Monday, September 17, 2018
The new Research to Practice Grant - Inclusive Communities Project supported through the Special Education Team is a new and exciting discretionary grant that is an outgrowth of the successful completion of the State Personnel Development Grant (SPDG). DPI has taken the most successful elements of the SPDG and allocated discretionary funds to continue the work!
The Research to Practice Grant - Inclusive Communities Project :
- Is part of a statewide system of supports for continuous improvement .
- Will provide intensive supports (training and coaching) for LEAs to implement research-based practices with fidelity.
- Will support LEAs to establish professional learning communities (PLCs) that will enable the development of inclusive learning communities (ILC) to help increase the knowledge, skills and habits of each and every student.
- Will facilitate the collection and analysis of their implementation data, with the intention to utilize project data to scale up promising practices across the state of Wisconsin.
A word from a former grantee: "We have many grants in our district. And I can tell you the SPDG was the most structured and definitely the most difficult to implement but we saw the biggest impact with this grant."
In year one (2018-2019) the grant is supporting a project coach in every CESA across the state! DPI is funding this newly identified coach in order to specifically build their capacity to coach teams around system transformation, inclusive education, and professional learning communities in preparation for providing direct coaching supports to LEAs supported through the project in subsequent years. Additionally, CESAs will have the opportunity to utilize this expert coach and provide coaching services for any district in their region.
From instructional to transformational coaching and everything in between, the Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction is committed to providing consistent resources and support to regions, districts and schools to assist the successful implementation. This grant is just the beginning! For more information about what the departments is saying about coaching, visit the DPI Coaching webpage.