About the Ohio Deans Compact on Exceptional Children

The Ohio Deans Compact aims to promote shared understanding and collective action to improve learning and results for all children, especially those from marginalized groups (e.g., students with disabilities). Members of the Ohio Deans Compact believe all children learn to higher levels when taught by adults who possess knowledge, competencies, and professional dispositions. Therefore, the Ohio Deans Compact strives to increase inclusive models of teacher, educational leadership, and related services preparation so all education professionals are better able to teach and support all learners. Some areas the Ohio Deans Compact focuses on include:  fostering inclusive models of educator preparation, supporting authentic P20 partnerships, improving literacy outcomes, incentivizing innovative practices, developing partnerships, and meeting critical personnel needs.

The Ohio Deans Compact focuses on Ohio’s system of preparation and ongoing personnel development. The Ohio Deans Compact serves as a forum for bridging theory to practice, fostering meaningful P-16 partnership efforts, and identifying and responding to critical issues, such as personnel shortages that limit opportunities to learn for groups of students.

As of May 2021, 32 members comprise the Ohio Deans Compact. These 32 members are deans, chairs, college professors, and other administrators from institutions of higher education all across Ohio. Six ex officio representatives also participate in the Ohio Deans Compact. These individuals are directors and education program specialists throughout Ohio. Five staff members also participate in the Ohio Deans Compact through coordinating meetings, planning agendas, and ensuring day-to-day operations of the Ohio Deans Compact. They are all based at University of Cincinnati’s Systems Development & Improvement Center (UC SDI). The Ohio Deans Compact provides a channel for communication and examination of ideas among state leaders, deans, associate/assistant deans, faculty, professional association representatives, district/school leaders, national partners, and others. The Ohio Deans Compact also provides opportunities for collaborative efforts to develop and implement innovative models of preparation.

According to the Ohio Deans Compact website, the Ohio Deans Compact Statement of Beliefs stems from the United States Department of Education. The United States Department of Education, Office of Special Education Programs (2010) asserts that the nation’s ability to compete successfully in the global community depends on the meaningful inclusion of all residents in the educational system, including students with disabilities. In support of this assertion, the Ohio Deans Compact on Exceptional Children offers the following statement of beliefs. Such beliefs, grounded in research and authoritative opinion, are used to guide the work of the Ohio Deans Compact:

1. All students learn to higher levels when held to high expectations and provided the necessary services and supports, and when taught by adults with the necessary competencies and dispositions to support higher levels of learning for all students.
2. Student learning improves when adults who interact with them learn, and adult learning is most effectively fostered through peer-to-peer feedback and support that is provided through structured collaborative learning teams.
3. Effective implementation of targeted instructional practices is necessary for meaningful improvements in student learning and educator professional practice to be sustained.
4. Some instructional practices are more effective than others and all educators should be critical consumers able and willing to examine the effectiveness of practices used in supporting student learning.
5. The development of collective capacity and shared responsibility at all levels of the system is essential for continuous system learning and improvement.
6. Increased opportunities and outcomes for all students depend upon shared leadership across the district-wide system that serves to sustain core work in teaching and learning and prepare every learner for meaningful transitions to postsecondary endeavors.

Funding Statement

These professional learning online modules on classroom behavior management were designed as part of the Ohio Deans Compact grant. This professional learning online module project makes use of videos and modules through a classroom behavior management tool. This tool was created through an Ohio Deans Compact Grant that was designed for a partnership between a university’s special education faculty & school partners’ faculty (classroom teachers). The purpose of this project that was funded through an Ohio Deans Compact Grant was to work together to deepen all participants’ knowledge and skills in managing classroom behavior. Other purposes were to create a meaningful partnership between university faculty & school district faculty, to support all participants’ abilities to share this content with teachers in their schools or teacher candidates at the university, and to get input on strengthening our teacher preparation program including finding strong field placements for teacher candidates that utilize evidence-based classroom behavior management strategies. All materials used in the professional learning online modules will be shared so participants (and others) can use this classroom behavior management tool and materials with their teachers and teacher candidates. The hope is that participants will then implement these evidence-based behavior management strategies in their own practice with children.