Schools, communities and families are caring for more young children with significant mental health needs than ever before. A stronger commitment to early intervention, a greater emphasis on home-based and community-based services and advances in medical treatment are driving this increased capacity.
As a result, school leaders and agencies confront demands that are many and immediate. The challenges require leaders to recognize and address the complexity of children’s needs, utilize integrated and seamless interagency approaches and realize the powerful potential of partnerships among families, schools and communities. To succeed, they must be equipped to provide interdisciplinary leadership with their staff and among their colleagues to improve outcomes for children.
Equip Yourself to Address Current
Challenges
Critical Issues in Urban Special Education is an intensive leadership development program that helps participants meet the needs of high-risk, multiple-problem young children and their families.
The institute focuses on identifying and exploring systemic approaches to improving academic and behavioral outcomes for young students with serious emotional/behavioral disabilities in early childhood, kindergarten and early elementary programs. Emphasis is given to school-based and interagency strategies for prevention, intervention, instruction and support based on collaboration among families, educators and community agencies.
Over the course of the week you will define the vision, guiding principles and action steps needed to develop effective relationships, structures and processes across disciplines and organizations. Working closely with faculty, practitioners and facilitators you will develop the frameworks to successfully meet the multiple challenges at the policy, management and direct service levels.
Learning Objectives
Become a Collaborative Leader in Your Community
Critical Issues in Urban Special Education provides school leaders with the understanding and strategies to make a significant difference in the educational and social-emotional-behavioral outcomes for young children in your community and school district. The institute enables you to:
Examine current research and practice
- Understand the effects of poverty and trauma on the learning and development of young children
- Analyze the factors that can contribute to successful interventions and supports
- Clarify the implications for policy, management, and direct service
Lead your colleagues across organizational and disciplinary boundaries
- Develop a community-wide vision
- Collaborate with organizational partners to describe the needs of children, as well as the opportunities and challenges to meeting those needs
- Distribute organizational responsibility and resources more effectively in integrated and coordinated approaches
- Coordinate organizational efforts to identify and secure additional resources
Improve services for children through more effective program design, implementation and supervision
- Develop approaches based on actionable evidence from research and contemporary best practice
- Adopt guiding principles for services that are strength-oriented, family and community-based
- Re-conceptualize programs and services in terms of a continuum of programs and an array of services
Foster increased and improved collaboration among schools, families, and community agencies
- Establish structures and processes for integrated, child-focused problem solving and planning
- Engage families and community members as real and active partners with schools and early childhood programs
Who Should Attend
The institute is designed for leadership personnel committed to the education and social development of young children—public school superintendents, assistant superintendents, principals, assistant principals and directors of special education, student services and early childhood programs.
Head Start directors and administrators of pre-school programs, community-based mental health agencies, and other related community organizations will also find the program of value.
Curriculum Overview
Critical Issues in Urban Special Education addresses the leadership imperatives across disciplines that emphasize the complexity of the needs and the necessity to bring families, schools, and communities together for children.
The curriculum is designed to highlight our current knowledge base from research and practice, and the implications for policy, management, and direct services. Through a variety of teaching methods—large group presentation, small group consultancies and guided individual analysis and planning—you will gain an expanded understanding of the theories, research and policies that support effective leadership in this most critical of arenas.
Upon completion of the program, you will have defined your vision and be prepared to collaborate with colleagues in your community in planning for improvement.
Format and Schedule
The program begins on the morning of Monday, July 13, and ends at noon on Friday, July 17. A full schedule of sessions is held each day, including large-group presentation/ discussions with faculty and practitioner-leaders and small consultancy/problem solving groups led by experienced facilitators.
Since full-time participation and preparation are required throughout the institute, participants are expected to free themselves of all work obligations during the program. The program is held at the Harvard Graduate School of Education.
