The state of Illinois is developing a statewide Individualized Education Program (IEP) training program for school staff to improve the effectiveness of IEP development and implementation. The training will cover three dimensions: (1) knowledge and awareness of required components, required participants, required timelines, rationale and purposes,…

This report, initiated at the request of the Lincoln Trail College (LTC) faculty, provides a series of recommendations regarding a continuing professional development program specially tailored to meet the needs and characteristics of the staff at LTC. A questionnaire was developed to determine activity relevance and availability, preference…

Because children who are deaf or hard of hearing are being identified at birth, fitted with advanced hearing technology, and enrolled in early intervention programs, families increasingly seek professionals who can provide services that support their choice of listening and spoken language. The increased demand for these services and shortages of…

A statewide staff mentoring program was developed in Illinois as an option for providing a personalized, intensive approach to training early intervention personnel on a large scale. Evaluation results for the initial period of developing the process and for the first eight trainer-trainee dyads suggest this approach is individualized,…

This report of the activities of Project MEDIA, the Illinois State-Wide Facilitator for the National Diffusion Network, includes a description of the diffusion and facilitation process in the state, the numbers and types of requests for information and assistance from the project, the impact of Project MEDIA on local education agencies (LEAs) in…

Volume 1 of a final report in three volumes, this is an overall narrative account of a correctional staff training project in Illinois. The rationale of the project, methods and activities involved, findings, and evaluations are summarized and synthesized. Initial objectives were to survey training practices and needs; determine resources…

In response to the need for a clear understanding of student personnel programs in the Chicago City College system, the following strategies were employed: (1) the Council of Student Personnel Deans adopted a statement titled "Principles and Corollaries for a Philosophy of Community College Student Personnel Services" which was drafted…

In its first year of funding, Project MEDIA (Meaningful Educational Directions Through Innovative Approaches) offered school districts in Illinois information concerning the latest emerging developments in the field of education, specialized assistance in developing and implementing new approaches and techniques, and a centralized resource for…

As a conveyance for local in-service efforts, the Talent Pool endeavors to identify effective practitioners in the field who can share their methods and materials with less experienced practitioners through demonstration and discussion. Developed by the Career Education Service Center (CESC), this document is a compilation of sample forms and…

Initiated in 1964, the Illnois gifted program provided funds for development of local gifted programs by local districts. General purposes and criteria for individual programs were realized with varying success. Gifted programs increased and were extended to less wealthy and smaller districts; techniques and inservice education spilled over into…

This interdisciplinary inservice training project at the University of Illinois at Chicago was designed to improve early childhood occupational and physical therapy services by developing, implementing, evaluating, and disseminating a comprehensive training model. The competency-based program was designed to address the developmental needs of…

This manual provides guidance on using the consultation method to help meet the needs of families of children with disabilities in integrated community-based day care settings. The introductory section provides an overview, a statement of philosophy, the history of the day care consultation program in Illinois, and instructions for using the…

A project was initiated to disseminate staff development materials which provide a model for systematically planning comprehensive systems of guidance, counseling, placement, and follow-through and to help Illinois educational agencies in efficiently operating comprehensive guidance and counseling programs. In the first of a two-phase project,…

Completion of phase 2 of a project to disseminate materials to train staff in the implementation and operation of a comprehensive guidance and counseling program resulted in workshops, classes, and a final report on the career guidance planning model called PAGE 2 (Programmatic Approach to Guidance Excellence) in Illinois. Where phase 1 saw to…

In order to obtain teachers' views concerning art and music instruction in elementary schools, a 38-item opinionnaire was developed and distributed to a randomly selected sample of 236 grade school teachers in Illinois. Items solicited demographic data (e.g., grade level taught, years of teaching, and preparatory arts courses taken) and surveyed…