NEW YORK STATE

COMPREHENSIVE SYSTEM

OF

PERSONNEL DEVELOPMENT

(CSPD)

GUIDANCE DOCUMENT

Revised 3/2001

Introduction:

The Comprehensive System of Personnel Development (CSPD) is a state required personnel development planning tool which aims to insure that personnel and stakeholders [CFR300.382(j)] are adequately prepared to provide the supports needed for the education of students with disabilities [34 CFR 300.224], [8 NYCRR 200.2(b)(3)]. This plan is due annually to the New York State Education Department as a required component of the application to New York State for schools to receive flow-through funds. (Attachment 4.1 and 4.3 are related to the NYS Grant)

Effective personnel development will assure that students with disabilities will be able to access the general education curriculum and the educational, social and personal experiences afforded to all students. Further, the CSPD aims to ensure that personnel are prepared to assist students in their transition to their social, economic, political and personal responsibilities as adult contributing members of their communities.

Three primary student outcomes identified in federal and state goals are:

1. Students with Disabilities (SWD) will achieve high standards.
2. SWD will have access to the general education curriculum and the physical and social opportunities of the educational experience.
3. SWD will transition to integrated political, social, economic and personal responsibilities of adult life.

To the greatest extent possible, this document has been aligned with best practices in comprehensive planning (CDEP). Districts who choose to include the CSPD Plan in the Comprehensive District Education Plan (CDEP or other comprehensive plans) must address the following sections of the CSPD within that plan.

1. Signature Page
2. End of Year Evaluation
3. Personnel Development Quality Indicators (Matrix)
4. Data Summary Sheet
5. Assessment Narrative
6. Implementation Plan (The goals may be separate Special Education goals or included as activities within a General Education goal.)
   

Directions for completing the CSPD Plan:

• Fill in the plan range, indicating the number of years the plan you have developed will cover. The range of the plan should be from three to five years. Developing a long range planning approach allows for long term planning and trend analysis.

• Complete the box marked DISTRICT with the name of your Local Education Agency, school district, BOCES, etc. (For Buffalo, New York City, Rochester, Syracuse, or Yonkers indicate the name of the building rather than district name).

• Upon completion of the plan, provide superintendent’s signature on the line indicated.

• Indicate the name, phone number and email of the contact person.

• Indicate the names and identify positions of team members who developed the CSPD Plan. Team members should include representation from general and special education administrators and teachers, related service providers, other support personnel, parents, and students with a disabilities. You may also want to include personnel from Institutions of Higher Education and other local agencies.
  
• The CSPD must be reviewed and signed by the SETRC Training Specialist before the plan is sent to the State. The SETRC signature indicates that the plan includes the required components, and that that the plan is based on the integration/achievement data of students with disabilities. In addition, the signature indicates that the LEA has engaged in a process that has promoted the quality indicators named in the Personnel Development Quality Indicators Matrix.

• Please note that SETRC Training Specialists are available to facilitate the planning process.

Section I: END OF YEAR EVALUATION (previous year)

• Copy the Long Term Goal from the previous year’s CSPD plan. State the Annual Goal from this same section. Mark the Yes or No box to indicate whether the Annual Goal was met.

Objective 1, 2, 3

• For each Annual Goal, copy the Objectives from the previous year’s plan. In the Narrative section for each objective provide a summary of activities, list barriers and evidence of success. Also, complete the Emerging Needs and Issues, as well as Next Steps with respect to each objective. The needs assessment requirement to prepare this grant should incorporate a description of program evaluation procedures such as data analysis and root cause discussions. These procedures should generate identification of prioritized problem areas and the Next Steps necessary to support the design of specific staff development activities to address those concerns. These last two sections will be used in planning for the next year’s CSPD Plan.

• At the end of the three to five year plan, it will be necessary to evaluate the Long Term Goal. You may use additional sheets if necessary. The discussion must include the same information as above, namely the Narrative, Emerging Needs and Issues, and Next Steps with respect to each Long Term Goal.

Section II: PERSONNEL DEVELOPMENT QUALITY INDICATORS (MATRIX) SUMMARY

The Personnel Development Quality Indicators Matrix will provide the basis for the evaluation of your current practices in personnel development. You will use the Matrix Summary, on the next page, to describe/evaluate your current personnel development practices.

