the educator variables did not significantly predict changes in PS/RtI implementation. Increases in PS/RtI implementation were not related to changes in DIBELS kindergarten PSF scores over time, but were negatively related to DIBELS kindergarten NWF scores over time. Finally, PS/RtI implementation was not significantly related to changes in office discipline referrals, but was significantly related to decreases in placements in special education over time. Potential explanations for the findings from this study and suggestions for future research are discussed.

Nonviolent Change Journal helps to network the peace community: providing dialoguing, exchanges of ideas, articles, reviews, reports and announcements of the activities of peace related groups and meetings, reviews of world developments relating to nonviolent change and resource information concerning the development of human relations on the basis of mutual respect. The Nonviolent Change Journal is published by the Research/Action Team on Nonviolent Large Systems Change, an interorganizational and international project of The Organization Development Institute.

Society today faces unprecedented social and environmental challenges that are both complex in nature and require immediate and severe action. The financial system is a complex system that has an important impact on the sustainable development of society. Currently, however, the role of the finance system in sustainability is ambivalent, as it invests both in the causes of the sustainability challenge as well as its potential solutions. As the finance system is a complex system collaboration is needed to make change possible. Relationships are a key component of collaboration, and this research looks closer at how relationship building can enable effective collaboration aimed at finance systems change. Research draws on Literature, and a case study of the Finance Innovation Lab including 19 qualitative interviews. In order to build collaborative relationships for a sustainable finance system the results point to: 1) the importance of the individual being present in the initiative rather than the organization they represent, and the importance of connecting on personal level; 2) the complexity of relationship building, with different processes and key elements interrelating; and 3) collaborative relationships being only one part of systemic transformation, requiring also a diversity of people and a clear structure and common strategy to be effective in achieving their goals.

This study examined the extent to which coaching facilitates the successful implementation of the Problem-Solving/Response to Intervention (PS/RtI) model in schools, as well as the extent to which coaching enhances the fidelity of implementation of PS/RtI practices in those schools. Data from 34 schools in seven districts participating in three years of a statewide initiative to implement PS/RtI practices with assistance of a PS/RtI coach were used to evaluate the relationship between coaching activities and levels of implementation and integrity outcomes. Data on various coaching-related factors (i.e., perceived coaching quality, coach continuity, frequency and duration of training and technical assistance), educator beliefs and perceived skills, and PS/RtI implementation and fidelity levels were collected and examined utilizing a series of multilevel modeling (MLM) procedures. Results of the analysis suggest that a number of coaching variables were related to growth in specific measures of PS/RtI implementation and fidelity over time. Specifically, shorter, more frequent training sessions were related to higher levels of staff consensus and fidelity of problem analysis implementation over time after controlling for the quality of the coaching delivered. Growth in PS/RtI implementation over time was predicted positively by the continuity (the degree to which coaching was delivered by the same individual over the three years of the study) of the coaching received. Educators' perceptions of their own PS/RtI skill levels related to manipulation of data and use of technology in schools predicted increases in fidelity of problem identification implementation over time after controlling for quality of coaching. Fidelity of program evaluation/RtI implementation was predicted by the quality of coaching received across time. The relationship between coaching and infrastructure development, as well as the relationship between coaching and fidelity of intervention development and implementation, were unclear. Potential explanations for the findings from this exploratory study and implications for future research are discussed.

xv, 244 p. A print copy of this thesis is available through the UO Libraries. Search the library catalog for the location and call number. / Incorporation of a mental health focus into Early Intervention/Early Childhood Special Education (EI/ECSE) services is considered critical by many professionals due to the vulnerability of young children with disabilities to developing behavior problems, mental health disorders, and to experiencing maltreatment. This qualitative research study investigated ways personnel in EI/ECSE agencies in Oregon are addressing the mental health needs of the children and families they serve. How mental health is conceptualized by EI/ECSE providers, how well prepared providers are in addressing the needs, what kinds of strategies are used to serve children and families, and how adequately EI/ECSE families and children are served by the mental health system were explored. The study was divided into two parts, which included a state-wide study of 14 EI/ECSE agencies in five regions in Oregon, and an in-depth study of one EI/ECSE agency that has employed a mental health consultant. State-wide agencies were mainly located in rural parts of the state, although two education service districts in metropolitan areas were included. The perspectives of 10 mental health providers from community mental health centers were also collected. The most salient issues that surfaced in the state-wide study included the focus of EI/ECSE concern on behavioral and mental health problems in children ages three through five and strategies for related behavior management in classroom settings, the importance of collaboration with community agencies, and a desire for increased partnership with mental health. Interviews with both EI/ECSE and mental health agencies revealed problems in the mental health system including training of therapists in working with very young children, gaps in services for children who were not Medicaid-eligible and in services for parents with their own psychological issues, and in the capacity to serve all of the children who were referred. The in-depth study focused on one EI/ECSE agency that was developing staff competence in relationship-based work with families through support from a mental health consultant employed by the agency. Salient issues included funding for a mental health consultant in an educational agency, development of mental health services for early childhood through community collaboration, and supporting staff through reflective supervision. / Adviser: Jane Squires

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