NASP Home > NASP Advocacy > 2007 PPI
A Final Review of the 2007
NASP/GWU/IEL Public Policy Institute
From July
15-20, 2007, over 100 school psychologists came to
Washington,
DC from 36 states and the
District of Columbia to participate in the 2007
NASP/GWU/IEL Public Policy Institute. This institute was co-sponsored by
George
Washington
University and the
Institute for Educational Leadership. The
George
Washington
University
Graduate
School
in Education and Human Development is one of the nation’s premiere graduate
schools training future leaders in educational public policy. The mission of
the Institute for Educational Leadership's (IEL) is
to improve education -- and the lives of children and their families -- through
positive and visionary change. As one of the nation’s most prominent educational
“think tanks”, IEL shares promising practices through print and professional
communications, and translates their own and others' research into suggestions
for improvement.
State
school psychology associations sponsoring PPI teams included: Alabama, Arizona,
California, Connecticut, Delaware, District of Columbia, Florida, Georgia,
Hawaii, Illinois, Indiana, Kansas, Kentucky, Massachusetts, Maryland, Missouri,
Montana, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, Ohio,
Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Utah,
Virginia, Washington, West Virginia, and Wisconsin. Additional participants came from
Kansas,
Oklahoma, and
Nebraska. School
psychology participants engaged in intense study and discussion alongside 30
George
Washington
University graduate
students taking the PPI for graduate credit.
Participating
school psychologists had the option of taking a “basic” (July 15-18) or a “comprehensive”
training (July 15-20). The “basic” training focused on building the foundations
of grassroots advocacy and a basic understanding of educational law. The “comprehensive”
training expanding participant knowledge by looking more in depth into how
policy is formed including participating in a culminating activity
that had both NASP and GWU participants work
together to solve a wicked problem of practice through designing a public
policy agenda and response.
An amazing
line up of national experts presented information and engaged in dialogues with
PPI participants. Here are a few of the national leaders that participated:
- Michael Usdan, Senior Fellow,
Institute for Educational Leadership
- Mary Futrell, Dean of
George
Washington
University,
Graduate
School
of Education and Human Development
- William
O’Hare, Senior Fellow, Annie E Casey Foundation
- Lynn Olson, Executive Project
Editor, Quality Counts/Education Week
- Kevin Dwyer, School
Psychologist Consultant, former NASP President and Associate for the
American Institutes for Research (AIR)
- David Egnor, Education Program
Specialist, Department of Education, Office of Special Education Programs
- Stephanie Robinson, Senior
Fellow, The Education Trust
- Susan Sclafani, Managing Director, Chartwell
Education Group (Former Counselor to U.S. Secretary of Ed, and Asst. Sec,
Office of Vocational and Adult Education)
- Joanne Cashman, Director, IDEA
Partnership, National Association of State Directors of Special Education
- Marc Tucker, The
National
Center on Education and the Economy
(NCEE)
- Marty Blank, Director,
Coalition for Community Schools, Institute for Educational Leadership
Access a
copy of the official agenda here.
Access a
copy of the speaker bios here.
Capitol Hill Day, July 18, 2007
On July 18,
2007 PPI participants traveled to the U.S. Capitol to engage in a day of hands
on advocacy. The day began in a beautiful and stately room in the Russell Senate
Building where participants enjoyed a continental breakfast, heard from state
leaders on issues relating to Medicaid reimbursements in schools, and got an
inside look of NCLB reauthorization issues from legislative staff from Senator
Enzi (R, WY), Senator Harkin (D, IA), and Representative Hoyer (D, MD) offices.
Thanks to educational staff Lindsay Hunsicker (Enzi), Jill Antonishak (Harkin),
and Ivana Alexander (Hoyer) for their participation in this event. NASP is also
grateful to Senator Hillary Clinton (D, NY) for sponsoring our room.
After the
morning session in the Russell building, state teams ventured into the halls of
Capitol Hill to meet their elected officials and/or legislative staff and
advocate for NASP’s public policy priorities. Over 80 different offices of
Senators and Congressmen were visited that day. NASP materials and resources
were presented and specific public policy priorities and issues were discussed.
Sample 2007 NASP/GWU/IEL
Presentations
Materials are accessible to current NASP members only. Please log in to see the links.
