Current through Register Vol. 46, No. 39, September 25, 2024
The procedures and calendar which will be established and
followed for the adoption of promising educational practices begin with:
(a) Goals. Collectively, our department
activities and those of USOE are directed at the general goal of assisting
districts in the identification of priority needs and assisting them to fund
and adopt proven programs and practices in an efficient manner. An overall goal
to which each of the above parts contributes is a more effective use of seed
money through a wider adoption of successful programs and fewer attempts by
many districts to invent the same wheel. This goal includes the following
objectives:
(1) To identify and assign
priorities among educational needs in individual districts and in New York
State. Given the present State priorities as contained in commissioner's and
regents priorities and goals as well as program and budget priorities,
continuous revision is made necessary by annual statewide collection of data
from public and nonpublic school districts;
(2) To identify sites where programs have
been developed that successfully address those needs and to develop or
encourage to be developed, new programs aimed at those needs in programs
developed under part C grants, and greatly increase the emphasis on
practicality and low-cost replicability;
(3) To systematically collect specific and
valid information about those programs (for example: cost, objectives, results,
activities, exportability, critical factors);
(4) To disseminate this information to school
districts in New York State;
(5) To
encourage via request-for-proposal the adoption of successful programs by other
school districts having related educational needs;
(6) To provide assistance to school districts
as they adopt or adapt these programs.
(b) Some of the procedures for adoption of
promising educational practices follow:
(1)
Identification of promising practices:
(i)
develop criteria to be used in the nomination of promising educational
practices and products;
(ii)
develop procedures to be used in the nomination of promising educational
practices and products;
(iii)
cooperate with appropriate local education agencies in the identification and
nomination of promising educational practices and products.
(2) Validation of promising
practices: September 1977-June 1978
(i)
provide technical assistance to personnel of those projects that are identified
as having promising practices and products and thereby prepare them for a
validation process;
(ii) determine
appropriate procedures for LEA's to use in applying to have promising practices
and products validated;
(iii)
develop criteria for selecting validation teams;
(iv) develop and refine training experiences
for validation teams;
(v) develop
procedures for on-site validation visits;
(vi) provide training for validation
teams;
(vii) determine formats for
validation and reporting by validation teams;
(viii) develop criteria procedures for State
certification of validated programs with promising practices and
products.
(3) Diffusion
of validated practices in fiscal year 1978. When the SEA certifies that the
validated programs or practices are worthy of consideration for
adoption/adaption, New York State will:
(i)
recognize the validated programs for their accomplishments by appropriate
means, such as:
(a) a letter from the
commissioner,
(b) special mention,
or
(c) a certificate.
(ii) assist validated projects in
the development of various levels of awareness materials about promising
practices and products;
(iii)
sponsor the publication of articles in professional journals concerning
validated practices and products;
(iv) direct and encourage dissemination of
awareness materials on validated practices and products;
(v) encourage and support observation of
validated programs in action;
(vi)
initiate and encourage conferences and conversations (outside the actual
instructional setting) with participants of validated programs;
(vii) manage and facilitate the sharing of
instructional materials with potential adopters/adapters of validated practices
and products;
(viii) support the
development of professional skills needed in the developer districts to prepare
potential adopters/adapters for installation of programs and
practices.
(4)
Identification of potential adopters: July 1977-June 1978.
(i) develop criteria for identification of
potential adopters/adapters in consultation with producer LEA's;
(ii) circulate criteria for identification of
potential adopters/adapters among LEA's of validated practices and products for
adoption and/or modifications;
(iii) survey and review regional and local
educational needs;
(iv) collaborate
with appropriate units of the SEA in identification of potential consumers of
validated practices and products;
(v) assist producer LEA's in the
identification of potential adopters/adapters;
(vi) assist and support LEA's with validated
programs in effecting linkage with potential adopters/adapters;
(vii) develop criteria to determine depth and
scope of interest of potential adopters/adapters that will lead to installation
of validated practices and products;
(viii) provide guidelines for establishing
producer/consumer relationships that will lead to effective adoption/adaption
of validated programs.
(5) Installation: Fall 1978-Spring 1979.
Having identified, validated and diffused effective educational practices and
products, New York State will bring about their installation by LEA's with the
following procedures:
(i) provide or
encourage workshops and on-site technical assistance to producer staffs on
packaging of program materials and processes;
(ii) develop a training program that will
stimulate adoption/adaption and installation;
(iii) assist consumer LEA's in start-up
activities of adopted/adapted programs;
(iv) provide continuous monitoring and
support of all necessary installation activities that the adopter LEA's must
follow;
(v) Evaluate the
effectiveness of the producer/consumer system developed by the State.
(c) A more elaborate
set of functions or procedures for department and field units are suggested
below:
(1) The optional education program
field representatives
(i) continue to focus
on optional programs in the short run, but begin to shift their focus to
whatever programs are related to school district needs and department
priorities;
(ii) assume primary
responsibility for technical assistance in linking SED efforts with needs and
activities of school districts (play a dissemination agent role);
(iii) collect information about all aspects
of the plan and aid districts to take advantage of their information and fiscal
resources;
(iv) communicate needs
and problems of the field to SED, as related to the IV-C program, on a regular
basis;
(v) continue to work toward
the goal of having their services supported locally through the funding of
their activities by BOCES;
(vi)
assume facilitator role related to the National Diffusion Network and the
State's Transferring Success System.
