2021- Present
1.25 million
Project Director: Mary Lynn Boscardin, Ph.D.
Project Co-Director: John Hintze, Ph.D.
The mission of NextGen is to develop highly qualified and effective special education administrators whose leadership in nurturing accountability and mobilizing organizational change supports the provisions for highly qualified and effective personnel and for the successful learning of all students incorporated in NCLD 2001 and the IDEA 2004.
The significance of this NextGen administration of special education grant lies in the training of highly qualified and effective future administrators and leaders and future IHE faculty who will be able to communicate and apply :
• knowledge traditions employing transformative leadership practices that support all-encompassing, evidence-based instruction that leads to augmented student learning outcomes.
• the importance of using data for evaluating the effectiveness of special education programs and personnel.
• building strong partnerships between special education administrators and families.
• methodological and statistical considerations in conducting a guided program of research investigating how transformative leadership practices influence the effectiveness of instructional practices and student learning outcomes.
• the importance of field-based experiences involving local (LEA), intermediate (IEA), state (SEA), and federal education agency (FEA) intensive collaborative practice partners (CPs).
Special education administrators are in positions of influence to ensure students are appropriately referred for special education and that every student with a disability receives individualized services and supports from highly qualified and effective teachers (American Federation for Teachers, 2012; Crockett, Billingsley, & Boscardin, 2012). According to Leithwood, Louis, Anderson, and Wahlstrom (2004) administrative leadership is second only to classroom instruction as a variable that contributes to what students learn at school.
State and local agencies need leadership personnel prepared at the graduate level to fill special education and early intervention administrator positions. These administrators supervise and evaluate the implementation of evidence-based instructional programs to make sure State or local agencies are meeting the needs of children with special needs. Administrators also ensure schools and programs meet Federal, State, and local requirements for special education, early intervention, and related services (Lashley & Boscardin, 2003).
