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State-Specific Assistance The LSS State-Specific Assistance component is designed
to provide information and assistance to the state departments of
education of Delaware, Maryland, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania, and the
School District of the District of Columbia. The activities of the
state-specific assistance program will be based on an ongoing process of
needs assessment and state reform plans of each of the states in the
region.
While the state-specific assistance plans vary in emphasis and scope
from state to state, the following areas have been identified as
priorities through a needs assessment survey of educators in the
mid-Atlantic region (conducted by ASCD and CRHDE in 1995): (a)
professional development of school staff; (b) active involvement of
parents in school activities; (c) school collaboration with health and
social agencies; (d) initiatives to enhance school climate, including
violence prevention and conflict resolution; (e) staff awareness of
current research findings; (f) tests and measurements for purposes of
instruction; (g) upgrading math curricula based on the new National
Council of Teachers of Mathematics standards; (h) interventions for
improving basic and advanced skills; (i) upgrading science curricula
based on the American Association for the Advancement of Science
benchmarks for science literacy; (j) program evaluation; (k) site-based
planning and management; and (l) inclusion of students with mild
disabilities in regular education classrooms. Some or all of these areas
are included in each of the initial state-specific assistance plans.
Assistance to the Institute of Education Sciences
(formerly Office of Educational Research and
Improvement OERI)
Providing assistance to
IES and its Priorities Board is
a key component of LSS's services to education stakeholders.
Specifically, LSS will provide information and assistance to IES's
efforts to support state and local initiatives that respond to the
current call for systemic educational reforms and attainment of the
National Education Goals. The work of LSS is expected to contribute to
the enhancement of a nationwide system of education information and
assistance, and the strengthening of the capabilities and expertise of
IES's Regional Educational Laboratories. LSS will implement this task
through a two-pronged approach: (a) by providing information and
assistance to the wide spectrum of education stakeholders in coordinated
and collaborative ways that significantly respond to IES's call to
provide strategies and tools that enable practitioners and
administrators to "put the pieces together"; and (b) by assuming
leadership in bringing what is known to work to scale to significantly
improve educational outcomes. Among the major activities in which LSS
will engage in its direct assistance to IES include: preparing research
syntheses, sponsoring conferences and meetings, convening expert panels,
conducting briefings, conducting interviews and summarizing results, and
participating in the design of national IES and ED initiatives.
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