Welcome to the home page of the Utah Personnel Development Center. The UPDC is a staff development project sponsored by the Utah Comprehensive System for Personnel Development (CSPD) Consortium for Special Education.

(Click these images to download a poster)

Vision:

All educators are using evidence-based practices.

Core Values:

1. Trust

2. Collaboration

3. Continuous Improvement

Purpose:

1. Help educators implement evidence-based practices with fidelity.

2. Build school and district capacity and sustainability for using evidence-based practices.

3. Improve student outcomes by promoting the use of evidence-based practices.

Who We Serve:

Special educators, related service providers, general educators, administrators, paraprofessionals, and parents from all 41 school districts and charter schools in Utah, state operated programs, Utah Parent Center, and institutes of higher education.

How We Serve:

Services are provided through universal, targeted, and intensive professional development. Our services are designed to facilitate positive outcomes for students with disabilities.

Our Roles:

• Servant Leader - The servant leader is servant first . . . It begins with the natural feeling that one wants to serve, to serve first. Then conscious choice brings one to aspire to lead. . . The difference manifests itself in the care taken by the servant—first to make sure that other people's highest priority needs are being served. The best test . . . is: do those served grow as persons? Do they, while being served become . . . wiser, freer, more autonomous, more likely themselves to become servants? (Greenleaf, 1977, P.13-14)
• Change Agent - A change agent is someone who alters organizational systems to achieve higher degree of performance in behalf of students. Beginning with the end in mind, the goal of a change agent is to make evidence-based changes that are sustainable.
• Coach - A coach helps alleviate some of the burden of change. They are individuals who encourage the use of and demonstrate how to implement evidence-based practices. Effective coaches possess pedagogical knowledge, content expertise, and excellent interpersonal skills. 
• Connector - A connector is one who knows many people and how to access their strengths to make things work for students, schools, and districts. 
• Professional Learner - A professional learner engages in focused, ongoing learning. Professional learning is the key to successfully managing change and improving the achievement of all students, particularly those who are most at risk.
• Facilitator - A facilitator helps individuals or organizations work together to reach the best possible decisions. The literal meaning of facilitator is one who makes things easy.