(2) Content bureaus--office of instructional
services. The extent and involvement of content bureaus are determined on the
basis of State and local program priorities. Currently, the Bureaus of Reading,
Mathematics, Science, Social Studies, Health, Physical Education, and units
outside of Instructional Services, Drug Education, Guidance, Drop-out
Prevention, Health and Nutrition are involved.
(i) communicate the nature of the
transferring success process to school district representatives with similar
content responsibilities;
(ii)
develop specifications for programs needed within the area of
expertise;
(iii) communicate
specifications to representatives of school districts;
(iv) recommend allocation of targeted
resources among developer, dissemination/adapter grants--within Federal and
State regulations and guidelines;
(v) recommend, after SED decisions about
funding allocation have been made, the projects for funding and assume a major
responsibility for providing assistance to districts and for evaluating
programs in cooperation with research and evaluation units;
(vi) recommend funded programs for
continuation or for termination;
(vii) review and make recommendations on
continuation budgets.
(3) Research and evaluation units.
(i) in cooperation with other units, refine
procedures to validate programs for SED-sanctioned general dissemination. A
validated program is one that is verified as having been educationally
effective and successful, is cost-effective and is exportable from the producer
district, either in part or in whole;
(ii) assist in preparation of experimental
designs for in-depth examination of programs when needed;
(iii) provide technical assistance in
preparation of program evaluation designs;
(iv) conduct training sessions required to
inform SED and school district staffs about evaluation requirements;
(v) provide evaluation technical assistance
on an as needed basis to staffs of SED and school districts.
(4) EPSIS
(i) develop and operate the information
system required to support the entire effort, while continuing to provide
current information services;
(ii)
design, in cooperation with other units of SED, documentation needed to collect
information and format for reporting information out of the system;
(iii) design, operate, and monitor the
information storage and retrieval system;
(iv) conduct training programs required to
make SED and school district personnel intelligent users of the information
system;
(v) work closely with all
involved SED units, particularly the Office of Optional Educational Programs
and the Office of Program Planning.
(5) Office of School District Organization
and Services.
(i) assist school districts
(district superintendents) to identify needs and develop statements of needs
for their BOCES (Board of Cooperative Educational Services);
(ii) develop regional statements of needs (13
joint management teams);
(iii)
provide technical assistance to school districts on a shared service basis
(including assistance needed to plan, manage and evaluate the transferring
success process at the local district level);
(iv) coordinate the work of the Office of
Optional Educational Programs dissemination agents (done by district
superintendents and management teams);
(v) manage information collection, storage
and retrieval requirements as needed by the Office of Optional Educational
Programs dissemination agents on a multi-BOCES basis.
(6) New York City Office of Urban School
Services.
(i) assist community districts in
the identification of needs;
(ii)
recommend funding priorities;
(iii)
confer with content bureaus on recommended funding priorities in-terms of urban
needs;
(iv) work with content
bureaus on the development of program specifications;
(v) communicate specifications to
representatives of community school districts;
(vi) recommend allocation of targeted
resources among developer, dissemination and adopter grants within State
regulations and guidelines;
(vii)
recommend projects for funding and assume major responsibility for providing
assistance to New York City and for evaluating program in cooperation with
research and evaluation units;
(viii) recommend funded programs for
continuation or for termination;
(ix) review and make recommendations on
continuation budgets.
(7) Divisions of Finance and Educational
Management Services
(i) provide guidance and
direction on budgeting and accounting procedures necessary to keep adequate
fiscal records on special projects in each school district and in the State
Education Department;
(ii) provide
technical assistance as needed.
(8) Division of ESC General Program Planning
(with cooperation of the Division of ESC Field Planning Services.
(i) coordination and management of the
overall effort, including efforts which insure adequate communication among all
units in ESC and between SED and the field;
(ii) manage the procedures which lead to the
formulation of needs and priorities to be recommended to the executive
council;
(iii) prepare
recommendations concerning the allocation of Federal funds among the
priorities;
(iv) prepare materials
for and conduct coordination required to integrate the efforts of other SED
units to be involved;
(v) insure
compliance with Federal and State regulations and guidelines;
(vi) administer funds in connection with this
program;
(vii) monitor
effectiveness of school district funded programs in cooperation with other
units of SED;
(viii) work with the
executive council, the State advisory council and other units of SED to
establish criteria for funding school district programs.
(9) The ESC Executive Council.
(i) review requirements documented by units
of SED and recommend priorities for funding of programs;
(ii) recommend validated programs to receive
SED-sponsored dissemination;
(iii)
recommend policy statements governing the operation of the entire
effort;
(iv) advise on the
monitoring operation of this plan and provide direction for change.