SIG Helps Schools Nationwide Improve Education for Students

This spring, ICI's Systems Improvement Group (SIG) is marking its one-year anniversary of helping K-12 school systems nationwide improve educational services they deliver to students with disabilities and those at risk. SIG helps clients in three designated areas: Systems Improvement Through Capacity Building, Improvement Through Data Analytics, and Decision-Making Through Evaluation. SIG staff such as Arlene Russell Bender listen carefully to what clients need, and provide customized services for them. Among SIG's consulting highlights this year have been:

• Assisting a school district in Minnesota to evaluate its Indian Education Program.
• Helping a Midwestern state education system examine post-school outcomes for students with disabilities.
• Conducting project evaluations for a Northeastern state, expanding its capacity to provide professional development on Response to Intervention (RTI) to school personnel and parents statewide, supporting implementation of RTI in grades Pre-K-8.

"Since its inception a year ago, SIG has provided an ideal platform in which we can utilize our professional skills and abilities to support system improvement efforts," says Mike Sharpe, co-principal investigator. "We look forward to providing our services to local and state education agencies and the students they serve."