Abstract
Adequately prepared educators are critical to the success of children in rural settings, but many educators receive little training on how to support students with disabilities. Professional development for educators is challenging in rural areas due to the lack of opportunities and travel requirements. Project ECHO™ was originally developed to overcome similar challenges facing physicians. The ECHO Model overcomes these challenges by creating a hub and spoke network that connects local providers with experts. These networks meet regularly over teleconferencing technology to conduct a short professional development workshop, followed by a case-study from one of the local sites. We adapted the ECHO Model for use in education and since 2014 implemented four networks: autism, assistive technology, secondary transitions, and behavioral supports. Educators found ECHO highly acceptable and reported improved skills and knowledge. ECHO for Education is effective and has the potential to improve capacity of education systems in rural settings.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Pages (from-to) | 42-52 |
| Number of pages | 11 |
| Journal | Rural Special Education Quarterly |
| Volume | 40 |
| Issue number | 1 |
| DOIs | |
| State | Published - Mar 2020 |
Bibliographical note
Publisher Copyright:© Hammill Institute on Disabilities 2020.
Keywords
- communities of practice
- extension for community health care outcomes (ECHO) model
- model of teacher change
- professional learning and development
- rural special education
ASJC Scopus subject areas
- Education
- Development