Garth Eldredge, Hal Cain

Long-Term Training in Rehabilitation Counseling.

A recent national manpower study indicated a critical need for rehabilitation counselors. In response to this need, the Special Education and Rehabilitation Department at Utah State University has developed a program to train master's level students in rehabilitation counseling. This program meets Council on Rehabilitation Education (CORE) standards, will substantially meet the manpower needs of Utah and other states, and will produce a high level of satisfaction among those people who employ its graduates. Funded by the Rehabilitation Services Administration (RSA), Office of Special Education and Rehabilitative Services (OSERS), U. S. Department of Education, for five years: Sept. 1999-Aug 2004. $100,000/year.

Alan Hofmeister

Distance learning and dissemination of validated behavior practices: Creating a trainer of trainers model.

A statewide staff development program for paraeducators and their supervisors. The program uses several distance learning vehicles to reach parts of the state. Funded by the Utah State Office of Education for one year: July 2000-June 2001. $160,900.

Paraeducation statewide staff development.

This project will provide training for paraeducators within a building level context. The emphasis will be on ensuring that students with disabilities have access to the general curriculum, with a strong emphasis on the core reading curriculum. Funded by the Utah State Office of Education for one year: July 2000-June 2001. $307,190.

Inclusion videotape.

This project is concerned with the development of an awareness and training video on the inclusion of students with disabilities in Utah public schools. Funded by the Utah State Office of Education for one year: July 2000-June 2001. $37,530.

The Core Science Programs: Dissemination and effective implementation.

The purpose of this project is to support regular and Disabilities in the area of science. Funded by the U. S. Department of Education for three years: Oct. 1998-Sept. 2001. $450,000 cumulative.

Alan Hofmeister, M. Hardman

Utah State Improvement Grant.

This project will make a substantive impact on the quality of Special Education services statewide. The program is a systemic long-term effort. Funded by the U.S. Department of Education for six years: Feb. 1999-Feb. 2005. $3,085,000 cumulative.

Judith Holt

Support for Interdisciplinary Trainees.

Stipend support for masters and doctoral level trainees from disciplines including psychology, social work, special education, speech and language pathology, audiology, and family and human development. Trainees participate in over 300 clock hours of interdisciplinary didactic, clinical, and research activities. Funded by the CPD Discretionary Development Fund 2000 for one year: July 2000-July 2001. $28,000.

Ronda Menlove

Services for At-Risk Students Grant, Mild/Moderate Distance Education.

This program will prepare undergraduate students in Vernal, Roosevelt, Tooele, Weber, Ogden, Brigham City and Tremonton for careers as special education teachers. Specifically, about 38 students will be enrolled in this program and about 13 per year will graduate with a B.S. degree from USU and be certified as special education teachers for students with mild/moderate disabilities. Students will receive the required general education coursework and professional education courses at USU extension centers. They will receive their coursework field-based training for the special education program from distance education technology and through a local infrastructure set up and maintained by the department of Special Education and Rehabilitation at USU. Funded by the Utah State Office of Education for one year: 2000. $78,768

Attrition Survey Study.

The goal of this project is to develop a database containing information about the number and types of special education professionals who are leaving positions in Utah public schools. An in-depth survey of persons leaving will also be conducted. The resulting data will be used to project state personnel needs and to design interventions to help prevent attrition. Funded by the Utah State Office of Education, Services for At-Risk Students for two years: 2000-2001. $15,200.

Jill Morgan, Betty Ashbaker

Super-Vision: A model for training teachers as supervisors of paraeducators.

This project has 5 major goals: 1) to conduct final field-testing of training materials (developed at USU) for teachers and paraeducators and produce a finished version of the participant's manual; 2) to develop and field-test an accompanying trainer's manual; 3) to provide training to teachers and paraeducators using the materials; 4) to provide orientation training for administrators in the issues surrounding employment, training and supervision of paraeducators; and 5) to collect extensive data through field-tests, with associated analysis and dissemination of results. Funded by the Office of Special Education Programs, U.S. Department of Education, for three years: July 1998-July 2001. $500,000 cumulative.

