Get SET Nebraska was developed with a clear focus on sustainability. Over the last five years more than 150 new special education teachers and 60 administrators have been supported through Get SET. Rigorous research has demonstrated that Get SET significantly increases special education teacher job satisfaction and decreased job stress. Given the strong positive results of Get SET’s initial development and scale-up, the Get SET development team has shifted focus to sustainability.
Maintaining effective statewide programs is challenging and requires continuous improvement to address changing program needs based on factors such as depth, spread, and uptake. In order to ensure its continued statewide implementation, Get SET’s ownership must transition from the initial development team to a team of educational leaders already charged with support educators across the state. Key to a successful ownership transition is ensuring that the new owners have sufficient program awareness, understanding, and implementation knowledge to facilitate current and future Get SET adoption by schools statewide.
The Get SET development team, with the guidance of the statewide sustainability advisory board, developed and coordinated a capacity building professional development initiative focused on ownership transition, titled, “Keeping the Flame Alive”. Statewide educational leaders with strong connections to school and district leadership teams were invited to lead Get SET sustainability moving forward. These leaders then participated in the professional development to learn tools and methods to promote Get SET’s sustainability. This approach fosters shared ownership and builds capacity, ultimately contributing to long-term sustainability by equipping state education leaders to communicate the program’s value and support schools as they navigate Get SET Nebraska.
KEEPING THE FLAME ALIVE PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT
Overview
The Keeping the Flame Alive professional development package was designed to help leaders develop a shared understanding of their roles, practice using resources, and plan for implementing Get SET in their communities.
The structure of the professional development webinar enabled participants to:
- Understand the mission and vision of GET SET Nebraska, learn about the program structure, and access on-demand content.
- Identify sources of special education retention data and use this data to assess the needs of their districts and regions.
- Implement enrollment processes and track enrollment effectively.
- Demonstrate effective communication methods and program onboarding activities.
- Identify strategies to support schools who adopt Get SET and identify resources to aid in their progress.
Effective capacity building includes multiple opportunities for learning and engagement which are tailored to attendee needs. Therefore, the Get SET development team provided opportunities for participants to engage with Get SET tools and resources, consider barriers to Get SET uptake, and develop plans for how they could support school teams in implementing Get SET.
Keeping the Flame Alive professional development was provided in the following ways:
- Project Manager Support: The Keep the Flame Alive professional development webinar was initiated in the Spring of 2026 to ensure all leaders would have access to the project manager. Consistent access allows them to practice learning material in real time with support, if needed.
- Program Access: Through partnership with the Nebraska Department of Education Office of Special Education (NDEOSE), all GET SET Program content will be available well after the grant ends. This allows leaders, school teams and others to access the Get SET. Get SET is currently available at getsetnebraska.org and will be moved to the NDEOSE website after July 2026.
- Webinar Access: The Keeping the Flame Alive professional development webinar was recorded and made available via the Get SET Nebraska website. This not only allowed attendees to access the material repeatedly but also provided opportunities for others to access the webinar on-demand. The webinar is accessible now on the Team Supports page. This will transfer to the NDE OSE website after July 2026.
- Resource Access: All Keeping the Flame alive professional development materials, forms and links were made accessible on a Google Drive. These resources provide statewide leaders with scripts, email templates, visual marketing information, data collection tools and many other resources. This list of resources is openly available on the Get SET Nebraska website. This will transfer to the NDE OSE website after July 2026.
Impact
20 individuals attended the webinar on April 22, 2026. Participants’ growth was monitored using a pre and post-survey. 20 participants completed the pre-survey and 12 completed the post-survey. Training participants were leaders from school districts, statewide TA groups, and state agencies. All participants were volunteers who registered through a statewide registration system.
The pre- and post-training data indicated overall growth in participants’ knowledge, understanding, and confidence related to the Get SET program. Across all survey items, post-training mean scores increased relative to pre-training scores, suggesting that the training was effective in improving participants’ preparedness to sustain Get SET Nebraska.
Program Understanding
General knowledge of the Get SET program improved. While not statistically significant, mean scores increased from 2.25 pre-training to 2.67 post-training. The largest area of growth, 2.55 to 3.17, was related to the understanding of Get SET’s purpose. This growth demonstrates the positive impact of the training on overall content knowledge.
The largest gains are noted below in Table 1.
Table 1
Perceived Understanding of Get SET Implementation
Program Support
Growth was also noted related to confidence in supporting individuals using content from the training. Confidence in supporting team members through the process was noted, including support for administrators, experienced special education teachers/mentors, and new special education teachers/mentees. Specific confidence-related items showed notable growth. See Table 2.
Table 2
Perceived Ability Related to Program Support
Overall, the findings indicate the training was successful in strengthening participant readiness to support effective Get SET implementation. The pre- and post-training data demonstrate meaningful growth in participants’ knowledge, understanding, and confidence related to supporting the continuation of the Get SET Nebraska program as demonstrated by Table 3. Participants showed increased understanding of the program’s purpose and components, as well as stronger confidence in identifying, enrolling, and supporting schools and teams involved in implementation. The largest areas of growth were in understanding program components and in confidence in enrolling schools in Get SET.
Table 3
Perceived Preparedness for Get SET Implementation
RECOMMENDATIONS
Data indicates that the Keeping the Flame Alive professional development initiative has increased participants’ knowledge of Get SET and their confidence in supporting schools, administrators, mentors, and new special education teachers. The overall growth pattern suggests that this professional development opportunity has effectively prepared leaders to support Get SET as it progresses.
Interested individuals are encouraged to access the recorded training and resources available on Google Drive to aid them in their efforts going forward. Professional development resources are provided in an on-demand format. They can be located at Get SET Nebraska under the Team Support tab.