In This Issue:

President’s Message …………………………………………………….1

NCRE MEETINGS IN TUCSON……………………….……………..2

Deadline for Suggestions re Proposed CORE Standards ……………3

2003-2004 NCRE Conferences …………………………………………4

Recruitment booklet being developed …………………………………5

Another Domain of Multiculturalism …………………………………6

NCRE Paid Membership Totals for 2002-2003……….……………....8

Highlights from next Rehabilitation Education………….…………....8

NRA Call for Proposals …………………………………………….10

The RIIL Thing ……………………………………………………...10

Position Announcement ………………………………………………11

President’s Message – Dr. Margaret Glenn H ello! I hope this issue of the NCRE Forum finds everyone well – and surviving budget cuts! Life is changing quickly for us all and, in times of intense stress, it’s great to be able to look around at your network of support. Members of NCRE have been that for me and it was great to see so many in Tucson at our 3^rd Annual Conference.

The conference was well attended and full of great information, networking, and forward thinking. We find ourselves addressing a large number of issues this year, issues that require we be thoughtful and considerate (despite how busy our lives!).

One of these relates to the health and well-being of our partners, the Federal-state vocational rehabilitation system. The reauthorization of the Rehabilitation Act is upon us. The Board worked hard in Tucson addressing the areas of concern in the Act for rehab educators. A few weeks ago I had the privilege of presenting an educator’s perspective on the issues before the membership of CSAVR.

Another key change is related to CORE. The staff and Board have proposed significant changes to the accreditation criteria. Make sure you review these carefully – they can be found at http://www.core-rehab.org/Reviewletter.html. I am including additional information, made available by conference presenters, in this newsletter and will place it on www.rehabeducators.org Take time to review the information and send your written comments to CORE Commissioners. Make your voice hears!

The Executive Board is working with RSA to plan the fall conference in Washington, DC. One theme that we are pushing is “Recognition of Rehabilitation Counseling.” We have identified recruitment and retention as important issues for rehabilitation educators and this will include larger-scale marketing efforts. It is time to stand up and be recognized for the work that is accomplished every day by rehabilitation counselors. I encourage you to look for every conceivable (and non traditional) information dissemination routes. Write articles for your local newspapers, present to legislators, schools, and in conferences. Use the data from the RSA Longitudinal Study – it could prove very useful in our efforts to gain national recognition for being effective.

I wish you well as you wind up the Spring semester and look forward to continuing to work with you!

Margaret Glenn

Margaret.Glenn@mail.wvu.edu

NCRE MEETINGS IN TUCSON

by Dr. Jeanne Patterson

Both the NCRE Board and General membership met in Tucson. Items included in the report from the Administrative Office included: (a) investigation of credit card payments for conference participants; (b) notification that NCRE membership for 2003 exceeds that reported for 2002 in all categories; except Associate Institutional members, with Institutional Members including six new member institutions; and (c) changes in the NCRE Directory, which include an index of page numbers for the programs and a list of NCRE Presidents. The Board determined that the full Directory would not be available online, but that a hyperlink would be used to link institutional members to the university web pages. Noting that the web page needs improvement, Tarvydas, as Chair of the Communication Committee, will oversee activities in this area. The co-editors of Rehabilitation Education Joe Wheaton and John Kosciulek reported that the response to their “call for papers” from individuals presenting at the 2002 conference was good. In collaboration with Frank Puckett and Kurt Johnson, an “IT Corner” has been added to the journal in the 16(4) issue, which is consistent with one of the editorial goals of increasing the emphasis on technology. The editors noted that they are using doctoral students as fourth consulting reviewers on manuscripts. Also, they provided a sample swatch for the new color that will coincide with the change in journal size (i.e., 8 ½ x 11) for the 17(1) issue. The use of electronic submission and electronic reviews has decreased the turn-around time to about one month.

Hal Cain, Newsletter editor, noted the change in name of the newsletter to the NCRE Forum. Two issues have now been distributed electronically, with three formats available. Cain is still addressing some of the accessibility issues (e.g., screen readers). He would like to see more letters to the editor published and is seeking more information from the different regions.

