A federally funded, $1.9 million special education program to improve the quality of education received by Pennsylvania's special needs students over five years is now under way at the University Park campus.
The program, Opening Access to the General Curriculum, is part of a State Improvement Grant administered through the Pennsylvania Department of Education's Bureau of Special Education. Its goal is to train 1,000 teachers and teacher educators to increase the achievement of special needs students -- in line with a major trend toward serving as many special education students as possible in general education classrooms.
The funding enables two programs to be provided free of charge to 1,000 Pennsylvania teachers and education faculty. The content is based on the results of an extensive study of the areas of training needed by education professionals across the Commonwealth. The first program is a set of two institutes focusing on specific aspects of making access to general education classrooms easier and more productive for special education students. Each of the two, weeklong institutes will be offered to 100 people every summer through 2003.
The institutes, an outreach program of the College of Education and the state Department of Education's Bureau of Special Education, are free of charge to teachers and teacher educators and include most expenses.
The second part of the Penn State program is the development of a separate Web site that will provide access to special education courses and other information for general and special education teachers, paraprofessionals and administrators. The site is intended to be activated in the year 2000.
For more information on the institutes, call (800) PSU-TODAY or check the Web at http://www.outreach.psu.edu/C&I/OpeningAccess/.