Arkansas State Improvement Grant > SIG Goals

The primary focus of Arkansas’ State Improvement Grant is to increase students’ academic performance and success in reading and to increase their interpersonal, problem solving, and conflict resolution skills. While we are specifically targeting students with disabilities, we also hope to increase all students’ skills in these areas so that fewer students will need special education support. In addition to this primary focus, we want to help all schools to create and maintain positive and safe school climates, and to coordinate and integrate appropriate mental health services—from within and outside of the school—for those students in need of these supports. Finally, we want to increase the number of skilled special education teachers across the state by supporting our existing teacher training programs, by encouraging skilled paraprofessionals to “move up the job ladder” to get their Bachelor’s degrees and special education licenses, and by attracting already-certified special education professionals to Arkansas from other states.

More specifically, our State Improvement Grant has three very important goals:

Goal 1: Through the use of trained teachers and the implementation of research-based information regarding the teaching of early literacy (reading and language skills), students with disabilities grades K-12 will make reading and other literacy gains.
Goal 2: The social, emotional, and behavioral needs of students with disabilities will be met through the mplementation of school- based prevention programs and school-based mental health services.
Goal 3: The number of fully qualified teachers serving students with disabilities who a re implementing research-based classroom strategies will increase through aggressive recruitment strategies, support provided to novice special education teachers with initial licensure in the Arkansas performance based licensure system, and mentoring support for beginning teachers to retain them and assist them in reaching full licensure.

Background and Activities for Goal 1:

Research has clearly shown the importance that early language and literacy plays in the later achievement of children (Dickinson & Smith, 1994; Fey, Catts, & Larrivee, 1995; VanKleek, Gillam, & McFadden, 1998; Wilcox, 1999). In their book, Starting Out Right, Burns, Griffin, and Snow (1999) highlight early literacy research and the work of the National Research Council’s Committee on the Prevention of Reading Difficulties in Young Children. Some of the key contributors to language and literacy skill development for preschool/K-3 grade children are: extended vocabulary and language development; phonological awareness and speech discrimination; knowledge of narrative, book, and print awareness; knowledge of the functions and concepts of print and letters; early word recognition; and comprehension.

Burns, Griffin, and Snow (1999) emphasized that reading is a complex and multifaceted process and that children need a learning approach that integrates many elements. Children who are first learning to read need help in learning, understanding, and using the spelling-sound conventions of the writing system, as well as opportunities to appreciate the information offered by print. They need to learn more about the vocabulary and sentence structure of written English, help with procedures for monitoring comprehension, and sufficient practice with a variety of texts to achieve fluency, so that both word recognition and reading comprehension become increasingly fast, accurate, and well coordinated.

Goal 1 of the SIG will be accomplished by adapting Arkansas’ Smart Start (Grades K through 4) Smart Step (Grades 5 through 8), and Next Step (High School) literacy training programs for use with students with disabilities. The adaptation of the Next Step program, which is still in development, will also include transition activities designed to help increase the regular diploma graduation rates for students with disabilities. These exceptional reading and literacy programs will be systematically implemented over the 5-year period of the State Improvement Grant in three schools within each of three districts in Arkansas’ five regions. The total impact of this initiative will include at least 45 schools in 15 school districts across our state. While intensively focusing on our students’ progress in literacy, we are similarly committed to narrowing the achievement gaps between general and special education students and for students with disabilities.

Arkansas Smart Start

Arkansas Smart Step

In addition to these activities, a Parent Mentoring Program also will be implemented by the Arkansas Parent Training and Information Center (PTI) who will use parent mentors to guide parents across the state so that they can work successfully on our participating schools’ Literacy Teams, and so that they can bring the SIG’s literacy activities to the parents of children who have needs in the reading and literacy areas.

Arkansas PTI

Expected Outcomes for Goal 1:

Increased numbers of teachers of students with disabilities implementing research-based literacy strategies/instruction.
Increased academic achievement of students impacted by Smart Start, Smart Step, and Next Step.
Increased parental understanding and involvement in literacy training of their child.
Increased scientifically-based strategies within the content of higher education training programs.
Increased numbers of students with disabilities graduating with regular diplomas having passed the end of level tests, thereby increasing their access to postsecondary education.

Background and Activities for Goal 2:

Goodman and Schaughency (2001) reported that by late elementary school, behavior and learning disorders are associated with negative school, work, and community outcomes. Individuals with behavior problems often have difficulties during their school careers, and learning disabilities frequently co-exist with emotional and behavior problems (Coleman & Vaughn, 2000). While the connection between academic and social behavior clearly exists, sometimes it is difficult to determine whether a student’s academic difficulties resulted in behavioral problems, or whether his or her behavioral difficulties resulted in academic underachievement or failure. Regardless, students with behavior problems have fewer opportunities to experience school success and fewer positive instructional interactions with their teachers. Consequently, they receive less exposure to academic content, and, as a result, many of these students do not finish high school or pursue post secondary education. In fact, research shows that more than 50% of students with emotional and behavioral disorders drop out (Chesapeake Institute, 1993). After age and parent income level, the best predictor that students will drop out is a lack of competency with basic skills, including math and reading (Goodman & Schaughency, 2001)

Goal 2 of the SIG will focus on the development and implementation of positive behavioral support systems in select schools across the state of Arkansas, and to develop and implement integrated community-based and school-based mental health models and services in other schools. Positive behavioral support systems have been shown to increase (a) schools’ positive climates, (b) staffs’ ability to successfully maintain and teach more students in regular classroom settings, and (c) students’ academic engagement and social and academic success. Integrated community- and school-based mental health systems have been shown to increase the effectiveness and efficiency of mental health services for students who need them, and to increase the levels of behavioral and therapeutic success for these students and their families.

