Service coordinators under Part C of the Individuals With Disabilities Education Act (IDEA, 2004) help families navigate the early intervention (EI) system and ensure regular communication among team members so services are aligned with family priorities and recommended EI practices. To meet the demands of service coordination, personnel entering…

Educators and researchers often think of program design and program evaluation as separate endeavors, even intentionally creating a firewall between them. But what if designers and evaluators worked together, combining their insights to strengthen both the program and the study of it? In the work of evaluating a statewide professional learning…

Understanding long-term impacts is essential to knowing whether an Extension program is achieving its goals. I describe a process for long-term program evaluation, using evaluation of the Utah Master Naturalist Program (UMNP) as a successful example. Surveys revealed that the UMNP had impacts on participants up to 10 years after program…

Training and technical assistance programs for autism spectrum disorders (ASD) have emerged in many states as educators, administrators, and institutions of higher education attempt to address the increasing needs for enhancing the knowledge and skills of educators and disseminating the ever-growing knowledge of educational practices. This report…

State coordinators of early hearing detection and intervention (EHDI) programs completed a strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats, or SWOT, analysis that consisted of 12 evaluative areas of EHDI programs. For the professional development area, 47 coordinators responded with a total of 223 items, and themes were identified in each SWOT…

The purpose of this mixed-method design study is to evaluate how well the Maryland Task Force on the Principalship recommendations have been implemented throughout the state of Maryland. The study examines Maryland principal perceptions as to whether or not the Task Force recommendations have been implemented in their county school districts. The…

The Improving Teacher Quality (ITQ) State Grants Program is currently operating professional development grants for California teachers at 40 sites statewide. This is as large a cadre of projects as the California Postsecondary Education Commission has operated since the ITQ Program began with the passage of the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001.…

This paper highlights several current collaborative activities of the National Early Childhood Technical Assistance Center (NECTAC). There are many specific examples of TA (Technical Assistance) collaborations that take place on a regular basis; the seven examples presented here were selected to represent different types of collaboration. The…

This program evaluation study examined the relationship between Problem Solving/Response to Intervention (PS/RtI) training and technical assistance and educator and implementation outcomes following the first year of a 3-year project. Educators from 40 pilot schools in eight districts participating in the study received ongoing professional…

"Collaboration" is a ubiquitously championed concept and widely recognized across the public and private sectors as the foundation on which the capacity for addressing complex issues is predicated. For those invested in organizational improvement, high-quality collaboration has become no less than an imperative. However, evaluators and program…

In a time of evolving Algebraic standards and expectations for Minnesota teachers and students, the establishment of quality professional development and technical assistance can help educators move more confidently toward greater mathematics understanding and, subsequently, successful teaching and learning. To this end, the Minnesota Department…

The effectiveness of Tennessee EdTech Launch (TnETL), a statewide technology program designed to meet the No Child Left Behind (NCLB) mandate, was investigated in this matched treatment-control quasi-experimental study. The goal of the program was to provide full-time, on-site technology coaches to prepare teachers to create lessons that engage…

This study was designed to determine the degree of use, level of client satisfaction of professional development and educational services, and to identify suggestions for improving services. Results from a mixed methodology approach indicated moderate to high levels of satisfaction in two program areas and moderate to high levels of…

The Tennessee Career Ladder evaluation system is a multiple-data-source system for evaluating teachers in order to provide them with merit status and benefits. This presentation is based primarily on data from 1983 through Spring 1986, and focus is on the functioning of the general education teacher appraisal system. Four of the 14 steps involved…

The California Library Association has established a mentoring program to assist new or reentering librarians in establishing themselves in the profession. At the end of 3 years, the Mentor/Protege program had over 50 participating pairs of experienced and novice librarians. The program is described, and suggestions are given for implementing a…