Faculty
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Thomas Hehir, Institute Co-Chair, Professor of Practice in Education, Director, School Leadership Program, Harvard Graduate School of Education. |
Hehir is the former director of the U.S. Department of Education's Office of Special Education Programs. As director, he was responsible for federal leadership in implementing the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA). He also served as Associate Superintendent for Special Education and Pupil Support Services in Chicago and Director of Special Education in Boston. |
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David Riley, Institute Co-Chair, Executive Director, Urban Special Education Leadership Collaborative, Education Development Center (EDC), Newton, MA. Riley also serves in leadership positions on several federally-funded initiatives, including the National Dropout Prevention Center for Students with Disabilities. |
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John Verre, Institute Co-Chair, Director, Compass Consulting, Boston, MA. Compass, a non-profit organization, provides technical assistance to public schools on programs and services for special populations of students—students with disabilities, students of color, English language learners, and students placed at risk of failure. |
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Carl Bell, President and Chief Executive Officer, Community Mental Health Council and Foundation, Inc. Additionally, Bell is the Director of Public and Community Psychiatry and a Clinical Professor of Psychiatry and Public Health at the University of Illinios. |
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Frank Fecser, Chief Executive Officer, Positive Education Program (PEP), Cleveland, Ohio. Fescer is co-founder of the Life Space Crisis Intervention Institute and co-producer of the LSCI video series and the text, Life Space Crisis Intervention: Talking with Students in Conflict. |
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Eric Gordan, Chief Academic Officer, Cleveland Metropolitan School District. Gordon is currently implementing a district-wide strategy to improve student achievement and close achievement gaps. With a strong emphasis on strategic intervention in the early years, the plan to improve student outcomes focuses on leadership and instruction, support to all students, and engagement of parents and the broader school community. |
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Stephanie Jones, Assistant Professor of Education, Harvard Graduate School of Education. Jones is a Principal Investigator of a multi-year evaluation of the 4Rs Program—a universal school-based intervention designed to integrate social-emotional learning and literacy development. |
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Karen Mapp, Lecturer on Education, Director, Education Policy and Management Program, Harvard Graduate School of Education. Mapp’s research and practice expertise is in the areas of educational leadership and educational partnerships among schools, families and community members that support the educational development of children. |
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David Osher, Vice President, American Institutes for Research. Osher is also the Principal Investigator for several regional and national organizations including; The Center for Effective Collaboration and Practice and the Technical Assistance Center for the Education of Children and Youth Who Are Neglected, Delinquent, or At Risk. |
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Mark Weist, Professor, Department of Psychiatry, University of Maryland School of Medicine. Weist is director of the Center for School Mental Health, a policy and analysis center, and the School Mental Health Program, which provides assessment, treatment and risk prevention services to youth in 25 elementary, middle and high schools in Baltimore. |
General Information
Registration and Program Fee
The program fee of $1795 includes tuition, resource binder of all educational materials, daily refreshment breaks, opening reception, certificate of participation, and letter confirming clock hours of instruction. Registration is accepted on a first-come, first-served basis.
Payment or a purchase order must be received within 30 days of registration. Participants are responsible for their own travel expenses.
Group Registrations
You will be asked to identify your group name during registration. In order to help us best serve your group, please try to use the same identifier as your teammates, e.g. “Cambridge High School Group,” or “Essex County Group,” or “John Harvard’s Cambridge Team.”
Please note that we are unable to offer group discounts.
We ask that changes to group participant lists take place at least two weeks prior to the start date of the program. If individual or team replacements are made within 14 days of the program start date, PPE may not be able to incorporate these changes into some or all of the program materials. We will make our best effort to incorporate requested changes where possible.
Cancellation Policy
Cancellations must be submitted via fax or email. Full refunds will be given up to 30 days prior to the start of the program. Due to program demand and pre-institute preparations, cancellations received 29–14 days prior to the start of the program are subject to a fee of 10% of the program tuition. Cancellations received within 13 days prior to the start of the program and no-shows are subject to the full program tuition. Please note: Cancellation fees are based upon the date the written request is received.
Accommodation Options
Hotel accommodations are made available to participants
at a reduced rate. Travel and hotel accommodations are the responsibility of the individual participant.
Currier House Dormitory
This Harvard dormitory is a 15 minute walk from class. Each participant is assigned a single room, and
shares a bathroom. While housing facilities are comfortable, they are also
quite spartan. Linens are provided. The cost for room
and breakfast is $115 per night.
Sheraton Commander Hotel
$175/ plus tax
Reservations:888-627-7121
Deadline: June 24, 2009
Reference:HGSE, Critical Issues in Urban Special Education
www.sheraton.com/commander
Harvard Square Hotel
$175/ plus tax
Reservations:800-458-5886
Deadline: June 24, 2009
Reference:HGSE, Critical Issues in Urban Special Education
Further Information
800-545-1849 • ppe@gse.harvard.edu
The Harvard Graduate School of Education reserves the right to change faculty or cancel the program at its discretion. In the unlikely case of the program changes, the school is not responsible for non-refundable travel arrangements or other planning costs incurred.
Cancellations must be made in writing.
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