For the SIG, Project ACHIEVE will be used to accomplish the positive behavioral support system part of Goal 2. An already-existing state network of schools that are collaborating with mental health service providers in their communities will be used and expanded for the latter part of Goal 2.

Department's School-based Mental Health Initiative and State Network

As background, Project ACHIEVE is an innovative, evidence-based school improvement, effectiveness, and reform program that has been designated a National Model Prevention Program through the U. S. Department of Health and Human Services (Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration—SAMHSA) and the U. S. Department of Justice (Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention—OJJDP). It was also awarded the 2003 SAMHSA Administrator’s Award for School-Based Mental Health Programs. Significantly, Project ACHIEVE has been implemented in schools and school districts across the country since 1990. To date, one or more of its components have been presented to almost 1,500 schools in almost every state—with the schools ranging from urban to suburban to rural, and from the lowest performing to the highest performing schools in the nation.

Project ACHIEVE’s ultimate goal is to help design and implement effective school and schooling processes to maximize the academic and social/emotional/behavioral progress and achievement of all students. Project ACHIEVE has also helped schools to implement effective and efficient problem-solving and strategic intervention processes for students with academic and behavioral difficulties, while improving the staff’s professional development and effective instructional interactions, and increasing the quality of parent (and community) involvement and engagement. In all, Project ACHIEVE helps schools, communities, and families to develop, strengthen, reinforce, and solidify children and adolescents’ resilience, protective, and effective self-management skills such that they are more able to resist unhealthy and maladaptive behavior patterns.

Relative to Arkansas’ State Improvement Grant, Project ACHIEVE’s school-wide positive behavior support and school safety, and functional behavioral assessment to intervention components will be implemented in at least 45 schools across the state by the end of our five-year initiative. After that, based on the experiences of these 45 schools, Arkansas’ Department of Education’s Special Education Unit will develop and implement a plan for the broader implementation of Project ACHIEVE throughout the State. To support this initiative, a cadre of behavior consultants, psychologists, and university partners will provide Project ACHIEVE training for the participating schools—serving as coaches and providing ongoing training and technical assistance.

In addition to Project ACHIEVE activities, Arkansas’ Department of Education’s Special Education Unit and the Department of Mental Health will implement pilot school-based or school-linked mental health programs in at least 5 counties for students with severe behavior/emotional problems. Participating in this part of Goal 2 will be staff from the Department of Psychiatry, University of Arkansas Medical Sciences.

Finally, a Parent Mentoring Program also will be implemented by the Arkansas Parent Training and Information Center (PTI) who will use parent mentors to work with parents across the state so that they bring the SIG’s social skills and positive discipline approaches to the parents of children who have needs in the behavioral and mental health areas.

Arkansas PTI

Expected Outcomes for Goal 2:

Reduction in discipline referrals for students with disabilities.
Reduction in unilateral student removals and suspensions.
Increased academic achievement by students with disabilities.
Increased skills by school personnel to provide positive behavior supports.
Increased skills by school and mental health personnel to provide school-based mental health services.
Establish an infrastructure within schools to support and sustain positive behavior support and school-based or school-linked mental health activities.
Increased involvement of parents.

Background and Activities for Goal 3:

Arkansas faces a particular challenge in producing an adequate number of fully licensed special education teachers because of a declining preservice enrollment in special education and an increase in the number of fully licensed teachers retiring. Nonetheless, placing a high-quality teacher in every classroom is one of the most important things a school can do to improve student achievement. Indeed, several research studies reinforce the connection between the quality of teaching and student achievement (Darling-Hammond, 2000; Darling-Hammond, 1999; Darling-Hammond, 1997; Lewis et al., 1999). In order to achieve a balance between the supply and the demand for qualified special education personnel and, especially, to increase the numbers of fully qualified teachers serving students with disabilities, aggressive recruitment, training/retraining, and retention activities will occur during the five years of our State Improvement Grant. Stipends and other support will be offered for qualified special education teachers willing to re-locate to Arkansas. The Arkansas Mentoring Program, which currently is generic and not tailored to novice special education teachers, will be significantly modified and provided for special education teachers in their first two years of teaching. Finally, financial and other support will be provided to paraprofessionals and new special education teachers so that they can become fully licensed within three years.

Expected Outcomes for Goal 3:

Sufficient numbers of fully licensed special education teachers to fill local district vacancies.
Reductions in hiring under-licensed personnel (i.e., with emergency licenses).
Increased retention rates of special education teachers.
Increases in enrollment in special education within Arkansas’ university programs.