PPI
sessions included presentations from national experts, school psychology
leaders, GWU faculty, and NASP staff. A sampling of some of the presentations
led by NASP staff are included here:
Introduction to NASP
Advocacy. Presented by Stacy Skalski, NASP Director of Public Policy.
This
session kicked off the PPI and sought to provide an overview of NASP leadership
and staff, public policy initiatives and priorities, advocacy activities and
the key federal statutes that impact school psychologists.
Communication and
Advocacy Across Settings. Presented by Kathy Cowan, NASP Director of Communications
and Marketing; Stacy Skalski, NASP Director of Public Policy; and Fulvia
Franco, GPR Committee Member.
This
session examined the NASP key policy messages important to school psychologists
and helped participants learn how to develop these messages for advocacy use. Participants
also broke into small groups and worked on developing a message using the
attached activity sheet.
Access the activity sheet here<.
NASP Advocacy Tools. Presented by Stacy Skalski, NASP
Director of Public Policy
This
session provided an overview of the specific tools that NASP uses to track and
influence key legislation. Additionally, tools and resources available to
assist states in pursuing public policy initiatives were also reviewed.
School Psychologists
and the APA Model Licensing Act. Presented by Joan Bohmann, NASP Director of Professional
Standards and Jennifer Kitson, NASP Advocacy Program Manager.
This
session provided an overview of the APA Model Licensing Act and discussed how
proposed revisions to this act impact school psychologists. Suggestions for how
school psychologists could advocate to oppose these changes were discussed.
Crisis as an
Opportunity for Change. Presented by Stacy Skalski, NASP
Director of Public Policy and Jon Miles, President of Searchlight Consulting
and Former Fellow to Sen. Tom Harkin.
This
session kicked off the special theme addressed during the Comprehensive PPI.
This theme addressed how crises provide public policy opportunities and how policy
evolves from these events. This theme was explored from the standpoint of
systems changes at the legislative, organizational, administrative, and
practitioner levels.
Evaluation of the 2007 NASP/GWU/IEL
Public Policy Institute
Three
methods were selected for evaluating the PPI: 1) pre-post test knowledge
assessment; 2) PPI evaluation survey; and 3) state advocacy action planning
process.
Pre-Post Test
Knowledge Assessment. All NASP PPI participants were asked to complete a
pre-test prior to their participation. This pretest examined participant
knowledge of Congress, educational law and grassroots advocacy, as well as,
NASP advocacy leadership and priorities. Following the PPI, participants were
asked to complete a post test to see how the PPI had contributed to their
knowledge of law and advocacy. Thirty PPI participants completed both the
pre-test and post-test assessment. Twenty-eight participants demonstrated gains
in their overall knowledge of Congress, law, grassroots advocacy and NASP advocacy
leadership and programs. On average, PPI participants improved their score on
average by getting 5 more questions correct out of a possible 29 correct
responses.
Access a
copy of the pre/post test results here.
PPI Evaluation Survey. Additionally, participants were asked to evaluate all aspects of the PPI in
terms of the organization of the PPI, session and speaker quality, and overall
facilities. Generally, the results of this evaluation were overwhelmingly
positive with session ratings ranging from 3.2-5.0 (5=very helpful and
informative). The average rating of all sessions combined was 4.1, suggesting
that participants were generally very pleased with the quality of the presentations
and discussion sessions.
Access a
summary copy of the evaluation survey results here.
State Advocacy Action
Planning Process. In order to determine if state teams actually used the knowledge gained from
participation in the PPI, all states were asked to complete a State Advocacy
Action Plan. States were given time during the PPI to meet and discuss this
plan and each state is required to submit an action plan by September 1, 2007.
A mid-term assessment of the progress towards this plan will be due to NASP
staff and the GPR chair by February 1, 2008 and a final evaluation will be due
June 15, 2008. The final results of the state team planning will then be
compiled and shared with Delegate Assembly during the Summer DA conference in
July 2008.
Access a copy of the State Advocacy
Action Planning Guidelines here.
Access a
copy of the State Advocacy Goals Worksheet here.
2007 NASP/GWU/IEL Public Policy
Institute Photo Gallery
As with any
NASP event, staff, leaders and participants record their favorite moments from an
event in pictures to share. The following pictures are posted for your
enjoyment and to give you a sense of what PPI participants experienced first
hand.
