A National Assessment of Staff Development Needs Related to the Education of Students with Disabilities

Focus on Exceptional Children, Apr 2003 by Meyen, Edward L, Ramp, Eugene, Harrod, Cheryl A, Bui, Yvonne N

Validation Process

The validation process allowed all participants across the focus groups to respond to an instrument containing all topics generated via the focus group process. The specific steps of the process are outlined below.

1. The Academy team analyzed the combined results of the focus groups and eliminated redundancies.

2. An instrument containing nine subsets and 113 topics was developed. A subset was defined as topics related to a theme or similar in terms of the training implied. No topic was assigned to more than one subset. The number of topics per subset ranged from four to 22.

3. The instrument was posted on the project web site, and all responses were collected online. Respondents were notified of the URL, provided directions on the task that they were being asked to perform-that is, to prioritize each topic by placing it into one of four categories (see Table 1, at the end of this article)-and given a timeline for responding.

4. The data were analyzed by ranking the topics according to the categories in which the respondents placed them. Topics then were judged to be of national, state, and local significance.

5. Results of the phone survey and the literature review were analyzed to determine the relationship between the topics identified through those processes and the focus groups. They then were crosschecked against the results of the categorizing process that was carried out online. For purposes of selecting the five topics to be developed into online staff development modules, these data were recorded, along with the instrument categorizing results.

6. Anticipating that a substantial number of topics might be classified as being of national significance and warranting being addressed through a national effort, a set of decision rules for selecting topics for module development was developed by the Academy team in conjunction with the advisory board. These decision rules were used as a criteria for selecting the topics for module development from among those judged to be of most importance nationally. The selection criteria were decided during an advisory board meeting.

In decision rules employed by the board, the topics must:

1. Be research-based or highly validated.(This was consistent with the mission of the Online Academy.)

2. Entail content and instructional goals that can be incorporated effectively within the Academy module design. The Academy module design had been validated already. Thus, incorporation was important, to capitalize on the investment already made in the technology and to expedite the development process within the designated timeline.

3. Require content and activities to effectively cover the information and skills central to the topic within the limitations of a three- or four-lesson module (about 12 clock hours of instruction).

4. Accommodate a range of needs that transcend grade level and disability groups, and that relate to the requirements of IDEA.

5. Have been proposed as a need area from several input sources rather than a single source.