2025

From Learning to Action: Building Teacher Capacity Through Peer Coaching

Drawing on lessons learned from implementing a peer coaching model at an Ohio elementary school, participants will learn how peer coaching can build teacher capacity and support teachers’ implementation of evidence-based practices. Practical strategies and tools for implementing peer coaching to help educators move from learning to action will be provided and discussed.

Presenter:

Dr. Teri Marx joined SPDG personnel to discuss evaluating mathematics initiatives and strengthening collaboration between general and special education.

She shared practical strategies for using progress monitoring, data-based individualization, and student case studies to examine implementation and student growth. Participants also explored ways to support collaboration through shared professional learning, coaching, existing school teams, and gradual transfer of responsibility to school-based staff.

To help prepare you for the OSEP Conference, we have put together the SPDG-specific events, as they now stand on the agenda (attached here; subject to change). Please note that a general agenda is available on the OSEP Conference website, but it does not include specifics yet.

This SPDG Directors Webinar features presentations on two timely topics for SPDG projects: using artificial intelligence to strengthen dissemination and data visualization, and building local education agency (LEA) capacity to use IDEA Part B data for continuous improvement.

Lisa Dieker will demonstrate practical applications of AI for dissemination and data visualization, highlighting ways SPDG teams can communicate project outcomes more effectively to different audiences.

This SPDG Directors Webinar featured presentations from Indiana and Oklahoma SPDG teams focused on dissemination, critical perspectives, MTSS implementation, and systems feedback loops.

Lucy Fischman (Indiana SPDG) presented Dissemination Workbook and Engaging Critical Perspectives: A Comparative Analysis, exploring the complementary purposes and uses of the EIR Dissemination Workbook and the SISEP Engaging Critical Perspectives Tool.

Topics Covered

• Encumbered/committed funds are excluded from carryover calculations; carryover = remaining G5 balance minus encumbered funds.
• G5 is the authoritative source for actual expenditures; state accounting reports may differ but discrepancies must be resolved.
• Continuation funding decisions are based on encumbered amounts plus drawdown activity — large unexplained balances trigger scrutiny.

Key Concepts Clarified

This Directors Webinar featured two presentations focused on strengthening implementation and outcomes through professional learning and family engagement.

This is a two-part session. First, the Minnesota SPDG team (Tom Delaney) and Dominic Good Buffalo (PACER Center) will continue our spring series focused on family engagement and SPDG–parent center partnerships. Together, they will share how they are working across state and family partner roles to strengthen collaboration, support implementation, and advance shared goals. This session will build on the March conversation by highlighting another example of how SPDGs and parent centers can work together.

During this first session, Dr. Jennifer Coffey laid the groundwork for the community by framing GrantWISE as a space for fiscal and programmatic excellence in discretionary grants. She highlighted the purpose of the group, upcoming meeting dates, and several core topics we’ll return to over time — including procurement, internal controls, subrecipient monitoring, cash management, budgeting resources, and APR-related budget explanations.