North: Regional Information

Alliance for School-based Problem-solving & Intervention Resources in Education
An Illinois State Board of Education Initiative

Illinois ASPIRE (Alliance for School-based Problem-solving and Intervention Resources in Education) is a coordinated, regionalized system of personnel development designed to increase the capacity of school districts to provide early intervening services, aligned with the general education curriculum, to at-risk students and students with disabilities.  This system consists of four regional Illinois ASPIRE Centers established by the Illinois State Board of Education, and each is responsible for activities to support the following project objectives:

  1. Deliver standardized research-based professional development in Problem-Solving, including Response to Intervention (RTI); scientifically-based reading instruction; and standards-aligned instruction and assessment through:
    1. A coaching model to targeted demonstration districts in each region,
    2. Large scale trainings throughout each region, and
    3. Ongoing technical assistance to schools.
  2. Increase the participation of parents in decision making.
  3. Incorporate the professional development content into Institution of Higher Education (IHE) general and special education preservice and graduate curricula.
  4. Evaluate the effectiveness of project activities.

Illinois ASPIRE is operated under a State Personnel Development Grant from the U.S. Department of Education, Office of Special Education & Rehabilitation Services. All funding ($1.85 million annually) is from federal sources.

POSTED OCTOBER 20, 2008: In collaboration with ISBE, Illinois ASPIRE North is working to expand services to school districts to facilitate implementation of a multi-tier, early intervening services model, more commonly referred to as Response to Intervention (RtI). Changes in state timelines and priorities have required our grant to have a modest shift in focus and timelines. As part of this scaling up initiative, Illinois ASPIRE North will provide training and technical assistance to external coaches from Regional Offices of Education, special education joint agreements/cooperatives, and/or school districts who will then serve as trainer/coaches for their respective school district(s).

The "Application for RtI External Coaches Partnership" outlines the details of this new initiative. It is an opportunity for one or more of your staff to receive comprehensive training and technical assistance related to RtI and, in turn, provide local level coaching to your school(s). Illinois ASPIRE North encourages ROE's, joint agreements/cooperatives and/or school districts to apply.

Also, we ask that ROE's and joint agreements/cooperatives assist in disseminating the application by forwarding this email, with the application, to district superintendents in your respective areas. THE DEADLINE FOR SUBMISSION OF APPLICATIONS IS NOVEMBER 21, 2008.

Click here to downlaod the application.

If you have questions, please contact Mark R. Shinn, Ph.D.
Project Director, Northern Region of IASPIRE
Cell Telephone: 847-275-7200
Preferred Email Address: markshinn@me.com

Welcome to Aspire North’s website. We would like to explain the links and how to use them:

Personnel: In this section you will see information about IASPIRE North’s director, Mark Shinn, and the 6 regional coordinators: Barb Curl, Madi Phillips, Mary Miller, Christine Martin, Christine Malecki and Pam Radford. Ben Ditkowski is the program evaluator. You will also see information regarding the NIU Outreach coaches and the IASPIRE North Leadership Team.

Districts: In this section you will see information regarding each of IASPIRE North’s selected intense and strategic demonstration sites.

Trainings: In this section, you will find information regarding how to register for trainings and coaches' meetings. The basic trainings series that we have provided in 2006-2008: Overview, Universal Screening and Benchmarking, Problem Identification and Analysis, Progress Monitoring, and Team Building and Leadership. We are currently primarily focused on coaching and implementation strategies rather than awareness building and large scale trainings.

Calendar: In this section, you will see all the trainings and coaches' meetings we have scheduled. To learn specific information, click on a day and scroll to the bottom for details of training.

Links: In this section you will see other related links to the IAspire project.

Documents: In this section you will be able to access related documents to the IAspire project.

If you have questions or comments regarding the information on or user-friendliness of this website, please contact bcurl@NSSEO.org or sean@aislabs.com (webmaster).