President Glenn reported that she, Kurt Johnson, and Vilia Tarvydas met with OSERS, ACA, and RSA. The focus is on who are our partners, how NCRE can affiliate with the networks of other groups and share resources. The afternoon portion of the Board meeting was primarily devoted to legislative activities. Jim Jeffers, member of the NRA Reauthorization Task Force discussed issues addressed by the Task Force. He noted that there was very little discussion of training issues; the primary focus was on organizational units, funding, and line authority. It appears that Reauthorization will be on the “fast track” and NRA leadership has met with both the House and Senate staff. The Bush administration has made a number of proposals to further integrate labor programs and rehabilitation. In discussing a number of items related to legislative activity (e.g., (a) Leave no person behind, (b) Rehabilitation Act as a tool, (c) Benefits of qualified counselors, (d) Service to individuals with the most significant disabilities, and (e) Professionalizing services, the Board decided that the complexity of disability related issues was most significant and needed to be highlighted.

Jeanne Patterson provided a summary of the responses received to the NCRE survey on CORE’s proposed 60 hour requirement. With slightly less than 50% of CORE programs responding, 29 programs had programs under 60 hours and 13 programs had programs that were 60 hours or greater in length. Thirteen coordinators noted a positive impact of the proposed change to 60 hours, 16 viewed it negatively. (Four coordinators checked other responses, such as “unsure,” or “no impact and a negative impact,” etc.) Three programs noted that their programs could/would be eliminated if CORE prescribed 60 hours. As the Board discussed the CORE changes, it was evident that little unanimity existed among Board members. The Board determined that its role was to encourage and educate members on the proposed changes and to encourage the programs to respond directly to the Chairs of the Standards Review Committee (Lance Carluccio and Art Del Orto).

Vilia Tarvydas presented information on the Draft Portability Policies and Procedures that is undergoing review by the American Association of State Counseling Boards (AASCB). The Board approved seeking affiliate membership in AASCB and approved financial support for Tarvydas to represent NCRE at the ACA Board meeting and the AASCB meetings. Also Tarvydas recommended that the NCRE Board include a student representative and an international representative. Because this would involve constitution and by-laws changes, Glenn will appointment a committee to work on this idea.

Deadline Approaching for Suggestions re Proposed CORE Standards

The Council of Rehabilitation Education has proposed new standards for accreditation of master's rehabilitation counseling programs. The deadline to respond in writing (or email) is May 1st to Lance Carluccio, Cochair of the Standards Review Committee, (lcarlucc@maryville.edu). The proposed standards are available on the web at www.core-rehab.org or http://core-rehab.org in multiple formats. Please let your voice be heard no later than May 1, 2003.

Thank you.

Don Linkowski, Ph.D.,CRC

Executive Director

Council on Rehabilitation Education

PLAN YOUR 2003-2004 NCRE CONFERENCE YEAR

Mark your calendars -- Make plans to attend!!

National Training Conference on Rehabilitation Education Of NCRE/RSA/CSAVR Title: “Rehabilitation: Lead On” Location: Key Bridge Marriott 1401 Lee Hwy Arlington, VA Date: October 19-21, 2003 Call for Proposals: A Call for Proposals will be issued through your NCRE Listserv as soon as this information will be available. ALSO . . .

4^th Annual National Rehabilitation Educators Conference

Title: “Rehabilitation Education: Thriving in Challenging Times”

Location: Date:

Sheraton Hotel & Suites  5151 E. Grand Rd. Tucson, AZ February 19 – 21, 2004 Board and Membership meetings and Opening Reception and Poster Session on Thurs., 2/19/04

Special Keynote

Attend this conference and learn about the most current legal considerations from a highly qualified and nationally recognized authority on disability law. This program features a special Keynote Presentation by Professor Peter Blanck, who is the Charles M. and Marion Kierscht Professor of Law and Director, Law, Health Policy & Disability Center (http://www.its.uiowa.edu/law ) at The University of Iowa. He is a former member of the President’s Committee on Employment of People with Disabilities, Senior Fellow with the Annenberg Foundation, and Commissioner on the American Bar Association Commission on Mental and Physical Disability Law. He often provides testimony to Congress and briefs to the U.S. Supreme Court on the ADA and other disability-related legal and policy issues. Peter Blanck has accepted our invitation to provide a Keynote Presentation on "Disability Law and Policy in Rehabilitation Education". He is one of our foremost legal authorities on ADA and disability legal matters and this presentation should be very interesting in that the U.S. Supreme Court continues to change the interpretation of the ADA.

