One objective of the U.S. Department of Education's (ED) School Improvement Grants (SIG) and Race to the Top (RTT) program is to help states enhance their capacity to support the turnaround of low-performing schools. This capacity may be important, given how difficult it is to produce substantial and sustained achievement gains in low-performing…

The federal School Improvement Grants (SIG) program aims to improve student achievement by promoting the implementation of four school intervention models: transformation, turnaround, restart, and closure. Previous research provides evidence that low-performing schools adopt some practices promoted by the four models, but little is known about how…

In preschool settings, the majority of interventions are individualized for children at high risk for challenging behavior. However, a few early childhood sites have begun to conceptualize and implement prevention and intervention initiatives modeled after the principles and key features associated with school-wide positive behavior support. In…

Geographical, economic, social and cultural barriers to accessing services in rural areas are widely reported. Less widely discussed are dilemmas posed by individual and community reluctance to address sensitive health issues. This article, focusing on the highly sensitive area of mental health, and employing a participatory action approach,…

The National Institute on Disability and Rehabilitation Research and the National Institute of Mental Health jointly sponsored a project for the development of statewide organizations for parents of children with emotional disorders. The Statewide Parent Organization Demonstration Project (SPODP) has two major goals: to stimulate and support the…

Project TAPE (Technical Assistance for Postsecondary Education) was a two-year federal demonstration grant to provide technical assistance to personnel serving learning-disabled students in Illinois. The program involved training of support personnel, development and implementation of Specific Intervention Strategy modules, and a system of state…

Project STEPS (Sequenced Transition to Education in the Public Schools) was a federally funded demonstration grant to develop a community-wide interagency process for the transition of children with disabilities from preschool to the public schools. Participants were the local public schools and seven programs serving preschool children with…

The Early Recognition Intervention Network (ERIN) model provides a technology for observing special needs children, ages 2 to 7, and planning and implementing Individual Education Programs for them. The model is designed to work successfully whether the child is in a mainstream or a special setting, has mild or severe disabilities, comes from an…

Program improvement activities can be classified into four categories based on the source of the impetus and the locus of the change agent: systematic, symbolic, opportunistic, and pragmatic. This paper (1) describes the various approaches to implementing Chapter 1 program improvement activities at the state and local district levels in 13 western…

Passage of the Education Amendments of 1974 added a new section to Title I of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA) of 1965, which required the U.S. Commissioner of Education to undertake specific activities regarding evaluation of the program. Efforts made by the Office of Education to implement this law are described, including the…

This final report describes a federally funded 3-year project for integrating related services within educational objectives for children (ages 3-10) with dual vision and hearing impairments. A Training-Utilization model of inservice training and technical assistance was developed, implemented, and evaluated to address the communication needs of…

The Ninos Especiales Outreach Training Project was a 3-year federally funded project to provide information, training, and evaluation related to a culturally sensitive, family-focused model of early intervention services for infants with severe disabilities and their families of Puerto Rican heritage. Implementation occurred through three major…

This report, which is intended for individuals developing family literacy (FL) programs, contains background information on the research, development, operation, evaluation, and outcomes of federal- and state-level FL initiatives. Discussed in section 1 are the following topics: the importance/benefits of FL programs; definitions of literacy and…

This booklet describes a model technical assistance program of 16 products and services for Comprehensive Employment and Training Act prime sponsors. An introduction overviews the developer, the National Center for Research in Vocational Education, and the model. Goals and components of the model are described. This information is provided for…