Enhancing Professional Development for Educators: Adapting Project ECHO From Health Care to Education

Canyon Hardesty; Eric J. Moody; Shira Kern; Wendy Warren; Mary Jo Cooley Hidecker; Susan Wagner; Sanjeev Arora; Sandra Root-Elledge

doi:10.1177/8756870520960448

Enhancing Professional Development for Educators: Adapting Project ECHO From Health Care to Education

Canyon Hardesty
, Eric J. Moody
, Shira Kern
, Wendy Warren
, Mary Jo Cooley Hidecker
, Susan Wagner
, Sanjeev Arora
, Sandra Root-Elledge

Communication Sciences and Disorders

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

20 Scopus citations

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	https://doi.org/10.1177/8756870520960448
State	Published - Mar 2020

Bibliographical note

Publisher Copyright:
© Hammill Institute on Disabilities 2020.

Funding

The author(s) disclosed receipt of the following financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article: This work was supported, in part, through the AT ACT State Grants for Assistive Technology (grant no. 1901WYATSG-00); University Centers for Excellence in Developmental Disabilities Education, Research, and Service Core, Health Resources and Services Administration (grant no. 90DDUC0011-01-00).

Funders	Funder number
AT ACT State Grants for Assistive Technology	1901WYATSG-00
Service Core
University Centers for Excellence in Developmental Disabilities Education
Health Resources and Services Administration	90DDUC0011-01-00

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

Access to Document

10.1177/8756870520960448

Cite this

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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{\texttrademark} 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.",

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AU - Moody, Eric J.

AU - Kern, Shira

AU - Warren, Wendy

AU - Cooley Hidecker, Mary Jo

AU - Wagner, Susan

AU - Arora, Sanjeev

AU - Root-Elledge, Sandra

N1 - Publisher Copyright: © Hammill Institute on Disabilities 2020.

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N2 - 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.

AB - 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.

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Enhancing Professional Development for Educators: Adapting Project ECHO From Health Care to Education

Abstract

Bibliographical note

Funding

Keywords

ASJC Scopus subject areas

Access to Document

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