Success Indicator

• For each area listed, indicate your team’s rating (1-4, based on the Matrix descriptors) for your district or building’s current practice.

• Provide a description of evidence using your matrix for your rating and indicate planned steps for the improvement of personnel development practices.

• Examples for each area are:

Planning – Team membership, data analysis found in Assessment Narrative

Content – List of research used for decision; should also relate back to Assessment Narrative

Design – Evidence in Objectives & Activities found in Section V

Climate/Culture – Evidence in Superintendent signature and the list of stakeholders on the team

Implementation – Evidence in Objectives & Activities listed in Section V and Assessment Narrative

Evaluation – Evidence is in the data discussed in the Assessment Narrative and in the Data Summary Sheets

Section III: DATA SUMMARY (Attachment 4.3)

The Individuals with Disabilities Education Act requires districts to assess data regarding students with disabilities and their nondisabled peers while creating the district’s CSPD. As a result, you will note that the Data Summary section of this CSPD template contains the data areas that are most important to the NYS Education Department. Note that some areas of the data summary charts are shaded. These shaded areas are not applicable and do not require data entry. Each State Indicator has space to report up to three years of data for the purpose of examining trends.

• Indicates the VESID Key Performance Indicators, LEAP (Local Educational Assessment Program) information and other data areas that the State considers important

• Please note that there is room at the end of the data listed for a district to include any district specific data that they feel might be pertinent to this process

• Indicates, where applicable, the benchmark that has been set by either the state or federal government

• Indicates the sources where the data can be located. Please note that sometimes the data source does not list the requested data in percentage form. This will require districts to calculate the percentage of students and may require districts to refer to a local source to do the calculations correctly.

Actual # Students Taking test/# Eligible

• Indicates in a ratio format the raw data that has been used to determine the percentage. These columns will help provide a more accurate picture of districts that are reporting extremely small numbers in any of the State Indicator areas.
  
  1. For example: 43/67 (actual number students achieving 3 or above on the 4^th grade ELA as compared to the total number of students who were eligible to take the exam [this will account for those who were absent]). Divide 43 by 67 to get the percentage.
  2. 1/10 (The total number of SWDs graduating with a Regents diploma, Local diploma, IEP diploma, or GED as compared to total number of SWDs eligible to exit with a Regents diploma, Local diploma, IEP diploma, and GED). Divide 1 by 10 to get the percentage.

% Column

• Calculate the percentage of students by using the raw numbers from the Actual #/Eligible # column to calculate. In other cases the percentage is already reported in the relevant data source.

# Not Tested (General Education Data)

• Indicate the number of general education students who were eligible to take the exam but were not tested. Reasons may be due to absenteeism, illness, or other.

# SWDs Taking Alternate Assessment (Students with Disability Data)

• Indicate the number of students who are eligible to participate in the statewide Alternate Assessment.

Student Race/Ethnicity Origin

• Please note these tables are formatted differently than the other data charts. The information requested for students in general education is found on the District Comprehensive Report that compliments the District School Report Card. Whereas, the information requested for students with disabilities is summarized in the total columns of Section C towards the end of the VESID PD – 4 report.

• Below you will find the calculation key for some of the information that is requested for students with disabilities. These descriptions will indicate the formula that the State uses to do its calculations.

• Number of students with disabilities, divided by total enrollment, multiplied by 100

• Students with disabilities based on the December PD-1, Section A, Line 9

• Total enrollment based on the fall enrollment on the BEDS district summary report, including K-12 enrollment; "ungraded" elementary enrollment; "ungraded" secondary enrollment; students in equivalent attendance programs; students incarcerated in county jails; students enrolled in BOCES; students enrolled in approved private schools for students with disabilities; students enrolled in State operated and State supported schools; students enrolled in non-public schools by parent choice; and students home-schooled by parent choice

• Number of preschool students with disabilities provided special education services in programs with their non-disabled peers, divided by the total number of preschool students with disabilities provided special education services

• Preschool students with disabilities in integrated settings based on the December PD-4, Section B, Table 1, Column D, Lines 1, 3, and 5

• Total number of preschool students with disabilities provided special education services based on the December PD-4, Section B, Table 1, Column D, Lines 1-7

• December PD-4, Section C, Table 1, Line 1, ages 6-21 for all disability categories, divided by total number of students with disabilities, ages 6-21 in Tables 1 and 2 for all disability categories

