Date Posted: May 21, 2009

The Steinhardt School of Culture, Education, and Human Development's Metropolitan Center for Urban Education (hereinafter Metro Center) at New York University is pleased to announce it has been re-funded to continue the Technical Assistance Center on Disproportionality (TAC-D) by the New York State Education Department - VESID for the period 2009-2014. The new contract will focus on working with 16 school districts and 10 regional state-funded technical assistance centers. Drs. Pedro Noguera and Edward Fergus will serve as Co-Principal Investigators and Charlotte Gray as Project Director.

The Metro Center TAC-D will provide technical assistance and professional development to school districts cited under State Performance Plan Indicators 4, 9, and 10 which focus on rates of suspension and expulsion of students with disabilities and the disproportionate representation of racial/ethnic minority students in special education. The Metro Center TAC-D will conduct data analyses, and implement a culturally responsive professional development module series, which were designed and field tested by the Metro Center in 2004-2009. In addition, the Metro Center TAC-D will assist in building the capacity of 10 regional teams to work with school districts in their region on disproportionality related issues. Finally, Metro Center TAC-D will provide an annual meeting for school district practitioners, provide leadership training to administrators from the 16 districts, develop and maintain a website, develop a plan for each district, participate in regional planning sessions, and evaluate the policy and practice progress of participating school districts.