This guide describes key steps for developing a well-thought-out plan for evaluating a State Systemic Improvement Plan (SSIP). The guide provides considerations for how to incorporate each step into an evaluation plan, as well as a series of worksheets that correspond to each step and can be used to facilitate the planning process. The guide,…

A large body of research has established that high-quality early care and education (ECE) has benefits for young children's cognitive and social-emotional development that can lead to improved outcomes later in life, especially for children who are economically disadvantaged. Research also shows that disadvantaged children have unequal access to…

This compilation includes 14 supplements to the Kansas state plan for education, all relating to various aspects of special education. Several of the supplements offer guidelines for specific age groups or conditions, providing information on definitions, screening and identification, curriculum and instruction, administrative structures, related…

What constitutes quality in early childhood settings, and how can it best be measured with today's widely used tools and promising new approaches? Find authoritative answers in this book, a must-have for high-level administrators and policymakers as more and more states adopt early childhood Quality Rating and Improvement Systems. The most…

A 2-year study of cost-benefits in special education undertook activities in five years: development of a cost analysis framework, cost data collection, outcome data collection, development of benefit-cost analysis procedures, and benefit-cost analysis application. A generic school-based model was developed in which costs could more accurately be…

A procedure is outlined for understanding and evaluating interagency collaboration. Five steps are addressed: (1) understanding the context of an interagency collaboration (stages of development, communication channels used); (2) verifying the need for interagency collaboration (needs for increased client access to services and reduced duplication…

This report presents findings of an audit of the New York State Education Department's Office of Vocational and Educational Services for Individuals with Disabilities (VESID). The audit concluded that VESID oversight of school districts may not be adequately targeting formal reviews of special education programs to those districts that pose the…

This report discusses the findings of a study that investigated whether the New York State Education Department's Office of Vocational and Educational Services for Individuals with Disabilities (VESID) has improved its oversight of special education by implementing a system for evaluating the performance of special education programs, and whether…

The report documents New York City's Office of Educational Assessment's evaluation of the Division of Special Education Public Law 89-313 program for the 1986-87 school year. The program is intended to provided supplemental services suited to the individual needs of participating handicapped students based upon their individual education plans…

Over the past several years, a number of new programs, policies, and initiatives designed to promote the employment of people with disabilities have been implemented by state and federal agencies, and are being evaluated to greater and lesser degrees. The purpose of this report is to provide a review of the recent evaluation activities being…

The article examines service provisions for preschool-aged handicapped students in terms of two legal issues: what constitutes an appropriate program in terms of the intensity/frequency of program length; and how the least restrictive environment provision should be applied to this population. (Author/DB)

This report contains selected preliminary findings from the Longitudinal Study of the Vocational Rehabilitation (VR) Service Program. The study, initiated in fall 1992, will produce a series of interim reports that address key policy questions. This third interim report presents data collected from VR consumers and their VR case files in 37 local…

This paper has been developed by the Division for Early Childhood (DEC) of the Council for Exceptional Children to serve as a companion document to the 2003 joint position statement, "Early Childhood Curriculum, Assessment and Program Evaluation-Building and Effective, Accountable System in Programs for Children Birth through Age 8,"…

The final report details accomplishments of a New York City demonstration program to train handicapped students to travel independently on public transportation. It is explained that three major objectives were attained: five new replicators were identified during each of 3 years, replicators followed the program description, and replicators…

This report presents findings of an evaluation study of the District of Columbia's special education service delivery model (SDM) which focuses on decentralization, to school-based teams, of the processes of identification, assessment, and placement of special education students. The SDM was initially implemented as a pilot project with 40 schools…