CFS News Monday, November 5, 2007
NIRN and Partners to Establish New Center for Building Education Programs that Work for All Students, Including Those with Disabilities
FMHI’s National Implementation Research Network has been awarded almost one million a year for five years from the U.S. Department of Education/Office of Special Education (OSEP) to establish a Center on State Implementation and Scaling-Up of Evidence-Based Practices (SISEP) to help states increase their capacity to effectively use evidence-based programs in education.
According to OSEP, the program is being funded to promote academic achievement and improve results for children with disabilities by supporting technical assistance (TA), model demonstration projects, dissemination of useful information, and implementation activities that are supported by scientifically based research. With help from partners at the University of Connecticut and University of Oregon, Drs. Karen Blase and Dean Fixsen will provide critical content and foundation "to ensure that the implementation of evidence-based practices that improve the achievement of students with disabilities is sustained and brought to scale for grades K-12."
As outlined in the OSEP overview, the Center will work intensively with six states to help them:
- create an infrastructure to provide TA across regular and special education to improve the achievement of students with disabilities;
- use what is known about effective implementation of evidence-based practices at both the State educational agency and district levels; and
- use effective methods to scale-up the use of evidence-based practices.
The Center will disseminate nationwide the lessons learned from their work with the six States, including how state educational agencies effectively took steps to build the capacity to provide coordinated TA to districts, and TA strategies appropriate for the unique needs of specific sites that can be used by states to improve their capacity to provide TA to improve the achievement of students with disabilities.