• End of school year PD-5, Section A (ages 14-21), total of Lines 1-4 across all disabilities divided by total of Lines 1-6 and 8 across all disabilities, multiplied by 100

• End of school year PD-5, Section A (ages 14-21), total of Line 12 across all disabilities, divided by December PD-1, Section A, Line 10 (total number of students with disabilities ages 14-21), multiplied by 100

• Please note that general education building means regular school based programs

• PD-4, Section C, total of Table 1 across all disabilities divided by total of Table 2 across all disabilities, multiplied by 100

SECTION IV: ASSESSMENT NARRATIVE

In order to encourage continuity and consistency, the CSPD process was designed as a multi-year undertaking. Districts will use the plan to structure staff development for three to five years, revisiting the plan each year during the cycle and beginning a new cycle only when the current one is complete. A description follows for planning for the beginning of the cycle and for review years. (The information is presented in a more fully described narrative, and again in a chart.)

1. Summarize the District’s current status and needs

Personnel Development Quality Indicators (Matrix):

Using your evaluation of current personnel development planning practices represented in the Matrix:

• Identify district strengths and describe efforts to maintain and extend those strength areas
• Identify weaknesses and areas of need

2. Summarize the District’s current status and needs

Using the current Data Summary form (two to three years of data to allow for trend analysis):

• Identify district strengths and describe efforts to maintain and extend those strength areas
• Identify weaknesses and opportunities for growth
• Describe the team’s investigation of current research regarding Professional Development and/or the implementation of processes/strategies that might contribute to positive outcomes

3. Provide a list of priorities for personnel development based on long-term needs identified by the team. Note that effective identification of long term needs will require that you evaluate your current status and needs using an approach that gets at root causes. Your SETRC staff can assist you in identifying root cause analysis strategies, providing training in their use, and/or facilitating your CSPD team in using them.

4. Based on your long-term priorities list, develop two to three long-term student outcome based goals for staff development. These goals should be:

• Derived from the prioritized needs list
• Written in measurable terms related to student outcomes
• Tied directly to improvements in key performance indicators (data)
• Three to five years in duration

5. Describe how your CSPD team’s efforts aligned with or coordinated with the district’s education planning initiatives:

• Indicate whether the CSPD has been developed in alignment with or coordinated with a CDEP, PDP, or other comprehensive planning effort
• Indicate, when present, shared team membership with other district planning teams
• Describe parallel concerns identified by other district personnel development planning efforts

6. Describe how CSPD activities will be integrated with general education programmatic and professional development implementation initiatives.

7. Describe the strategies you will use to monitor the progress of the plan throughout the plan range, assuring implementation of plan components and providing formative evaluation of success. This should be a 'broad strokes' outline of the evaluation strategies you will use. A more specific description of evaluation strategies for activities should be provided in the appropriate section of the Annual Goals/Objectives pages.

8. Describe the steps you will take to communicate about the plan with your stakeholders, including goals and activities, ways of communicating about success or need for mid-course correction. Stakeholders include district staff (general and special educators and paraeducators, support staff and administrators), students, and parents. If you have involved higher education or agency personnel in planning, communication should be extended to them as well. Please note that the format you use to document your agreements with stakeholders is optional, we have included a copy of a CSPD Communication Agreement in the CSPD plan that you may choose to use.

II. Planning in Subsequent Years of a Plan Range Cycle:

Each subsequent year of a Plan Range will involve revisiting the Plan components to assure that the underlying assumptions remain stable. Unless there have been major changes, Long Term Goals will remain in place, with new Annual Goals and Objectives developed to continue the direction identified in the first year of the Plan Range Cycle. The Assessment Narrative in subsequent years of the Plan Range Cycle will be an update of each section.

1. Summarize district current status and needs:

Personnel Development Quality Indicators (Matrix):

• Review the previous year’s Matrix Summary and comments. Are there areas in which your planning process or implementation might be improved? Upon completion of the Matrix Summary for current status of personnel development in your district, discuss whether there has been positive movement in the rating. Discuss areas of concern.

2. Summarize district current status and needs:

Data Summary:

• Review the data table with the addition of last year’s data and the documentation of the End of the Year Evaluation. Do the data or qualitative issues discussed in the End of the Year Evaluation continue to support the strengths and needs identified in the initiating year of the Plan Range Cycle? Is there positive movement in the targetedareas? Are new, significant trends emerging?

