Martin J. Cavanaugh, Deputy Superintendent for the Sacramento County Office of Education (SCOE), has received the prestigious 2007 Ernie Wing Award for Excellence in Evidence-based Education at the Wing Institute's Second Annual Summit on Evidence-based Special Education. The award was in recognition of Cavanaugh's work in the development, implementation, and dissemination of "Neverstreaming" in public schools.
Prior to joining SCOE, Cavanaugh served as Chief of Staff with the Elk Grove Unified School District. During his tenure there, he gained national recognition for implementing the Neverstreaming program, an early intervention, and prevention project for at-risk students. The program holds at its core early intervention for students with potential learning disabilities. It provides preventive services as soon as a child needs them so that the child never falls so far behind that catching up becomes impossible.
"Marty Cavanaugh is one of the true champions of evidence-based education in the real world," said Randy Keyworth, Executive Director of the Wing Institute. "Through limitless energy and excellent leadership, he was able to initiate and sustain a culture change at Elk Grove Unified School District that bridged the interests of all education stakeholders and dramatically improved early intervention services for at-risk kids. Such an accomplishment cannot be overstated."
Neverstreaming has become an effective school system-wide model for early intervention, research-based curriculum, and data-guided teaching, becoming a predecessor of the nationally recognized Response to Intervention (RtI) model.
The Ernie Wing Award, given annually by the Wing Institute, was named after Ernie Wing, an educator and special education advocate who championed the cause of evidence-based education in California. The award honors excellence in one or more of the critical areas necessary to build an evidence-based culture: efficacy research, effectiveness research, implementation, and progress monitoring. Nominations are accepted from the Wing Institute's knowledge network, an interdisciplinary group of education stakeholders from across the nation.
The Wing Institute is a non-profit foundation dedicated to promoting evidence-based education. Its goal is to be a "catalyst" supporting individuals and organizations engaged in evidence-based education across disciplines, geographic regions, and in "real-world settings. It offers professional forums, an information clearinghouse, research, publications, and a knowledge network.