In this section:

• Programs
• Calendar of Events
• Disability / Advocacy
• Early Childhood
• Children and Youth
• Adults

Back to the homepage

Collaboration for Improved Student Outcomes

Overview

This project, Collaboration for Improved Student Outcomes (CISO) is supported by Virginia Department of Education and is designed to develop and implement a multi-year collaborative IEP training initiative and research project. The project will develop and pilot test an intervention designed to increase IEP teams' quality of collaboration and then to assess the effects of improved collaboration on: the IEP development process, the quality of the written IEP, fidelity of implementation of the IEP, student outcomes (including engagement and progress towards IEP goals and objectives), and team members' attitudes towards collaboration. The project operates from April, 2006 through September, 2008.

Major Activities

• Bring together a development team of parents and educators to provide guidance for the project.
• Revise and update the Partnership's Collaborative IEP curriculum.
• Identify participating school divisions (4) and school IEP teams (12), including elementary, middle and high schools.
• Work with participating school divisions and schools to collect pre-data and prepare for Collaborative IEP training.
• Provide Collaborative IEP training to IEP teams and those who will support the work of the IEP teams.
• Support IEP teams and collect data according to research questions and design.
• Analyze data, summarize results and formulate a research report.
• Make research report available to the Virginia Department of Education and participating school division.
• Disseminate findings and outline implications for next steps.

Contacts

Melanie Sterling, Co-Director, 804-827-0197, mrsterli@vcu.edu
Eileen Hammar Co-Director, 804-827-0202, eghammar@vcu.edu
Kathleen Lynch, Research Director, 804-828-9580, kblynch@vcu.edu