The activities of the State Improvement Grant (SIG) are resources for teacher preparation programs that will be helpful to faculty and students. The purpose of this section of the SIG website is to provide and update the most current information about issues in special education affecting universities. For a listing of special education preparation programs and faculty click here!

Click to to open flyer.

The Alabama Stategic Planning Task Force will meet on April 25, 2006, at AIDT in Montgomery. Please call Mr. Ray Glasscock for times and directions at 334 242 8114. You may contact Janice Hawkins for questions or additional information, jhawkins@alsde.edu.

The National Association of State Directors of Special Education, Inc. (NASDSE), have provided an outstanding Satellite Conference Series for 2005-2006. This series is being brought to Alabama's Institutions of Higher Education by the State Improvement Grant. IHE's can choose to serve as a down-link, receive the accompanying handouts, and/or check out the recorded program from the SIG.

This year's series includes:

1. "Getting the Most Out of Your Partnerships: Using Knowledge Management and Communities of Practice"
   ( This is now available to be checked out through the SIG).
2. "Reading Rockets Presents...", November 2, 2005
3. "Making Responsiveness to Intervention (RTI) Work in Schools", November 9, 2005
4. "The 2005 IDEA Regulations: What They Mean for Implementing the Nation's Education Law for Individuals with Disabilities", March 15, 2006
5. "Making the Grade: Effective High Schools For All Students", May 3, 2006

As you can see, the topics are timely and helpful to those of us in the education field. The Presenters are nationally known and very effective which makes for an interesting and informative conference series. If you have questions or wish to receive materials, contact Janice Hawkins at jhawkins@alsde.edu or call 1 800 392-8020.

The third meeting of the Secondary/Collaborative task force was held as part of the University Forum/CEC, on February 23rd in Birmingham. At this time it was announced that 12 IHE grants will be funded for the purpose of planning a collaborative program at each of these 12 universities. We will reconvene this Task Force in September to explore future funding and to share ideas and experiences.

The Task Force of 14 IHE's and SDE representatives met on November 28 and 29, 2005 to continue the very important work of developing a model for a secondary/collaborative teacher training. We began by hearing from our guest speaker, Dr. Linda Blanton, Florida International University, on the process of developing a secondary/collaborative program. Dr. Mabrey Whetstone addressed our current status and tasks for this meeting. Twelve models were submitted by our IHE's and notebooks were given to participants with the models as well as handouts from Dr. Blanton. Group work was the main task of our two day meeting with the goal of re-fining our models. Each participant left with the challenge to complete the "next step" within their university. Dr. Jayne Meyer discussed with the group the need for change for teacher testing at the 6-12 collaborative level. A plan was developed and is being implemented. Dr. Whetstone informed the group about the guidelines for applying for a mini SIG grant for planning a secondary/collaborative model. The RFP for this has been sent to IHE's and can be viewed on our SIG web site. Grants will be submitted by January 30, 2006 and awards announced at the CEC higher ed forum on February 23, 2006. Thanks to AUM and SERC for so generously hosting our meeting.

We had a very successful Task Force meeting on November 17, 2005. We began the well attended meeting with reports and updates from Ms. Debra Pierce, Teacher Recruitment and Placement; Dr. Ann Jones, Teacher Education; Dr. Jeff Grill, Athens State, Statistics Related to Teacher Recruitment. Dr. Phoebe Gillespie, NASDSE and Mr... Vincent Watkins, Watkins Group, reported on Teacher Recruitment and Diversity Recruitment efforts in Alabama and shared information about other States activities. This very helpful information launched us in our group work of continuing to develop a plan for Recruitment, Retention, and Placement for Alabama. Everyone left with an assignment to be completed before our next meeting, the date of which will be announced. Thanks to AUM and SERC for hosting our meeting.

A meeting on "Issues Surrounding Secondary Education and the Collaborative Teaching Model in Alabama" was sponsored by our Alabama State Improvement Grant and held on September 28-29, 2005 in Montgomery, Alabama. Experts in the field of education, including IHE Dean's, Department Chairs and Professors, participated in this meeting. The collective goal of the meeting was to: a) clarify how secondary special education will be delivered in Alabama, b) clarify the roles and expectations of special and general education teachers under the new NCLB policies, and c) collaborate with and support teacher-education programs in Alabama as they address these changes within their general education and/or special education programs.

The participants from 12 Alabama IHE's, along with representatives from the ALSDE, Dr. Mabrey Whetstone, Dr. Jayne Meyer and Dr. Catherine Moore, began formulating strategies and options for how to best address these issues. It was agreed that each IHE would prepare and submit to Dr. Whetstone, a model for a Secondary/Collaborative Teaching program for their institution.

STISETS is a web software program used by all teachers in the state of Alabama for tracking Special Education data for Child Count, generating reporting and completing state forms. For more information about STISETS please visit:

http://www.sti-k12.com/mainsets.asp

On August 11, 2005, SIG sponsored a STISETS Web workshop for IHE special education faculty. Lori Newton and Gail Comins from Special Education Services staff presented an overview of the STISETS Web program and its use by LEA teachers for IEP development.

Universities included faculty from: