Effective Technical Assistance Practices

Introduction

Effective technical assistance (TA) is a collaborative, coordinated effort to facilitate change in systems, build capacity, improve practices, and reach agreed-upon outcomes^{1, 2}. Specifically, effective TA provides a pathway to improvement through activities and materials that promote new behaviors, practices, beliefs, and understandings of staff in the systems served³.

Key Practices for Effective TA

The Trohanis Technical Assistance Projects at the Frank Porter Graham Child Development Institute at the University of North Carolina established nine practices of effective TA to support state and local agency staff (client) who provide IDEA Part C early intervention and Part B, Section 619 early childhood special education to young children with, or at risk for disabilities, and their families. The practices are based on more than 50 years of stellar TA provision, ongoing collection and use of evaluation data, and existing literature.

The following nine key practices ensure that TA successfully supports state and local leaders to bring about the desired changes in systems and practices.

See also: Indicators of Effective Technical Assistance Practices

1. Trusting relationships

In TA, trusting relationships are those in which the client believes that the TA provider has the best of intentions for the client's system and staff. Trust is established in TA by maintaining confidentiality, demonstrating respect and honesty, and confronting issues of bias as they emerge⁴. Trusting relationships are critical to TA. They lead to information sharing that establishes context; support collaborative partnership, reciprocal respect, and co-learning; increase the likelihood that the client reaches out for future TA support; and increase the likelihood that the client will use TA-identified resources and expertise to inform decision making at the policy level^{5, 6}.

2. Effective communication

Communication is the means through which TA providers build relationships and provide effective support to clients. Effective communication helps to identify, clarify, and address barriers to a high-quality system improvement^{7, 8}. Effective communication is timely, consistent, and adaptive to different communication styles, preferred language and accessibility needs.

3. Collaborative partnering

Collaborative partnering is a process in which the TA provider partners with the client in the systems they serve to discuss desired outcomes of the TA and associated strengths, needs, or barriers to the identified issue. Together, and with stakeholders, they co-create or identify strategies to achieve the desired outcomes⁹. Some benefits of effective collaboration include shared understanding, joint problem-solving, respect for community (state context, history, culture and priorities), enhanced individual commitment and capacity, efficiency, deepened relationships, and heightened morale^{1, 7, 10, 11}.

4. Differentiated support

Effective providers adjust TA delivery according to each system's strengths, needs, resources, and desired outcomes. Also taken into account is the skill level, experience, knowledge, and desire staff in the system bring to the change effort. The level of TA ranges from brief information, support tailored to client needs, to sustained TA engagement intended to facilitate systems change^{6, 12}. Differentiation allows TA centers to align staff resources with client capacity to engage in TA activities. Differentiated support promotes equity by offering effective TA for all states based on client need and the capacity to create opportunities for participation for each client.

5. Adult learning strategies

TA providers incorporate adult learning strategies that are likely to increase individual's content knowledge^{13, 14, 15, 16}. TA includes opportunities for ongoing support to help adult learners apply new information to their individual context. Ongoing support includes strategies such as: making information relevant to the learner's language, context, incorporating prior learning and experience, peer sharing in small groups, and the use of evaluation to gauge learners' understanding that is likely to affect individual change.

6. External leadership for change

Effective TA providers play a key leadership role in guiding activities required for systems change. A trusted person from outside the system can be a catalyst for change through deep understanding and facilitation of the change process^{10, 17}.

7. Partnerships and resource integration

Effective TA means partnering with the various organizations that comprise a system, as well as those that support and govern it. The TA provider works across federal and state public agencies, with professional development organizations and TA partners, professional associations, and consumer groups. This partnership provides a unified network of resources and supports available to both the TA provider and client for the desired outcome¹⁸. These resources and supports represent a wide breadth of expertise and knowledge providing clients and TA providers with effective strategies and tools that are coordinated, comprehensive and efficient.

8. Use of implementation, improvement, and systems change frameworks

Research has expanded the understanding of factors that lead to successful implementation of new policies and practices for improved equitable systems^{19, 20}. Effective TA incorporates implementation, improvement, and systems change frameworks. Implementation science focuses on sustainability of evidence-based practices^{13, 21, 22}. Improvement science focuses on ongoing evaluation and adjustment of change efforts²³. Systems change frameworks focus on the effect of change on multiple components and levels of complex systems^{10, 11, 24, 25, 26}.

9. Ongoing evaluation

A critical component of effective TA is the ongoing collection and use of evaluation data to guide the work of the TA provider and the client. Evaluation data give the TA provider and the client regular feedback on what is and is not working and where course corrections can be made to more successfully achieve mutually agreed upon desired outcomes^{11, 24, 27, 28}. Evaluation may occur at multiple time points, be revised as needed to reflect changes in state context or client priority, and involve staff outside of the TA team.