LITTLE TENNESSEE VALLEY
EDUCATIONAL COOPERATIVE (LTVEC)

1094 Mulberry Street
LOUDON, TN. 37774
Phone: (865) 458-8900

Monroe County School System

Lenoir City Schools

The Little Tennessee Valley Educational Cooperative (LTVEC) was created in 1971.  It is a chartered nonprofit organization that provides services to seven member school systems and their communities (Alcoa City Schools with about 1,700 students, Athens City Schools with about 2,000 students, Clinton City Schools with about 900 students, Loudon County Schools with about 5,300 students, Lenoir City Schools with about 2,500 students, Monroe County Schools with about 5,500 students, and Sweetwater City Schools with about 1,500 students) as well as services to non-member schools.  Approximately 14,100 students attend LTVEC member school systems.  A school board member and the superintendent of each member schools system and an elected member of their community comprise the Cooperative's Board of Directors.  By cooperating collectively through LTVEC, smaller school systems are able to reap many of the benefits of a larger school system while maintaining the advantages associated with the intimacy of smaller school systems.

LTVEC's mission is to promote the enhancement of the educational services for the region through cooperative interaction without disrupting individual school system autonomy.  To this end, LTVEC frequently promotes opportunities for school systems that do not always involve LTVEC directly.  LTVEC develops grants, pilots special programs, evaluates ongoing activities, and provides a forum for the exchange of ideas between school systems.  These activities provide opportunities for internship experience in systems analysis.  LTVEC also provides highly skilled professionals to deliver supplemental services to existing special educational service delivery models within the school systems.  Currently, LTVEC provides physical therapy, occupational therapy, speech and language pathology therapy, and school psychological services.  It also operates a nationally recognized birth-to-three program for children with disabilities in three counties and an assistive technology center.  The Cooperative has developed expertise in gifted education, alternative educational programming for seriously emotionally disturbed children, and the interpretation of special education law.

Internship experiences are anchored within specific member school systems.   Each member system has unique population base and highly innovative strategies for assisting their children.  The prospective intern has the opportunity to learn about each of the internship sites within the Cooperative's participating school systems.  Once the applying intern has been offered and has accepted an internship position within the Consortium, the intern has the opportunity of indicating which internship site will provide the most enhancing experiences for that individual.  The Consortium places considerable weight upon the intern's preference in making the actual placement for the internship experience.  This is true for both placement within the sites of LTVEC and all of the sites available within the Consortium.

An internship position with LTVEC is anchored within a specific school system.  Each participating school system has a variety of experiences with which the intern can be involved.  Should the intern have a particular experience that is desired during the internship that is not available within her/his base school system, arrangements will be made to provide it through the Cooperative's many activities with other school systems.

The LTVEC internship sites provide excellent opportunities for the intern who may wish to focus on educational issues faced by children in rural areas or in small contained communities.  Perhaps the intern would like to focus on educational issues for children who move frequently during the school year or how a school system addresses a multinational student population.  These opportunities exist in the LTVEC school systems as do many others (camping in the mountains as a school project for late elementary school students, use of small class size to improve education, computer enhanced education strategies, etc.).

While special-focus opportunities exist for an internship experience, the essentials of the basic school psychologist's role are addressed at all of the sites.  There are a wide range of children's needs to be evaluated, there are multidisciplinary team meetings to attend, and there is a need to consult with teachers, parents, and health care professionals on how to best assist children and a host of other services expected of the staff school psychologist.  These services include direct intervention, review of records, progress monitoring, behavioral observations, directing in-service projects, developing community support for full service school concepts, locating community based services for a child, working in support of the family resource center, systems analysis, and other services deemed necessary.

Through LTVEC, a licensed school psychologist who serves the designated Cooperative school systems or a licensed school psychologist anchored within a specific Cooperative school system provides one-on-one supervision to the intern two hours per week.   In addition, State Department of Education certified school system staff (supervisor of special education, guidance counselor, reading specialist, and other school staff with relevant expertise that the intern may wish to draw upon) provides specialized supervision when appropriate.  As with all of the Consortium internship positions, the LTVEC intern will receive two hours of weekly group supervision from a licensed psychologist at The University of Tennessee.

It is possible for the intern to receive up to 3 hours a semester of graduate internship credit through the University of Tennessee.  The Consortium conducts two hours a week of group supervision in such a manner that it meets the University’s requirements for graduate credit.  If an intern is interested in receiving graduate credit for this time, she or he needs to make an arrangement directly with the University.  Requesting graduate credit for the group supervision is not required of the intern. This is simply an additional benefit to the intern if it is of value for her or him.

Monroe County School System, a member of LTVEC, had one internship position for the 2007-2008 internship year and will have one internship position for the 2008-2008 internship year.

 

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