State Special Education Outcomes

Posted by on February 17, 2006

[posted from Public Education Network newsblast]

STATE SPECIAL EDUCATION OUTCOMES: STEPS FORWARD IN A DECADE OF CHANGE

A new report from National Center on Educational Outcomes (NCEO) summarizes NCEO’s tenth survey of state directors of special education. The report offers a snapshot of the new initiatives, trends, accomplishments, and emerging issues as states document the academic achievement of students with disabilities during standards-based reform.

For the first time in the 14 years NCEO has been collecting data, NCEO reports that the number of students with disabilities achieving proficiency on state accountability tests is increasing. Most states now have at least three years of trend data and enough evaluation data to be able to attribute increased proficiency to several positive efforts by schools and districts. At least half of the states credited the positive trends to the following six factors: (1) Clearly communicated participation policy; (2) Better alignment of Individual Education Plans (IEPs) with standards; (3) Improved professional development; (4) Development and provision of accommodation guidelines and training; (5) Increased access to standards-based instruction; and (6) Improved data collection. All states report documenting accommodations use on test day. Updates on alternate assessments show continued evolution in various aspects, from the approach itself, to the content, setting of standards, and the scoring criteria that are used. Forty-five states offer an alternate assessment based on alternate achievement standards.

http://education.umn.edu/nceo/OnlinePubs/2005StateReport.htm