Photo 1:
Welcome from NASP Executive Director, Susan Gorin. Photo Credit: Jeff Charvat
Photo 2:
Welcome from GWU Associate Dean, Bob Ianacone. Photo Credit: Jeff Charvat
Photo 3:
Welcome from IEL Senior Associate, Barbara McCloud. Photo Credit: Jeff Charvat
Photo 4:
Opening Session: Intro to NASP Advocacy by Stacy Skalski, Director of Public
Policy. Photo Credit: Jeff Charvat
Photo 5:
The Importance of Collaboration for Advocacy by NASP President, Rhonda
Armistead. Photo Credit: Jeff Charvat
Photo 6:
PPI Registration with Gorin, Armistead and Skalski. Photo Credit: Jeff Charvat
Photo 7: GWU
professor Carol Kochhar-Bryant shares reflections with the group. Photo Credit:
Jeff Charvat
Photo 8:
NASP PPI Graduate Student Interns: Alyssa, Erin, and Shira. Photo Credit: Jeff
Charvat
Photo 9:
PPI participants relaxing during a break. Photo Credit: Jeff Charvat
Photo 10:
Susan Gorin welcomes Kevin Dwyer to the PPI. Photo Credit: Jeff Charvat
Photo 11:
David
Egnor,
US
Department of Education, OSEP.
Photo Credit: Jeff Charvat
Photo 12:
Stephanie Robinson, Education Trust. Photo Credit: Jeff Charvat
Photo 13:
NASP Director of Research, Jeff Charvat and NASP Graduate Intern, Anna Peña.
Photo Credit: Jeff Charvat
Photo 14:
Advocacy program manager Jennifer Kitson explains the MLA to PPI participants.
Photo Credit: Jeff Charvat
Photo 15:
Joan Bohmann, NASP Director of Professional Standards, chimes in on the MLA.
Photo Credit: Jeff Charvat
Photo 16:
Candis Hogan, GPR member, discusses NCSP parity. Photo Credit: Jeff Charvat
Photo 17:
Nick Silvestri, GPR member, talks about NCSP parity in MD. Photo Credit: Jeff
Charvat
Photo 18:
GPR committee members lead the Grassroots Advocacy breakout session. Photo
Credit: Jeff Charvat
Photo 19:
Jackie
Buckley,
US
Department of Education, IES
discusses research and advocacy. Photo Credit: Jeff Charvat
Photo 20:
Kathy Cowan, Director of Communications, discusses crafting advocacy messages.
Photo Credit: Jeff Charvat
Photo 21:
Susan Sclafani, Chartwell Education Group. Photo Credit: Jeff Charvat
Photo 22: Joann
Cashmann, IDEA Partnership. Photo Credit: Jeff Charvat
Photo 23:
Gene Cash, NASP President Elect discusses Medicaid Reimbursement in schools
during Capitol Hill day. Photo Credit: Michael Johnson
Photo 24:
The Georgia Association of School Psychologists PPI team on Capitol Hill. Photo
Credit: Michael Johnson
Photo 25:
Ivana Alexander, Legislative Aide to Rep. Hoyer (MD) presents to PPI
participants. Photo Credit: Stacy Skalski
Photo 26:
PPI Participant Michael Johnson meets with Rep. Boyd (FL) and staff. Photo
Credit: Stacy Skalski
Photo 27:
Jon Miles, former aide to Sen. Harkin and President of Searchlight Consulting
offers a unique view of advocacy on Capitol Hill. Photo Credit: Michael Johnson
Photo 28:
Melissa Reeves, NASP CPI Chair, talks about the evolution of the PREPaRE
Curriculum. Photo Credit: Michael Johnson
Photo 29:
Comprehensive PPI participants listen to the perspectives of experts. Photo
Credit: Michael Johnson
Photo 30: Professional
organization leaders describe how crisis impacts organizational policy. Photo
Credit: Michael Johnson
Photo 31: School
administrators describe how crisis impacts systems policies and practices.
Photo Credit: Stacy Skalski
Photo 32:
Ginny Hall from GA participates in her group presentation during the
comprehensive training. Photo Credit: Michael Johnson
Photo 33:
Group 1 comprehensive PPI participants presents their answer to their “wicked
problem of practice”. Photo Credit: Michael Johnson