Florida’s Professional Development Alternatives for Exceptional Student Educators (PDA-ESE) project was developed in response to the following contemporary forces influencing education today:

• The National Challenge of No Child Left Behind legislation
• The statewide critical shortage of ESE teachers and the need to increase the number of certified teachers
• The need to provide quality professional development alternatives correlated to new ESE competencies
• The need to reduce development and implementation costs through collaboration
• The need to encourage the utilization of distance learning as a cost saver for districts.

PDA-ESE initially consisted of seven individual, yet related, modules that correlated to seven State developed ESE Competencies. Each PDA-ESE module, is designed to provide access to research, practical applications, varied instructional techniques, self-paced learning, assessment tasks and facilitator feedback, all through the medium of online instruction. The collaborating partners who developed the PDA-ESE Initiative were: Bureau of Educator Certification, Bureau of Exceptional Education and Student Services (BEESS), North East Florida Educational Consortium (NEFEC), Florida Center for Interactive Media (FCIM), Steering Committee Members, Writers from FDLRS, Districts, FIN, FDLRS HRD Coordinating Unit, Universities, Agencies, and other ESE, educational and technology professionals.

To develop the PDA-ESE project as a statewide resource, a program administrator was hired and a steering committee was established to provide leadership, guidance and oversight to the process. Seven individual writing/development teams were identified to create the specific content of each of the seven program modules. These writing teams used the State developed ESE Competencies, Council for Exceptional Children Core and Specialized Competencies, previously identified standards from Florida’s Alternative Training Initiative (ATI), and the standards established by the steering committee to develop seven draft modules, which were submitted for content review, initial and final editing, before being subsequently approved by the DOE.

The first module, "Foundations of ESE," was successfully field tested and based on this module, all modules were prepared for online delivery to participants statewide. A communications mechanism for local PDA-ESE Coordinators/Facilitators and Technical Support personnel was established, and in mid October 2003, a statewide conference was held to introduce the new PDA-ESE online training program, orient local coordinators and facilitators to the program and to explain the procedures for use by individuals and districts. The program went on-line in late October 2003.

In the spring of 2004 the PDA-ESE project was subsumed under the auspices of the newly formed statewide FDLRS HRD Coordinating Unit. A Coordinator of ESE Special Projects was hired in April 2004 to assist with support and management of the PDA-ESE Project and other HRD Coordinating Unit assignments as needed.

In May of 2004 a statewide conference was held to update local coordinators, facilitators and technical support personnel and to provide training in navigation of the Desire to Learn (D2L) system, a system utilized to deliver the modules on line. A PDA-ESE Facilitator’s Guide was developed to provide assistance with implementation of the PDA-ESE modules on a local level and to assist with navigation of the D2L system. The conference also provided orientation opportunities for new coordinators and facilitators. Conference participants provided feedback and suggestions for streamlining and refining PDA-ESE processes and modules. PDA-ESE staff currently communicates with facilitators, coordinators, tech support personnel and participants around the state who are involved with the PDA-ESE project on a daily basis. In June 2006, an eighth module, Knowledge of the Differentiating Reading Instruction for Students: Making It Explicit, was rolled out.  This module was designed to correlate to competencies four and five of Florida’s Reading Endorsement.

To date the PDA-ESE Program has offered 401 modules statewide, with 3,949 participants representing Florida's 67 school districts. These participants have utilized the PDA-ESE resource to learn and better prepare themselves for their job responsibilities, ESE certification and/or to meet competencies 4 and 5 of the Reading Endorsement.

As new avenues are sought to assist with meeting the challenges faced by Florida’s educators of students with disabilities, PDA-ESE provides a unique and innovative solution. This project is not static; it is an ever-growing option to provide staff development opportunities to ESE educators in a consistent fashion in all reaches of the vast demographics of Florida.

Click here to view the History of the Support Teams