Conference Themes and Call for Proposals

Proposals will be reviewed and selected with an emphasis placed on programs that address the following Conference Themes:

a. Evidence-based practice in rehabilitation: Providing stronger linkages between rehabilitation research, education and practice

b. Disability policy, law and disability studies: Enriching in rehabilitation research, education and practice with important concepts

c. New techniques and practices in rehabilitation education and practice

d. Rehabilitation careers: Developing effective recruitment strategies and exciting, well-structured career paths and placement strategies for rehabilitation professionals and educators

Proposal deadline: September 26, 2003

Start planning your proposals and watch your NCRE listserv for an announcement of the Call for Proposals this summer.

To Coordinators of Rehabilitation Counseling Programs from Tom Evenson:

Last October, coordinators of rehabilitation counseling programs were invited to submit a paragraph on their respective programs for inclusion in a recruitment booklet being developed by CORE’s Committee on Undergraduate Education. The idea was to create a mechanism by which coordinators of undergraduate programs could promote pursuit of a rehabilitation counseling degree to seniors who are completing their bachelors’ degrees in rehabilitation.

In advising students who are considering graduate school, UG coordinators can facilitate some direct contact between a faculty member from a RC program and students who might be interested in her/his program. The UG coordinator would contact the RC program with the name(s) of students who express an interest in that program. The RC coordinator could then directly contact the students to further encourage their interest and to provide them with additional information about the program. The idea was to make the recruitment process a little more personal by linking students directly with someone in the graduate program. The booklet simply serves as a catalyst for that personal connection. All we need is a brief paragraph about your program. You could identify the specific highlights (stipends, specialty areas, employment opportunities, distance education components, etc.) designed to attract students to your program over others. The idea is not to provide detail so much as to get the student’s attention. The details can come when you contact them.

While students from institutions that include both masters and bachelors programs frequently continue their study at the same institution, many students graduate from stand-alone undergraduate programs that don’t have a graduate option and may be shopping for quality graduate programs. In other cases, students are simply interested in a new experience.

A number of programs responded to the invitation and we prepared a mock-up of the booklet and brought it to the NCRE general membership meeting in Tucson. Several programs indicated that they wanted to be included in the project but hadn’t yet sent their paragraph in. The purpose of this little announcement is to let you know that we can extend the timeline for getting the information to us. If you can submit something by 15 May 2003, we will include it with the initial version of the project.

The mock-up booklet turned out to be fairly attractive and the feedback we received was favorable. We would like to provide this material in both electronic and hard copy format. We are exploring ways of covering the cost of producing a decent hard copy version of the product (nothing ever seems to be cheap), but we can begin working on a web-based version fairly soon. One suggestion was that a section also be included on doctoral programs in rehabilitation. We thought that was a good idea and it should be no problem to include it in our plans. So—if you offer a doctoral degree in rehabilitation, please feel free to send a paragraph on that program as well.

If you are interested in being included in this project, simply send a brief description of your program to:

Tom Evenson at evenson@unt.edu

Another Domain of Multiculturalism in Rehabilitation Counselor Education: International Students

by Roy Chen – Graduate Student at Michigan State University

Rehabilitation counselor educators have long recognized the need to acquaint pre-service students with diversity issues and multicultural awareness. The Council on Rehabilitation Education should be commended for making this knowledge domain part of every accredited program’s curriculum. Although efficacy studies have shown that most rehabilitation counselors are satisfied with their education and training, a small but steadily growing, diverse group of pre-service students, in my opinion, deserves more attention and assistance from rehabilitation counselor educators—international students.

