Careful consideration is essential for developing and conducting effective paraprofessional development. This study described a process of paraprofessional development and outcomes from assessments, workshops, and social validation focus group interviews from one rural public school in the USA. Fourteen paraprofessionals and their supervisors…

The purpose of this study is to identify the essential features of Tier 2 interventions conducted within multitier systems of behavior support in schools. A systematic literature search identified 12 empirical studies that were coded and scored according to a list of Tier 2 specific RE-AIM criteria, related to the Reach, Effectiveness, Adoption,…

Students with low-incidence disabilities frequently receive less than optimal psychoeducational services because the specialized tests and instructional materials required to meet their idiosyncratic needs often are unavailable due to budget constraints, inadequate training of school personnel, and the difficulty school personnel have keeping…

ELBEP (Eliminating Language Barriers in European Prisons Through Open and Distance Education Technology) is a multilateral project funded by the European Union (EU) Lifelong Learning, Grundtvig (Adult Education) Programme. It aims to overcome language/communication problems between prison staff and foreign inmates at European prisons via online…

Discusses the problem of turnover among nurses and proposes the use of networking as a means of retaining nursing staff. The plan relies on aspects of the nursing process--assessment, planning, implementation, and evaluation--to retain quality nursing staff. (JOW)

A model for staff development called "Staff Development/Organizational Development" (Wood/Thompson/Russell, 1981) describes a process for designing inservice that is systematic and comprehensive. The model was developed through an analysis and synthesis of the literature and research related to staff development. This paper briefly describes the…

Reasons for frustrations surrounding needs assessment in organizations are examined. Action strategies are paired with three of the root causes of obstacles to effective assessment: (1) flawed needs assessments; (2) no organizational support; and (3) inadequate expertise assigned to the effort. A sidebar presents four possible causes linked to…

Four issues (1980/81) of Views, an early childhood special education newsletter published by Project Sunrise Outreach in Montana, are collected in the document. Each issue contains one or two feature articles, and sections on early childhood programs, news from the states (Montana, Wyoming, and Idaho), comments from colleagues, research summaries,…

Describes and evaluates a model for agency-based staff development training for a county mental health unit. Concludes it can be a useful way to identify and resolve problems. (Author/MCF)

School administrators, eager to raise student achievement levels to meet the requirements of President Bush's No Child Left Behind Act, are increasingly looking to staff development for the purpose of enhancing student achievement. How would it be possible for staff development to be more effective than it now is? Mountain View Alternative High…

Staff development is rapidly becoming more visible and more expensive. School boards and the voting public are becoming aware of the increasing costs and are demanding to know how effectively the money is being spent. It will become increasingly difficult, even job-threatening, for superintendents who guide ineffective staff development programs.…

A needs assessment questionnaire submitted to 180 elementary school teachers found that a majority of the teachers felt inadequate and unable to teach science. A majority of the teachers agreed that science should be an integral part of elementary education, that teachers should improve their knowledge of science, and that teachers would teach…

A discussion of the need for and possible approaches to evaluating student support services emphasizes the importance of using objectives, strategies, and traditional and nontraditional outcome variables for a thorough assessment. (MSE)

This guide is concerned with productivity measurement and improvement in mental health centers, and focuses on the relationship between service outputs and available clinical staff, i.e., staff productivity. Staff productivity measures are described as useful in identifying existing levels of productivity, making comparisons to determine the…

Classroom observation techniques and needs assessment strategies can be used to evaluate gifted program inservice and staff development for teachers. Inservice program length, quality, and type can be evaluated through use of pre and post inservice observation, comparison of inservice participants with nonparticipants, and assessment of changes in…