Vanguard Project: Leadership Training in Positive Behavior Support and Literacy
Funded by The Office of Special Education Programs, U.S. Department of Education

This project prepares leadership personnel who will have the literacy and positive behavior support expertise needed to advance the field of special education. In recent years, the conditions for teaching and learning in schools have changed dramatically in general and special education. Fewer resources, greater social problems, increasing school violence, demands for increased academic outcomes, new school accountability legislation, priority to adopt and sustain use of evidence-based practices, and growing teacher shortages have forced educators to consider dramatic changes in how schools look and how children and youth are educated. National reports (e.g., Surgeon General's Report on Youth Violence, 2001), recent legislation (e.g., No Child Left Behind, IDEA 1997, Safe Schools Act), and federal support for school improvement (e.g., State Improvement Grant competition) represent significant opportunities to respond proactively to these challenges. In the midst of sweeping school reform efforts and initiatives, new questions have emerged:

• Who will provide the visionary leadership to prepare and support school, district, and state leaders to lead the implementation and sustainability of these efforts and initiatives?
• Who will prepare general and special educators, school psychologists, and related support staff who actually will implement these initiatives in classrooms and with students?
• Who will evaluate and synthesize the research, generate the ideas, conceptualize the research designs, and conduct the research that provides the empirical database for specifying important features of these initiatives and efforts?
• Who will lead, direct, and prepare education for its next investments and directions?

These questions relate to the need for leaders who have the vision, ideation, leadership capacity, and specialized competence to operationalize these initiatives in teacher training institutions where preservice personnel are prepared, in administrative and decision-making positions where policy is developed and enforced, and in research institutes where new knowledge is generated and translated into practice. Thus, the purpose of this project is to develop a new and specialized doctoral level training program that specifically addresses national and regional priorities for programmatic improvement of teaching training, research, and program administration in the areas of literacy and positive behavior support. This project is titled Project Vanguard because leadership personnel will be prepared to be at "the forefront of an action or movement" (Webster's 9th New Collegiate Dictionary, 1984, p. 1303). This new project may be characterized as a highly "customized" training experience that will be integrated into and extend the current doctoral training programs in the College of Education at the University of Oregon.

Leadership personnel in Project Vanguard will experience a unique preparation experience in that five development areas are emphasized: (a) scientifically-based practices and research, (b) integration of research and practice, (c) knowledge and implementation fluency with effective personnel preparation and service delivery approaches, (d) effective dissemination of empirically supported research and practices through practical and scholarly mechanisms and strategies, and (e) appreciation and knowledge of the features, active ingredients, models and systems that define effective, efficient, and relevant "host environments" known as schools.

Project Vanguard is defined by four main objectives:

1. Recruit, admit, and retain highly qualified candidates, especially, with an emphasis on individuals from underrepresented populations including individuals with disabilities;
2. Provide an intensive (i.e., vertical oriented content that is deep) and extensive (i.e., horizontal oriented experiences that are diverse but focused) leadership preparation program that allows students to focus on individualized professional development in research, teaching, and service;
3. Increase the ecological validity of the professional development model by linking higher education experiences with state and local educational agencies;
4. Integrate the theoretical, empirical, and methodological knowledge base related to leadership preparation, literacy, and positive behavior support.

Federal support from this project provides stipend and tuition assistance to doctoral level students who otherwise would be unable to engage in advanced studies in literacy and positive behavior supports as they relate to current school reform efforts and initiatives. More than 70% of direct costs will be committed to direct student support, especially for full-time enrollment for three to four years. Six students per academic year (12 students overall) will be supported over the four year duration of this grant. Emphasis will be placed on actively and directly identifying, recruiting, and retaining highly qualified individuals from underrepresented groups, especially individuals with minority status or who have disabilities.