To a large extent, U.S. institutions of higher education have replaced their European counterparts as world leaders in providing quality higher education to students from developing countries. In fact, the U. S. hosts far more foreign students than any other country. In the1999-2000 academic year, for example, 514,723 international students studied in the U. S., whereas France hosted less than 140,000 students of foreign origin (Schneider, 2000). In the year 2000 alone, the half million international students studying in U.S. colleges and universities contributed $12.3 billion to the U.S. economy in their tuition and cost of living expenditures. International students have long participated in U.S. rehabilitation counselor education programs. In fact, many prominent rehabilitation counselor educators, such as Fong Chan (University of Wisconsin, Madison), Jorge Garcia (George Washington University), Madan Kundu (Southern University), Elias Mpofu (Pennsylvania State University), Charles Arokiasamy (California State University, Fresno), and Chow Lam (Illinois Institute of Technology), attended U.S. institutions as international students at some point in their academic careers.

There are several reasons why rehabilitation counselor education programs need to groom international students into competent practitioners and leaders, including:

• Diversification of professional personnel;
• Ethical concerns; and
• Creation of goodwill and cultural ambassadors.

Diversification of professional personnel

Clients from minority ethnic backgrounds tend to underutilize the vocational rehabilitation system and have had higher failure rates (Wilson, 2000; Wilson, Jackson, & Doughty, 1999). The rehabilitation counseling profession as a whole, at both national and state levels, has not been responding fast enough to meet the urgent needs of minority clients and recent immigrants. Therefore, U.S. educational institutions should pay more attention to international students’ needs in order to build a more diverse pool of professionals.

Ethical concerns

The World Bank (2000) has estimated that about one-third of foreign students studying in the U.S. do not return to their home countries. Rehabilitation counselor educators have a moral obligation to train their international students to provide best quality of rehabilitation services to their clients, whether they return home or remain in the U.S.

Creation of goodwill and cultural ambassadors

We must not overlook the impact that higher education in the U.S. has had beyond its geographical borders. The knowledge and skills acquired by international students in the U.S. has led not only to economic prosperity, but also to social reforms of critical importance, such as disability rights movements in their respective home countries. There is no better way to foster favorable attitudes toward the U.S. throughout the world than to enable American-trained graduates to ameliorate human suffering in their home countries.

I foresee a growing demand for rehabilitation counselors to help people with disabilities outside of the U.S. in both the developed and developing countries. The reasons for this growing demand include, but are not limited to: (1) the rapidly aging populations of developed nations; (2) the high, work-related accident rates of developing nations, where compliance with industrial safety standards is a rarity rather than the norm; (3) advances in new medical technologies that can prolong the lives of spinal cord injury patients, traumatic brain injury patients, and premature, deformed babies; and (4) the many civilian victims, in addition to military personnel, living in lands that have long been convulsed by war. International students have the potential to make enormous contributions to the field of rehabilitation counseling, both in the U.S. and overseas. With its experienced rehabilitation educators and vast body of professional knowledge, no country in the world is more equipped than the U.S. to train future generations of rehabilitation counselors. It is important, therefore, that rehabilitation counseling programs in the U.S. embrace this opportunity to train and support their international students.

References

Schneider, M. (2000). How other nations attract international students: Implications for U.S. educational exchange. Washington, DC: Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs, U.S. State Department.

Wilson, K. B. (2000). Predicting vocational rehabilitation acceptance based on race, education, work status, and source of support at application. Rehabilitation Counseling Bulletin, 43(2), 97-105.

Wilson, K. B., Jackson, R. L., & Doughty, J. D. (1999). What a difference a race makes: Reasons for ineligibility within the vocational rehabilitation system. American Rehabilitation, 25(2), 16-24.

World Bank (2000). Higher education in developing countries: Peril and promise. Washington, DC: The Task Force on Higher Education and Society.

