A state director of special education is planning a summit on autism and related issues, and wants to incorporate the latest research findings as well as information from other states that have autism initiatives.
Parents of a child with a severe behavior disorder are looking for a specialized school in their area.
A local education agency is planning to produce a manual for their school districts. They’re looking for guidance documents on using foreign language translators in a special education setting.
The questions range from afterschool programs to transportation, but the answers may all come from one comprehensive source: the information specialists of the Regional Resource and Federal Center Network, who find, organize, and disseminate information on issues related to special education. Whether performing a customized search or polling their peers, the information specialists draw on a national network of technological and personal connections. It is the personal touch that makes their services more than just another information resource. With the amount of available information related to special education mushrooming to nearly immeasurable proportions, they provide the right information from the right source at the right time in the right format.
Impacting Real Schools
Shauna Crane of the Mountain Plains Regional Resource Center (RRC) in Logan, Utah gives an example of an information request that she addressed, and how her work made an impact at the local level. “In November of 2002, I received a request from a local district in Arizona. They had a remodeling project going on in their school and the classroom sizes were being changed to smaller ones for students with disabilities. The Local Education Agency (LEA) representative asked me for information on how to make the accommodations equitable. I researched the question and provided the legal citations on accessibility. The LEA in turn shared this information with the administration, resulting in a change in the remodeling plans. The classrooms are now being built in the appropriate size.”
Such information retrieval and dissemination is one of a number of technical assistance strategies employed by the Regional Resource Centers. Information specialists in each Center use an array of methods to help states get the information they need to serve students with disabilities. These methods may include responding to individual information requests, creating web-based information modules, creating and disseminating documents, and providing direct technical assistance to states, which helps increase their own information capacity. They also provide some assistance to local school districts and children and youth with disabilities and their families.
What the Network Does
The RRC Information Network’s primary goal is to increase the depth and utility of high quality information provided to administrators, policymakers, educators, and parents. These core services are provided free to states with federal funding of the RRCs through the Individuals with Disabilities Act (IDEA). “IDEA authorizes formula grants to states, and discretionary grants to institutions of higher education and other nonprofit organizations to support research, demonstrations, technical assistance and dissemination, technology and personnel development and parent-training and information centers. These programs are intended to ensure that the rights of infants, toddlers, children, and youth with disabilities and their parents are protected.” (http://www.ed.gov/offices/OSERS/OSEP/About/aboutusmission.html)
Being individually funded and managed, the Regional Resource Centers are autonomous, but still work closely to meet the needs of their client states. By networking and pooling resources, the RRCs provide the most impact for the least cost. The Federal Resource Center web site (http://www.dssc.org/frc/) offers a directory of all the RRCs and other technical assistance projects funded by the Office of Special Education and Rehabilitative Services.
Tools and Strategies
The staff of each Regional Resource Center includes one or more information specialists who maintain information-rich websites and respond to information requests from states. Building a library of materials including books, periodicals, manuals, and electronic media to support this work is another aspect of meeting state needs. “The topics covered by information requests are so varied,” says Emily Thompson of the Southeast RRC in Montgomery, Alabama, “that we need to have access to a wide variety of electronic and paper materials, as well as contacts with state and national specialists.” To manage this large amount of information, they have developed a number of tools and strategies for gathering and organizing information that make for a cost effective and streamlined system. Some of them include:
- The System for Technical Assistance Resources (STAR) database contains all completed information requests, and is searchable by keywords and descriptors, as well as by date. If, for example, a state wanted information about what other states are doing to include students with disabilities in large-scale assessments, the information specialist could check the database to determine if a similar request had been recently completed in another region.
Recently a teacher in North Carolina requested research on separate classroom settings for general education and special education students; specifically, data that shows it is not always the best place for a child with a disability. Judy Johns, an information specialist at Mid-South RRC located in Lexington, Kentucky, searched the STAR database to see how this issue has been researched in the past, then presented the information to those involved in the placement decision-making process for a particular child. As a result of having this right information at the right time, the child remained in general education and was not placed in a separate classroom.
- A standardized thesaurus of special education descriptors has been organized into a database with an Internet-based interface. Descriptors listed in the thesaurus can be used to search library collections housed in any of the RRCs, and to help define the search when one RRC requests assistance from the rest of the network. It was developed using standardized language common to special education, and is updated regularly with new terminology. “Our thesaurus workgroup continuously reviews new terms,” says Cathleen Palmer of the Northeast RRC in Williston, Vermont. “Out of that work, we decide whether or not to include each new word, as well as what usage of the term will be recommended.” The thesaurus uses standard thesaurus structure (broader, narrower, related to, use for, and use) to enable even the least experienced user to obtain the most accurate terms for searching.
- A standardized protocol for information requests guides specialists in asking the right questions, as well as managing multiple requests. The protocol has two purposes. The first is to help shape the reference interview and the second is to help shape the request before sending it to the network. “Sometimes people ask questions that aren’t very specific,” says Cybèle Elaine Werts from Northeast RRC. “We learn how to ask questions about the request so that we can focus it into an organized response.” Daphne Worsham, of the Western RRC in Eugene, Oregon, continues, "This reference interview, often several fairly lengthy conversations, frequently reveals the need to research topical areas or resources that the requestor wasn't originally aware were connected."
- Ongoing self-evaluation and focus on cost effective strategies to disseminate information. The network of information specialists conducts ongoing evaluation both of individual centers and the network as a whole, lead by the participation workgroup. For example, the participation workgroup recently developed materials showing the relationship of the amount of hours spent on information services related to how those hours are allocated to different projects.