3. Re-affirm long-term needs identified in the initiating year of the Plan Range Cycle. Only if you have identified significant emerging needs that exceed those identified in the initiating year should you consider changing a Long Term Goal.

4. If necessary, update your description of how your CSPD team’s efforts align with the district’s planning & implementation toward education initiatives.

5. Describe the efforts to align the CSPD with other district planning processes.

6. Describe how the activities of the CSPD will be integrated with general education programmatic and professional development initiatives.

7. Update your description of the strategies you will use to monitor the progress of the plan throughout the Plan Range, assuring implementation of the plan components and providing formative evaluation of success. (For example, you might schedule regular dates to review progress toward annual goals, update and review data as it becomes available, and/or design staff surveys to review plan implementation and progress made toward systems change perspectives.)

8. Using the CSPD Communication Agreement form, update your description of the steps you will take to communicate about the plan with your stakeholders, including goals and activities as well as success or the need for mid-course correction. (For example, you might present the plan to the Board of Education, the PTA, building level faculty meetings or other stakeholder meetings, or develop articles for the district newsletter.)

The eight primary topics to be addressed in this section are shown here in chart form.

SECTION V: IMPLEMENTATION PLAN

Please note that your plan should be reflective of the criteria in Level 4 of the Personnel Development Quality Indicators Matrix.

Long Term Goal

• Using the prioritized goals from the Assessment Narrative section, indicate a three to five year goal.
• Example of a Long Term Goal: 80% or more of all students with disabilities will graduate with a Regents diploma.

Annual Goal

• Provide the related Annual Goal for which the following Objectives were developed.
• Example of an Annual Goal: 65% of all students with disabilities will pass with a 55% or better the Math A Regents and local math final exams.

Objectives

• Identify what educators and/or paraeducators will learn or be able to do that will increase the achievement or integration of SWD. In each objective, be specific as to the target group; for example identify the grade level of staff, or groupings such as special or general education teachers, special area teachers, or paraeducators, who will be the recipients. Parents and other school staff should be informed of these strategies, and may be included as recipients of training. Any steps or activities that are necessary when undergoing systems change or process change but are not personnel development may be attached on additional sheets to this goal.
• Example of an Objective: All K-6 grade special and general education teachers and 7-12 grade special education and math teachers will implement a variety of strategies and methods for analysis and instruction, including the use of a holistic rubric for assessing students’ work as it relates to the 7 key math ideas.

Personnel Development Activities

• Identify the personnel development activities that have been proposed in relation to achieving the objective.
• Example of Personnel Development Activities: All targeted teachers will focus on math strategies and instruction during district Teachers’ Academy sessions twice a month after school and four times this school year on building early release days.

District Person Responsible

• Identify by name and position the district employee who will be responsible for ensuring that the personnel development activity(s) will occur.
• Example of District Person Responsible: John Doe, District Teacher Academy Coordinator; Jane Smith, Elementary Building Administrator; Rita Jones, High School Building Administrator; Edward Fox, Assistant Superintendent for Instruction.

Resources

• Indicate in general who will provide the personnel development and how it will be funded. This column should reflect the "High Success Indicators" (Level 4) from the Personnel Development Quality Indicators Matrix. Your SETRC will work with you to determine which of your proposed activities may be appropriate for SETRC involvement.
• Example of Resources: John Doe will supervise Teacher Academy sessions after school and all grade level turnkey trainers using district professional development funds. Collaborating with John Doe, Edward Fox will facilitate building conference days. SETRC assistance in leading small groups to analyze data and math instruction implications is anticipated.

Schedule of Implementation

• Indicate when each personnel development activity will be initiated and when it is expected to be completed.
• Example of Schedule of Implementation: Teacher’s Academy meetings second and fourth Tuesday of every month, September to May. Half day building meetings are November 16, January 2, March 16 and June 20.

Evaluation of Personnel Development Activities

• Indicate the multiple measures that will be used to determine the effectiveness of the personnel development activities. Emphasis should be given to measures of student outcome as well as personnel development activity participant evaluation.
• Example of Evaluation of Personnel Development Activities: Count of students with disabilities by grade K-12 participating in math and Regents courses and number of participating students passing with 55% or better. Count of participants attending Teacher’s Academy and number of hours of math staff development by grade level.