NCRE Paid Membership Totals for 2002-2003

	COUNT	COUNT	COUNT
	2000-01	2001-02	2002-03
INSTITUTIONAL MEMBERS	94	88	*92	(4 more confirmed)
ASSOCIATE INSTITUTIONAL	20	20	12	(5 more confirmed)
CERTIFIED MEMBERS	152	90	146
ASSOCIATE INDIVIDUALS	22	22	22
Subtotal:	288	220	276
STUDENT MEMBERS	89	54	55
	377	274	331

* Total Paid Institutional Members includes 7 new member institutions-

2 Not listed in Directory: University of Pittsburgh, Florida Atlantic University

5 Listed in Directory: Fort Valley State University, Louisiana Tech University, St. John's University, University of Arkansas-Little Rock, Western New Mexico University,

Total as of 3/10/03

What’s Next: Highlights of Vol. 17, No. 1 of Rehabilitation Education

Editor’s Note: this section is an overview of what will be published in the coming issue of Rehabilitation Education -- NCRE’s quarterly journal. Drs. Joe Wheaton and John Kosciulek are Co-Editors of the journal. For more information about Rehabilitation Education, including submission guidelines, visit the website http://education.osu.edu/rehabed/Default.htm.

T

he forthcoming issue of Rehabilitation Education, which will be published in April 2003, offers several features of interest to rehabilitation educators and researchers. In this issue, Jeanne Patterson and Randy Parker present an argument for the continuation of a 48-credit hour CORE standard for masters rehabilitation counseling programs.

In another article, Gerald Murray, Tarrell Portman, and Dennis R. Maki describe a pre-service, clinical supervision study. This article is followed by a presentation of the findings of a study of NCRE faculty grant writing experiences and beliefs which was conducted by Bill Crimando, T. F. Riggar, Carl Flowers, and Tyra Bernard. The article in 17:1 by Madan Kundu, Alo Dutta, Chrisann Schiro-Geist, and Lee Crandall summarizes the results of a study of the disability-related service needs and satisfaction of post-secondary students with disabilities. In a Gray Matter article, Catherine Marshall, Paul Leung, Sharon Johnson, and Howard Busby present a spirited discussion on ethical practice and cultural factors in rehabilitation. This article will likely stimulate much further thought, discussion, and debate among the readers of the journal on the topic of ethics and culture.

Volume 17, Number 1 of Rehabilitation Education also includes an editorial by the journal Co-Editors, John Kosciulek and Joe Wheaton. Kosciulek and Wheaton provide an in-depth follow-up to their presentation at the 2003 Rehabilitation Educators Conference on “Getting Published in Rehabilitation Education” in an editorial titled “On Writing.” In this feature, readers are provided instruction on the process of scholarly writing and publication. It is anticipated that this editorial will enable both experienced and novice rehabilitation educators to translate their research, teaching, and clinical counseling knowledge, experience, and skills into manuscripts that contribute to the rehabilitation education and research literature. Finally, readers of the journal will see a new journal size and color when 17:1 arrives in their offices. The new journal format is designed to present our conceptual and empirical rehabilitation education literature in a contemporary scholarly manner. We anticipate that you will find Volume 17, Number 1 of Rehabilitation Education informative and useful in your work.

National Rehabilitation Association

Annual Training Conference - 2003

Opryland Hotel, Nashville Tennessee

October 2-5, 2003

CALL FOR PROPOSALS – Due April 30th

Invitation to Present

The National Rehabilitation Association (NRA) invites your participation in the Annual Training Conference October 2-5, 2003 at the Opryland Hotel, Nashville, Tennessee.

The theme of the 2003 NRA Conference is “Building the rehabilitation future: partnerships, participation and paradigms.” All interested individuals, facilities, agencies and organizations, including NRA members and non-members, are invited to submit proposals for the concurrent sessions.

Proposals will be reviewed and selected by the NRA Program Committee based on their contribution to a well-balanced program of interest to the members of NRA, who represent public and private rehabilitation agencies, facilities, hospitals, schools, etc. Examples of topics include (but are not limited to) specific disability types, modes of intervention, job placement and development, ethics, managed care, medical developments, technological advances, rehab in industry, school-to-work transition, employment, training and education.

