Situated in the heart of the fertile San Joaquin Valley twenty miles north of Fresno, the city of Madera has a population of 56,710 people. Agriculture is the driving force behind the local economy; the area produces more than 100 crops including raisin grapes, almonds, figs, pistachios, alfalfa, corn, milk, cattle and poultry. The total value of…

This document is intended to assist State Education Agency (SEA) and Lead Agency (LA) staff and technical assistance providers in designing a meaningful evaluation for the State Performance Plan (SPP)/Annual Performance Report (APR) improvement activities. It provides: (1) information about the relevance of evaluation in the context of improvement…

This brief publication provides bullet points of what education authorities are doing well and how they can do better in the following areas: (1) Planning for implementation; (2) Transition arrangements; (3) Meeting additional support needs; (4) Resolving disagreements; (5) Coordinated support plans; and (6) Working with children and young…

The Division for Early Childhood (DEC) of the Council for Exceptional Children is a professional association whose responsibility is to develop and disseminate standards of practice related to young children with special needs and their families. The intention is to identify practices that result in high-quality early intervention/early childhood…

Continuous quality improvement efforts are vital to high-quality early intervention services. This article describes an ongoing quality improvement project within an infant mental health-based Early Head Start program. Both strategies and challenges in implementing issues and lessons learned in the initial 2-year phase of the quality improvement…

This document, a transcript of a series of Congressional hearings, considers the reauthorization of the Vocational Rehabilitation Act and the Education of the Handicapped Act. The hearings were designed to assess the effectiveness of existing programs and to seek ways to ensure their continued success in the future. Testimony and prepared reports…

Federal law (PL 94-142) has charged schools with the task of constructing for handicapped students individual educational programs that specify curriculum-based goals with procedures for measuring progress toward these goals. To demonstrate substantive and procedural compliance with this law, measurement and evaluation procedures must be…

This planning guide presents an interdisciplinary team approach for improving career and vocational programs for youths with disabilities. The approach is an interdisciplinary planning process that involves identifying those things desired for students (best practices) and then working to integrate those things within the current continuum of…

This report provides information about state monitoring practices on the implementation of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act, Part C program that provides early intervention services for infants and toddlers with disabilities. The findings reported summarize responses from 10 states with a variety of Part C lead agencies. In five…

Measures of quality are now in widespread use across states as part of quality improvement initiatives. For example, many states are currently using global measures of quality that were first developed for research and practice purposes (such as the Environmental Rating Scales) in their Quality Rating Systems (QRSs). Although global quality…

This report discusses the findings from two case studies of state use of discretionary funds under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA), Part B. The two states involved in the study were Michigan and Wisconsin. Documents and interviews were used to gather detailed descriptive information from both states regarding: (1) the…

A task force was created to establish a collaborative relationship among government, education, private agencies, and employers for transition services for special education students. Findings were that unemployment and underemployment were extremely high for special education graduates who lacked adequate basic, job-seeking, and work skills. Few…

This guide provides descriptions of 33 promising practices in career education in Massachusetts, which represent a cross-section of geographical locations, student populations, and program components. It is designed for use by school administrators, guidance personnel, teachers, and community members who are looking for suggestions on how to…

This report details the outcomes of a study conducted in response to concerns about the impact of workforce development and welfare reform upon persons with disabilities being served by community rehabilitation programs. Twenty-three focus groups involving over 200 individuals were held in 13 different cities across eight states. Participants came…

This performance report summarizes the services and activities provided for youth and adults in secondary and postsecondary vocational education in North Carolina from July 1987-June 1988, as mandated by the Carl D. Perkins Vocational Education Act of 1984. Data are provided to reflect services to special populations, trends, growth in enrollment,…