Technical Assistance Services

The highly experienced consultants at the Center for Positive Practices bring a wide array of technical assistance skills to provide you with the best possible professional assistance in the areas listed below.

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Overview Content Development Curriculum Design and Development Services Editing/Proofreading Language Proficiency Testing Program Development and Grantwriting Technology Support Services

Overview

CPP consultants have considerable experience in providing technical assistance services to clients at all levels of the education system, as well as to philanthropic and social service organizations. We believe that technical assistance should be purpose-based, in that the outcome of the technical assistance will positively affect the needs of the client and its stakeholders. We stress a participatory approach to technical assistance that listens to the needs and wishes of the client.

As requested or needed for any project, CPP provides technical assistance design documents for approval by the client, as well as a plan for monitoring and assessing the effectiveness, efficiency, customer satisfaction, and/or impact of the technical assistance services. We will also maintain project records and data and provide both written and verbal reports to the program officers as requested for each project.

CPP consultants are also experienced technical assistance presenters, having addressed small and large audiences at conferences, forums, and professional development workshops. We follow standards and operating procedures consistent with technical assistance and professional development standards and/or essential elements as required by the U.S. Department of Education.

Content Development

CPP consultants are excellent writers and editors. We produce an extensive variety of reports with consistently high levels of quality. Our writing staff consists of highly experienced report writers and includes a former newspaper editor and a college writing instructor. Depending on your content needs, we can build bibliographies in your content area or areas, synthesize the latest news and/or research in a given topic, and prepare the information for presentation to your audience.

Curriculum Design and Development Services

Almost all of our consultants are current or former educators, either at K-12 or post-secondary levels. Several have also designed, developed, assessed, and/or implemented instructional design blueprints. We believe that aligning curriculum design and development activities to content and performance standards and benchmarks is consistent with the most promising practices in education. We also believe that curriculum and development activities are best conducted within a community of learners or stakeholders, so that those who implement the curriculum or instructional designs will have had the opportunity to contribute to the planned solution. This enables greater buy-in, understanding, and implementation of the curriculum in the classroom or school.

CPP consultants have designed curriculum and instruction related to a great number of topics, including education, bilingual education, Spanish, Special Education, social and physical sciences, humanities, mathematics, and communications. We believe, where possible, it is also important to pilot test curriculum in formative stages. Many of our evaluators have conducted both small and large assessments of student academic performance in specific and general curricular domains.

We will perform any required combination of the curriculum design and development services detailed in the RFP. As relevant for each project, we will follow curriculum, design, and development standards as established by the national leaders in the field, such as NCATE and ASCD, as well as guidance provided by the client or the client's sponsor, such as the US Department of Education.

Editing/Proofreading

CPP also offers writing, professional editing, and proofreading services.

Language Proficiency Testing

Laura Martinez serves as CPP's Language Proficiency Assessment Specialist and Evaluation Associate. She is particularly skilled in administering student measures to ensure that students' data are not confounded by language issues and cognitive academic language proficiency. She also ensures that accommodations are made, as needed, for children with special needs, include sight and hearing.

Program Development and Grantwriting

CPP consultants are skilled and experienced in multiple forms of program development and grantwriting. We have written several grants for submission to various state education agencies, as well as to the US Department of Education and the National Science Foundation.

Technology Support Services

CPP consultants have exceptional technology skills, offering specific services for technology in three broad categories: 1) educational technology staff development for clients and/or the client's stakeholders and students, 2) web site or multimedia consultation, design and/or maintenance, and 3) educational program and policy development (including proposal writing).

CPP consultants will perform any required combination of the technology support services. We specifically follow standards provided by the International Society for Technology (ISTE), The National Educational Technology Standards Project (NETS) and guidelines provided by the National Council for Accreditation of Teacher Education (NCATE) as relevant for each project.