Project Description


NH RESPONDS
A Professional Development Project of the New Hampshire Department of Education to Bring High Quality Practices in Literacy, Behavior, and Secondary Transition Services

PURPOSE
To reform and improve pre-service personnel preparation and in-service professional development systems to improve knowledge and skills of general and special education teachers, early intervention personnel, related services personnel, paraprofessionals and administrators in designing, delivering and evaluating scientifically-based practices in two areas:

  • Response to Intervention (RtI) systems of
    • Positive behavioral interventions and supports (PBIS), and
    • Literacy instruction; and
  • Tertiary transition supports for students with emotional/behavioral disorders at middle and high schools

FUNDING
NH RESPONDS is a 5-year $3.85 million State Personnel Development Grant awarded to the state of New Hampshire’s Department of Education from the U.S. Department of Education, Office of Special Education Programs. Primary partners in the initiative are the NH Department of Education, NH CEBIS, the UNH Institute on Disability, the Parent Information Center, the Family Resource Connection, along with several institutions of higher education.

GOALS

  • Provide relevant and meaningful professional development activities in Response to Intervention approaches to literacy and behavior
  • Promote recruitment and retention of highly qualified teachers with experience in RtI
  • Improve quality of education personnel
  • Reform special education and regular education teacher certification, recertification, and licensing requirements
  • Assist LEAs to serve children with disabilities through development and use of intensive professional development programs

PRIMARY PROJECT ACTIVITIES

  • NH RESPONDS Demonstration sites: Five Supervisory Administrative Units (SAUs) will be chosen as demonstration partners (beginning July 2008) and will work with project staff for 4 years. There will be 3 schools within each of the 5 SAUs that will serve as demonstration site schools, including an Early Childhood Education program and 2 other K-12 grade level schools. The demonstration sites will help develop, with the project staff, frameworks, features, and training curricula and tools for an integrated RtI system for literacy and behavior support.
  • Statewide trainings in 3-tiered behavior systems, literacy support and secondary transition services for youth with emotional and behavioral challenges.
  • Reform and revision of state standards and curricula for certification of educators, and reform of curricula within several of the state college and university education programs.
  • Two High Schools receive support around the development of RTI for behavioral support. They include Somersworth High School and Kennett High School in Conway.

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Project Partners

  • The New Hampshire Department of Education, Bureau of Special education, is the project’s Lead Agency. The Project Director is Robert Wells, Ph.D., and the Project Coordinator is Amy Jenks. The NH DOE assumes oversight and management of all project goals and objectives, takes the lead in working with the state’s personnel preparation programs and oversight boards, and manages the work of the project’s partners.

www.ed.state.nh.us/education

  • The Institute on Disability at the University (IOD) of New Hampshire has primary responsibility for developing and providing training and technical assistance to the schools in the 5 SAUs in the 3-tiered model of RtI for literacy. In addition, the IOD staff that have implemented the APEX II dropout prevention project will provide technical assistance and training in 3-tiered behavior support to demonstration high schools, and secondary transition training.

iod.unh.edu

  • The New Hampshire Center for Effective Behavioral Interventions and Supports at SERESC: NH CEBIS is the lead entity to provide training and technical assistance to demonstration site schools in the 3-tierd behavior support model, Positive Behavioral Interventions and Supports (PBIS) and will take the lead in providing leadership development to participating schools and SAUs:

www.nhcebis.seresc.net

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Project Staff & Contacts

JoAnne Malloy
Project Director
UNH/Institute on Disability
Phone: (603) 228-2084
Email: jmmalloy@aol.com

Leigh E. Rohde
Project Literacy Coordinator
UNH/Institute on Disability
Phone: (603) 862-0791
Email: leigh.rohde@unh.edu

Maria Agorastou
Research Associate
UNH/Institute on Disability
Phone: (603) 862-0318
Email: maria.agorastou@unh.edu

Michael McSheehan
RtI Systems Change Facilitator
UNH/Institute on Disability
Phone: 603.862.2144
Email: michael.mcsheehan@unh.edu

Eileen B. Leavitt, M.Ed.
Literacy Consultant
UNH/Institute on Disability
Phone: 603.539.7779
Email: eileen.leavitt@unh.edu

Jonathan Drake
UNH/Institute on Disability
Phone: (603) 978-0075
Email: jonathon.drake@unh.edu

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Resources and Links

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