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ICF to Operate ARCC
ICF International, a leading provider of consulting services and technology solutions to government and commercial clients, has been awarded a grant by the U.S. Department of Education to operate the Appalachia Regional Comprehensive Center (ARCC) for the next five years. One of 15 regional centers, the ARCC will enhance the capacity of departments of education in Kentucky, Tennessee, Virginia, and West Virginia to help their districts and schools meet student achievement goals, close achievement gaps between student subgroups, and improve instructional quality.
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Editor: Caitlin Howley
Caitlin.Howley@icfi.com
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| Greetings!
As spring approaches, we have been collaborating with educators in our region to develop projects that will support and accelerate their work over the next year. We will share stories about these exciting efforts in upcoming issues of this newsletter!
In this issue, however, you can learn more about the foundational capacities that enable education organizations to achieve their goals and sustain excellence, and around which we design technical assistance. You can also read an interview with ARCC Director Sharon Harsh and an overview of the quality assurance process we use to ensure that our services to you are top-notch.
As always, please feel free to get in touch with us to discuss your technical assistance needs or to learn more about the services we offer! See Quick Links below to access our website or online request form. |
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Foundational Capacities
 | | ARCC Associate Director, Caitlin Howley |
By Caitlin Howley. Capacity building is the cornerstone of our technical assistance to state education agencies (SEAs) in the Appalachian region. The Appalachia Regional Comprehensive Center (ARCC) approach helps SEAs identify--and grow--the capabilities that will allow them to transform their systems and pursue continuous improvement so they may achieve their goals. This framework undergirds all the assistance we offer SEAs, regardless of the content focus of any particular initiative with which we are assisting. |
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An Interview with ARCC Director Sharon Harsh
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ARCC Director, Sharon Harsh |
By Caitlin Howley. In February, I sat down with the director of the ARCC, Sharon Harsh, to talk about how she became interested in capacity building and what issues she anticipates SEAs facing in the next five years. In this interview, she revealed the challenge that first brought the significance of capacity building to her attention, as well as several principles that guide her work to this day. Read more here! |
Inside the ARCC: Quality Assurance
 | | ARCC Principal in Charge, Kimberly Hambrick |
By Kimberly Hambrick. We recently completed a Quality Control review of Year 1 service plans for clients, examining the extent to which each plan met industry standards for technical assistance. Thanks to the great efforts of ARCC staff and valuable input from state SEA representatives, we were able to submit plans to the U.S. Department of Education that fully addressed all of our standards! Learn more about our three-stage quality assurance process here. |
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