No Child Left Behind (NCLB)/ School Improvement Planning Continuous school improvement is now, fundamentally, a federal mandate with the 2002 reauthorization of the federal Elementary and Secondary Education (the No Child Left Behind) Act. Guided by NCLB and state and local initiatives, every school and district in the country needs to establish paths and set goals in the following areas:
* Comprehensive and planned school improvement * Highly Qualified Teachers and effective classroom instruction * Scientifically-based or research-based school and schooling practices * Standards-based assessments and academic progress for all students (AYP) * Safe schools and effective classroom management * Academic interventions and ongoing “progress monitoring” assessments for elementary-aged students not passing benchmark skills in literacy * Professional development for all educators with documented accountability * Parent outreach and involvement
As a national school improvement project, Project ACHIEVE has worked with hundreds of schools and districts in a partnership to help them meet these NCLB mandates. More importantly, Project ACHIEVE has focused on the primary motivation behind school improvement: the academic and social/emotional/behavioral development, growth, and success of all students.
For Consultation Support in this Area-- Contact: Dr. Howard M. Knoff
Strategic planning, organizational change, school improvement policies, procedures, and strategies
Integrated “Building Committee” approaches to organization and personnel management
Professional development, peer consultation, and technical assistance procedures, strategies, and activities
Parent and community involvement, training, and support assessments, procedures, strategies, and activities
Clinical supervision and peer- or co-teaching strategies and procedures
Formative and summative Program Evaluation and Accountability procedures, strategies, and activities along with the creation of functional, interactive, real-time data-bases
Training of Trainers programs along with other systemic capacity-building and long-term institutionalization policies, stategies, and activities
Project ACHIEVE Experience in this Area:
Project ACHIEVE components have been implemented in over 1,500 schools or districts across the country--focusing especially on school improvement and NCLB processes. Project ACHIEVE is a major anchor to Arkansas' Department of Education (Special Education Unit) State Improvement Grant which is implementing Positive Behavioral Support and Student Literacy systems and interventions, on-site, to over 60 schools statewide.
Project ACHIEVE has also worked with other state education departments over the years (e.g., Alaska, Kansas, Florida), and school districts from large and urban (e.g., Washington, DC, Baltimore, Tampa, San Franscisco) to small and rural. Project ACHIEVE presentations and keynotes also have been invited and delivered, for many years, at many notable national and state meetings--including those sponsored by the U.S. Department of Education-- where NCLB strategies and issues are the main topics of discussion.
Professional Background: Dr. Howie Knoff Howard M. Knoff, Ph.D. is the creator and Director of Project ACHIEVE and a full-time national consultant, author, and lecturer.He is also the Director of the State Improvement Grant for the Arkansas Department of Education—Special Education Unit.
Formerly a Professor of School Psychology at the University of South Florida (Tampa, FL) for 18 years and Director of its School Psychology Program for 12 years, Dr. Knoff has over 25 years of experience as a practitioner, consultant, licensed private psychologist, and university professor. Known for his research and writing in organizational change and school reform, consultation and intervention processes, social skills and behavior management training, personality assessment, and professional issues, Dr. Knoff is an author of seven books, including the Stop & Think Social Skills Program (Preschool through Middle School editions) and the Stop & Think Parent Book: A Guide to Children’s Good Behavior.
During his career, with colleagues, Dr. Knoff has been awarded over $10 million in external grants—including a foundation grant from the Metropolitan Life Foundation, and seven grants from the U.S. Department of Education. He is a Fellow of the American Psychological Association, a Nationally Certified School Psychologist through the National Association of School Psychologists, a Licensed Psychologist in Arkansas, and he has been trained in both crisis intervention and mediation processes.Dr. Knoff was the 21st President of the National Association of School Psychologists which now represents over 25,000 school psychologists nationwide. He has published more than 75 articles or book chapters, delivered over 500 papers or workshops nationally, and received numerous awards—including the Lightner Witmer Award from the American Psychological Association's School Psychology Division in 1989 for early career contributions.