Robert L. Morgan

Project IMPACT*NET: Implementing a national model of distance education to increase classroom skills of paraeducators and their supervising teachers.

This three-year project will develop and implement a national model for live, internet-based distance education of paraeducators and teachers who supervise paraeducators. Project goals are to (a) adapt existing paraeducator and teacher supervision training curricula to the internet-based system; (b) implement, evaluate, and refine the distance delivery of curricula to multiple sites across the U.S. with the assistance of local site coordinators; (c) implement the national model for distance training and establish mechanisms for maintaining and expanding it; (d) disseminate information regarding the model to State and Local Education Agencies, school districts, community colleges, State Improvement Grants, and university teacher training programs to ensure ongoing training. The outcome will be to produce and promulgate a model for standardized, field-tested, nationally available training to enhance instructional skills of paraeducators, title I aides, and the supervision skills of teachers. Funded by the Office of Special Education Programs, U.S. Department of Education: January 2001-December 2003. $800,710.

Development of a multi-media paraprofessional training curriculum for the Oklahoma State Department of Education.

This one-year project is designed to develop a print and video curriculum for training paraprofessionals working in special and general education classrooms in Oklahoma's 547 school districts. The project, guided by a task force of educators in Oklahoma and project staff at Utah State University, will include nine modules of instruction on history and legislation, roles and responsibilities, professional behavior and ethics, IEP participation, disability awareness, communication and problem solving, IEP progress monitoring, safe and healthy learning environments, and behavior strategies. Funded by the Oklahoma State Department of Education: March 1, 2001-February 28, 2002. $98,800.

Kathleen Robins, Andrea McDonnell, Sarah Rule, Judith Holt, Cynthia Rowland

Utah Multi-University Consortium: Statewide preparation of early childhood specialists and K-12 teachers in vision and hearing impairments.

This project supports students who wish to obtain endorsements to teach students with vision impairments who are ages birth through 21 years. Courses are offered on campus and through distance education. Grant #H325A000073 awarded to University of Utah, subcontract to Utah State University (Kathleen Robins PI; Sarah Rule subcontract PI). U.S. Department of Special Education Programs, U.S. Department of Education, funded for five years: 2000-2005. First year funding for subcontract is federal $128,970, USU $20,041.

Kathleen Robins, Andrea McDonnell, Sarah Rule, Barbara J. Fiechtl, Cynthia Rowland and Cathy Nelson

Utah Multi-University Consortium: Statewide Preparation of Early Childhood Specialists in Vision and Hearing.

This project provides financial support for students who wish to obtain a sensory endorsement (vision or hearing) to add to their teaching certificate in early childhood special education. The project also provides for multi-university coordination, recruitment, advisement, and course delivery. It is offered both on-campus and through distance education. Grant #H029A70074 awarded to the University of Utah with a subcontract to Utah State University. Funded by the Office of Special Education, Office of Special Education and Rehabilitative Services, U.S. Department of Education for four years: 1997-2001. Amount of USU subcontract is $130,155 annually.

Cynthia Rowland

Collaborative Early Childhood Special Education Program.

This project delivers a rural teacher-certification program in early childhood special education to students who wish to teach young children (birth-to-five) with disabilities in the state of Utah. The project supports recruitment, advisement, course delivery, technology enhancements to the program, site visitation, and evaluation. Funded by the Utah State Office of Education, SARS. Continuous funding since 1994. Funding for fiscal year 2000, $135,000.

Accessibility to learning environments: Learning anytime, anywhere, for anyone.

Web Accessibility In Mind (WebAIM) is administered through a grant provided by the Learning Anywhere Anytime Program fund for the Improvement of Postsecondary Education. The goal of WebAIM is to improve the national picture of accessibility to web-based educational opportunities for individuals with disabilities. WebAIM utilizes the strength of national partnerships to accomplish the goal of the project. Those partners are: TLT Group of the American Association of Higher Education, Western Governors University, and BlackBoard Inc. Given the enormous problems in web site accessibility, WebAIM will help in the following ways: 1) Disseminate materials that raise awareness and assist postsecondary institutions to identify and solve web accessibility problems; 2) Create a systematic model for training and technical assistance to support the development of accessible web sites; 3) Refine a web authoring tool (BlackBoard) to support web accessibility at post-secondary institutions; 4) Develop a model for institutional coordination and reform to support web accessibility. Submitted to the U.S. Department of Education, FIPSE, for four years: Sept. 1999-Aug. 2003. $1,728,654.