Concurrent sessions of one and one half hour (1.5) duration will be scheduled for all programs. All concurrent sessions will be set up theater style, with an overhead projector with screen. Any other individual AV needs are the responsibility of the presenter. Sponsored speakers may want to contact their Chapter/Division regarding financial support for additional audio-visual equipment. Quality programming is the primary focus of the conference. Priority will be given to sponsored programs.

Presenters are responsible for all lodging, travel, additional audiovisual equipment rental, handouts including those in alternative format, and per diem costs associated with their participation in the conference. Presenters are invited to attend other conference sessions at no cost to them on the day of their presentation.

If Your Presentation is Selected You Will:

• Share your ideas with a large number of rehabilitation professionals;

• Contribute to improving the quality of rehabilitation training.

Notification

• You will be notified of the disposition of your proposal by May 26, 2003.

Review Criteria for Proposals

• Overall Quality;

• Relevance to rehabilitation;

• Well-defined focus that can be presented in a 1.5 hour format;

• Practical application of idea presented;

• Originality and timeliness of idea.

ANNOUNCEMENT

RESEARCH INFORMATION FOR INDEPENDENT LIVING (RIIL)

If you are looking for a concentrated body of knowledge on Independent Living, go to WWW.GetRIIL.org You will find over 1,300 reviews in non-researcher language. The RIIL database is designed for and is being used by consumers, students, service providers, policy makers, administrators and researchers.

You can search for the topic of your choice through www.GetRIIL.org Then you can select the reviews that you choose to read. If you like, you can download the reviews for your personal use.

There are more resources:

Research Briefs                Combined studies on a key IL subjects

RIIL e-group                       IL news and discussion groups

RIIL Web Casts                  Live presentation plus Q&A

Hot New Products             Improved research communication and more

Helpful Links                      WWW links to other key IL sites

Glossary                              Common independent living terms

Among the Hot New Products are brochures, training materials, and a review of literature on how to write research reviews for non-researchers. What RIIL did was use the power of research on dissemination and utilization to develop effective methods to diffuse information. The www.GetRIIL.org database is just one feature of RIIL. As noted above, regular web casts are conducted on an annual schedule. The web casts are live. Also, e-groups on key IL topics are operated continuously. The e-groups are operated on virtual time.

RIIL is funded by a grant from the National Institute on Disability Rehabilitation Research (NIDRR).

RIIL is a joint effort of the Research and Training Center on Independent Living (RTCIL) at the University of Kansas and the Independent Living Research Utilization (ILRU) A Program of TIRR.

The RTC/IL (785) 864-4095 (Voice or TDD), Jim Budde or Glen White

The ILRU Program (713) 520-0232 (Voice) 713-520-5136 (TDD) Lex Frieden or Laurel Richards

Position Announcement

Job Posting:

Attention Vocational Rehabilitation Counselors…check out the job opportunities with the Pennsylvania Office of Vocational Rehabilitation (OVR). Currently, OVR has 16 vacancies statewide and is actively seeking qualified rehabilitation counselors. Positions require possession of a Master’s Degree in Rehabilitation Counseling or CRC credentials or eligibility to receive CRC credentials.

To increase awareness of OVR as a potential employer and recruit candidates for vacancies nationally, OVR continues to utilize the Rehabilitation Recruitment Center (RRC) website to announce job openings and review resume postings to find the most qualified applicants for the agency’s vacant VR Counselor positions.

Visit OVR’s recruitment link at http://www.dli.state.pa.us/ovr_recruitment to learn more about the paid internship program and employment opportunities or contact rehabilitation specialist, Cindy Mundis @ (717) 787-2521 or by email at cmundis@state.pa.us for additional details or questions.

Photo: Taking a break between sessions in Tucson (top). Poster session at Tucson (below).

The NCRE Forum is an organizational newsletter designed to inform and stimulate discussion about issues pertinent to professional growth of Rehabilitation Educators.

Submissions to the NCRE Forum are encouraged. Due dates are as follows:

September 1^st

December 1^st

March 1^st

June 1^st

All materials need to be sent directly to the editor in an electronic format by these dates. We encourage the use of web links to useful information and pictures or graphics. These materials will be utilized at the desertion of the Editor.

Dr. Hal Cain, Editor

hal.cain@usu.edu