Current through Register Vol. 46, No. 12, March 20, 2024
(a) The primary
purpose of the New York State title IV of the Elementary and Secondary
Education Act dissemination effort is to collect, store, retrieve, and
disseminate information needed to identify, validate, replicate, and adopt
educational programs which address high priority documented need areas. The
total dissemination effort is a systematic one involving close cooperation
among staff members of the State Education Department, the 44 intermediate
units, and local educational agencies. It is carefully linked to and
coordinated with all other specific elements of this title IV of the Elementary
and Secondary Education Act plan.
(b) The dissemination effort undertaken will
include the following procedures:
(1) Needs
assessment. Documented needs assessments covering the entire State of New York
and including the perspectives of officials at the local, intermediate, and
State levels will be analyzed to determine what kind of program should receive
a high priority in the dissemination effort. Responsibility for the conduct of
desirable needs assessment activities will rest in the State Education Agency
through the Office of ESC General Program Planning. Planning, leadership and
management for carrying out essential needs assessment activities will
originate in that unit. Much of the needs assessment process, however, will be
conducted in a systematic decentralized manner through the office of the
district superintendent serving on behalf of the commissioner within each of
the 44 education regions in the State. These multi-district-oriented field
agents and other State Education Department officials will work with local
school officials to identify specific target areas, school districts and
multi-district regions where high priority needs exist. Information gathered
through the conduct of this needs assessment will serve to focus the
dissemination effort--and, hence, make it more efficient and effective--by
identification of audiences and sub-audiences which can each benefit from
information and experience relative to particular programs.
(2) Requests for proposals (RFP's). The
documented needs assessment will provide a focus for developing RFP's. The
planning, program, evaluation and fiscal specifications of the RFP's will be
developed to insure that projects which are funded under title IV of the
Elementary and Secondary Education Act have been designed in such a way that
information about the project needed for its eventual dissemination will be
collected systematically throughout its life in an efficient and reliable way.
Whenever possible, comparable data will be collected from LEA's allowing more
accurate analyses of project results and a more reliable set of data for
dissemination.
(3) Project
monitoring. Projects funded with title IV of the Elementary and Secondary
Education Act monies will be closely monitored. This monitoring will be carried
out by teams of SED program specialists (whose membership will be determined by
the focused need which the project addresses), locally-oriented field agents,
and other consultants as needed. The title IV of the Elementary and Secondary
Education Act--part C management system described earlier provides for planned
interaction between and among SED field officers, local district officials, and
appropriate SED staff, coordinated by the Division of ESC General Program
Planning. This planned exchange of information will include provision for the
exchange of information about projects at any stage in the
need/identification/validation/demonstration/adoption process. SED specialists
will be charged with leadership responsibility and skill development in facets
of information management essential to make the dissemination system work. The
system will make it possible for the documented need of any district in the
State to be cross-checked against all title IV of the Elementary and Secondary
Education Act projects in the State: past, ongoing, and planned.
(4) Information storage and retrieval.
(i) The New York State Education Department's
Educational Program and Studies Information Services (EPSIS) will continue to
play a critical role in the entire dissemination effort. This unit is charged
with coordinating and integrating the State Education Department's
dissemination activities. At the same time it serves as the central locus in
the continuing development of a statewide dissemination network for the
gathering, storage, transmission and retrieval of information. Currently, there
are 42 such locally-oriented sub-centers operating as information linkages
between one another and the State Education Department.
(ii) Specifically, through EPSIS one may
minimally store an abstract and critical descriptors of all Title IV projects.
Similar descriptors of documented educational needs will permit a rapid scan to
determine if any programs exist that address themselves to special needs.
Additionally, EPSIS serves as the SEA unit with access to the National ERIC
Data Base. LEA's planning projects will be able to request reviews of research
and literature which will serve as a basis to insure that their projects
reflect the latest knowledge and practices known to the national community of
educators.
(5) Technical
assistance. The State Education Department will make technical assistance
available to eligible school districts in general (see section
2302.32
of this Title) and to districts addressing specific high priority needs with
title IV of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act, part C funds. This
technical assistance will include orientation to and instructions about the
variety of information and dissemination sources noted above, and it will also
include another opportunity for the officials performing the technical
assistance to play an active role in the exchange of information between a
school district having a specific need and the total information resources
described in this entire title IV of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act
plan.
(6) Other.
(i) The New York State system of education is
an extremely comprehensive one comprising thousands of agencies and units as
components of the University of the State of New York. It includes all
education agencies within the State as well as such educative agencies as all
libraries and library systems, museums, historical societies, cultural
agencies, ETV networks, etc.
(ii)
The State Education Department is responsible for leadership in planning and
operation. The department has available to it a vast array of resources and
opportunities which can routinely be blended to lend themselves to any
systematic dissemination effort. This includes internal and external
communication mechanisms, a host of advisory and steering committees, a
well-organized public information office, numerous regular publications and
close working relations with education-oriented agencies operated on behalf of
school board members, teachers, administrators, business, labor, industry,
etc.
(c)
These avenues for dissemination will be used on a formal or ad hoc basis
whenever a specific aspect of title IV of the Elementary and Secondary
Education Act--part C is in need of clarification or elaboration, or whenever a
particular project is deemed worthy of a special dissemination effort. The
staff of the department is capable of planning and coordinating special
dissemination activities as events warrant. These can include, but need not be
limited to, education fairs, workshops, seminars, and conferences.
Additionally, the staff of the department works in close liaison with many
professional organizations which provide access to educators across the State
for specific purposes. Among them are the Association for Supervision and
Curriculum Development, Phi Delta Kappa, Council of School District
Administrators, the Association of School Business Officials, and other groups
of education professionals.