Website Accessibility: A consumer-driven model of reform.

This project is developing, given valuable consumer input, a systematic and comprehensive model of website accessibility. Once developed, training for webmasters will begin throughout the state. Submitted to the Center for Persons with Disabilities Discretionary Development Fund. Funding since 1999. Funding for fiscal year 2000. $8,874.

The development of a curriculum template for applied problem-solving in distance education learning communities.

This project will develop and evaluate a curriculum template that can be used for applied problem-solving across many disciplines in postsecondary education. The template will allow faculty to import text, graphic, and video/audio files. It is a web-based curriculum that allows for high levels of student interaction with each other and with their instructor. A CD-ROM will carry the video elements so that high quality motion video can be used. It is anticipated that once video-compression techniques improve, all aspects of this curriculum template can be served out over the internet. Funded by the U.S. Department of Education, FIPSE, for three years: 1998-2001. $367,406.

Sarah Rule

SPIES Outreach: Curriculum and internet support for use of naturalistic intervention strategies with young children.

This project supports dissemination of a curriculum, Strategies for Preschool Intervention in Everyday Settings (SPIES). The curriculum uses motion video to show how adults can interact with children during routine events at home, in preschools, and in the community to help them develop skills. The project currently works with some 15 sites throughout the nation, providing supports via the internet to those who use SPIES in preservice or inservice education. Funded by the Office of Special Education and Rehabilitative Services. Grant #H324R990009. Funded by the U.S. Department of Education, Office of Special Education Programs, for three years: July 1, 1999-June 30, 2002. Cumulative federal funding to date: $293,838.

Sarah Rule, Barbara Fiechtl

A collaborative program to prepare early intervention and early childhood special education personnel.

This project supports students who obtain Utah's certificate to teach children with disabilities aged 0-5. It includes courses and supervised field experiences taught on campus and through distance education. Co-instruction of a course by instructors from different disciplines is used to teach learning skills to students from different disciplines. Grant #H029G70225. U.S. Department of Education. Funded January 1, 1998-December 31, 2001. Cumulative funding to date $328,938.

Charles Salzberg, Tim Slocum

A Leadership Program to Prepare Teacher Educators in Special Education.

This training grant will support five doctoral students who will focus on distance education, special education teacher preparation. Funded by the U.S. Department of Education, OSEP Leadership Competition, for four years: 2000-2004. $185,632/yr (Federal).

Charles Salzberg, Diane Hardman and Sarah Rule

Development, Evaluation, and Dissemination of a Faculty Teaching Assistant and Administrator Training Program to Assist Students with Disabilities in Higher Education.

This project will develop, evaluate, and disseminate a multimedia program to provide training and support for faculty, teaching assistants and administrators in order to improve the quality of university education for students with disabilities. Funded by the U.S. Department of Education, Post-secondary Education, for three years: 1999-2002. $274,400/yr (Federal).

Julie Smart, Garth M. Eldredge

A Distance Education Program to Address the CSPD (Comprehensive System of Personnel Development) for State-Federal Rehabilitation Agencies.

This $2.5 million grant, funded by Rehabilitation Services Administration (RSA), will provide support for 50 master's students for each of five years. This masters program is fully accredited and is a combination of distance coursework and on campus summer courses. Scholarships for tuition and fees are available to practicing counselors in state/federal vocational rehabilitation (after they have satisfied all the entrance requirements of the USU School of graduate Studies.) Distance courses are taught synchronously with on-campus courses. This grant will allow the master's Rehabilitation Counseling program to build upon previous successes. To date, 67 distance students, from 23 states and 3 Canadian provinces, have graduated and all 67 have passed a national licensing exam on first attempt. Funded by the Office of Special Education and Rehabilitation (OSER), Rehabilitation Services Administration (RSA), U. S. Department of Education, for five years: Sept. 1999-Aug. 2004. $500,000/year.