Course Syllabi and related projects

Organization and Administration
in Early Childhood Special Education

SPED 729

Our Responsive Out of Doors Early Education (RODEE) playground was a course project that was planned, built, and maintained by students in collaboration with the ECSE and Head Start teaching staff. RODEE was an anachronym adopted in the memory of Burt Rodee a long time and popular member of the faculty who passed away in 1974.

This course was designed for graduate students and focused on teacher, supervisor, and administrator leadership roles. Topics related to social change, planning, development, and evaluation, including how to secure third-party resources through grant preparation were addressed. These skills were believed to be important to the growth and improvement of intervention and education services for children at-risk or disabled and their families. Several student proposals/grants became realities in Wisconsin and Minnesota agencies.

A social change model employed in Iowa to build programs for developmentally disabled students and adults, as well as instructional materials developed and disseminated by Technical Assistance Development System (TADS) were primary sources. The social change model, proposal writing and inspiration for my emerging focus were introduced to me by Dr. Ed Meyen during my graduate studies at the University of Missouri-Columbia. They became the primary frame work that informed much of my work during my professional career. The TADS document entitled Program Planning & Evaluation was co-authored by James Gallagher, Richard Surles, and Andrew Hays. This product was developed to support the development of model demonstration projects through the First Chance Network during the 70’s and 80’s.

Parenthetically, these topics informed the practices we employed during collaborations with many practitioners, agency administrators, institution of higher education faculties, and State Department of Public Instruction personnel.

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