- Presentation Materials including the PowerPoint presentation “Information Services in the Regional Resource and Federal Centers Network,” brochures and bookmarks, provide easy to access information on RRC services to state policymakers and other requestors. Promoting this type of technical assistance to state leaders, enabling easy access and the understanding of all the types of information work the network can do, is an important part of the service to states. New state staff members frequently aren't aware of the services provided, and are very grateful when they discover they don't have to do all the research themselves!
Another important tool the information specialists use is The National State Policy Database (NSPD), developed collaboratively by Project FORUM at the National Association of State Directors of Special Education (NASDSE) and Great Lakes Area RRC, with contributions from the other five RRCs. It provides detailed information on special education policy for most states. “Now that we have a website with the special education regulations of almost every state,” says Susan Colchin of the Great Lakes RRC in Columbus, Ohio, “we can easily see how different states deal with policy issues.”
One of the key aspects of the information specialist network is that information specialists can refer requests from their states to the entire network via an electronic mailing list operated by one of the Centers. Requests posted to this list usually result in receiving in return responses from several RRCs with information they have gathered from their states. Quite often a state will contact its RRC because they are developing a policy and want to see how other states have dealt with a particular issue. For this kind of request, the information specialists rely less on materials already available, and more on their contacts in each state. “We have to stay way ahead of the curve to keep up with the needs of our states,” says Camilla Bayliss from the Western RRC, “and that’s always a challenge in a climate of rapidly changing policy.”
Teresa Blythe from Mid-South RRC, adds that they have received a total of 35 requests from states in their region for copies of other state disability definitions or specific eligibility criteria for various disability categories. She’s used the NSPD database to conduct searches for these materials and provided the results to each state, including a link to the database. “One state told me that they appreciated having all the special education regulations for all the states in one place,” Blythe adds.
Daphne Worsham of Western RRC explains, "Resources like the National State Policies Database enable us to gather greater quantities of information, and greater detail, in much less time than if responding to every request meant starting from scratch with calls to state offices. We can assure our clients they are receiving accurate information, a representational sampling of what other states are doing, and we can format or summarize the information in ways that will be most useful to the client state. Recently the we compiled and indexed nearly 20 substantive documents in CD-ROM format for Oregon's Legislative Task Force. These resources, samples of legislation, research and best practices, enabled the task force to ‘hit the ground running’ in examining the state's policies and legislation regarding special education, and to make truly educated suggestions for reform. The electronic format enabled the documents to be portable and easily searched, and conserved paper, something which also supported the information specialist’s ‘right format’ philosophy.”
In an effort to further the "one-stop shopping" idea and make services more easily available to clients, most of the RRCs have posted "online request forms" on their web sites. These forms provide the entry point for a wide variety of web surfers, parents, graduate students, legislators, and others seeking information in the area of special education, disabilities, and education law.
On the Cutting Edge
Staying ahead of the curve also means continuously updating network procedures and developing new tools as the need arises. Currently, work is underway on a database holding profiles of each state. This tool will enable the RRCs to target states most likely to have the information needed when filling certain types of requests. Also in development is a website especially designed to train and support new information specialists. “Information services have been a strength of the network for many years,” says Ethel Bright, Director of the Federal Resource Center for Special Education located in Washington, DC. The RRC Network's external program evaluation (Kochar-Bryant, 2001), reviewed RRC services and structures as well as feedback from State Directors and key stakeholders. This evaluation concluded that “RRCs are contributing broadly and deeply to state systemic change efforts and States’ utilization of research-based information to reform practices.” (p 10)
From one Person to a Network of Information Specialists
Information Specialist Kathleen Richman of the Mountain Plains RRC is in a unique position to speak to many different stakeholders in the special education spectrum. As a parent of a child with Down Syndrome, a former special educator and now as an information specialist, her perspective helps her in working with people needing information, whether they be parents or special education directors. “We continue to go through a number of problems with the education system,” says Richman. “These problems can be very challenging, but they give me a good perspective for looking at the system.” For a while Richman home-schooled her daughter part time to "give her the extra help that she needed in academics.” She adds that, “Our daughter has always had an incredible ability to learn, and when she is provided with the resources that she needs to learn, she excels. Now that our daughter has returned to regular schools full time, and I’m working as an information specialist, I can see how the work that I do affects her education, and her life. Seeing that kind of impact is not always so easy to measure in today’s educational system, so it’s great to know I’m making a difference.”
In a specialized area like special education, one might assume that most information specialists would, like Kathleen, have a degree in special education. In fact the current RRFC team includes over 60 years of varied education and experience. Staff members hold degrees varying from biology education, child development, and library/information science, to educational psychology, family studies, and educational technology. While special education is clearly the bedrock of the system, it is the research skills, communication abilities, and technical expertise of diverse individuals that makes the network such a powerful tool for information management.
Unlike researchers just a decade ago who were dependent on a library and a few geographically limited personal contacts for information, contemporary information specialists are far more dependent on the technology of databases and websites, electronic mailing lists and email connections in ferreting out the answers to requests. These varied backgrounds also lead to strong personnel connections with other projects in the larger Office of Special Education's technical assistance network, with university research projects, and with specific disability advocacy groups. Annual meetings, monthly teleconferences, serving on special project task groups, and conferring on difficult requests all strengthen the communication system and the richness of resources that information specialists, and their states, rely on.
