Students with Autism Spectrum Disorders
June 1, 2010 |
An Evaluation of Program and Personnel Preparation Needs for Students with Autism Spectrum Disorders
by Maureen A. Conroy, Carol Schall, Joy Engstrom (June 2010)
The overall purpose of this project was to conduct a program evaluation of services provided to students with Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD) across all school divisions within the Metropolitan Educational Research Consortium (MERC). Two phases of the project occurred between the spring of 2007 and fall of 2009. During the first phase, the MERC Policy and Planning Council identified Autism Spectrum Disorders as an area to target for investigation. A MERC Autism Study Team was formed with representatives from all school divisions within the Metropolitan Educational Research Consortium (MERC). After several meetings, the Autism Study Team identified the need for the development and validation of a program evaluation tool that could be used to self-evaluate their current services for students with ASD, and identify personnel preparation needs related to the provision of those services. The activities related to the first phase were completed in the fall of 2008. In the spring of 2009, the second phase of the study began. During this phase the MERC Autism Study Team targeted the goal of conducting a self-evaluation within each school division using the program evaluation tool developed in the first phase. The intent of the second phase was for school divisions to identify program strengths and gaps with the purpose of targeting areas for program improvement and personnel preparation development. The outcomes of both phases were presented to the MERC Policy and Planning Council in February 2010.
