Radford Cares: Training and Technical Assistance Center

Through the professional development offered to educators through its Training and Technical Assistance Center (TTAC), Radford’s School of Teacher Education and Leadership helps break down barriers to learning for children and youth with disabilities in the surrounding region.

“Because public schools are tasked with meeting the academic, social and mental wellness needs of diverse students,” said co-director Mac McArthur-Fox, “much of the work of TTAC is directed toward helping schools manage complex change to ensure educators have the skills and support necessary to ensure all students have the opportunity to achieve.”

One of seven regional centers in Virginia sponsored by the state Department of Education, TTAC at Radford supports education for students with disabilities by equipping teachers with tools and strategies to address diverse learning needs. The center’s professional development is offered via remote technologies and in person, both at the school and division levels and through larger regional and statewide events. TTAC services are typically provided at no cost to educators.

The center’s 11 coordinators provide training and job-embedded coaching to general and special educators at both the school and division levels across a wide range of content and practices, including behavior support, literacy and math instruction, selfdetermination and inclusive practices such as co-teaching. From adaptive technologies to specialized teaching methods, the center helps teachers create inclusive environments where every student can thrive.

Coordinators work with teams, facilitating problem-solving and decision-making within schools and divisions to help identify and prioritize areas of need, develop plans for change and assess improvement over time, said co-director Ginni Bussey.

Through TTAC’s workshops, seminars and ongoing training sessions, teachers can gain valuable insights into the latest research and evidence-based practices for inclusive education, enhancing their teaching skills and helping foster collaboration among educators within schools and in the region. Principal investigators for the center are Tamara Wallace, dean of the College of Education and Human Development, and Associate Professor Darren Minarik.

TTAC has been a chief resource for Southwest Virginia schools preparing to implement the Virginia Literacy Act (VLA), which goes into effect for the 2024-2025 school year. The law mandates that all K-8 teachers and reading specialists undergo professional development focused on reading instruction and its associated research. TTAC’s support has included collaborating with division leadership to formulate district-level reading plans; facilitating communities of practice for reading specialists; and providing training to hundreds of teachers in evidence-based literacy instruction.

The VLA emphasizes the crucial role played by reading specialists in each division, guiding and coaching their colleagues in new curricula and best practices in literacy instruction. However, this requires a different skill set for many reading specialists — one focused on working with adult learners rather than young students.

To address this need, the Radford TTAC has been collaborating with the literacy leadership team at Roanoke City Schools over the past two years to design and implement a semesterlong coaching academy for the division reading specialists. The primary objective of this academy is to equip new coaches with the most effective strategies to support teachers in their schools as they implement new learning, use new forms of assessment data and aid readers who aren’t making sufficient progress.

Feedback from the program has been positive, according to Program Coordinator Lauren Catherwood-Ginn, with participants praising the immediate usefulness of the skills they learned and the insight they gained in coaching and offering support to teachers in literacy instruction.

“I learned so much about coaching and taking teachers through a coaching cycle,” said Rosemary Rincon, a reading specialist with Roanoke City Schools.