Since the 2004 reauthorization of the Individuals With Disabilities Education Act (IDEA), there has been a growing focus on improving the quality of programs for children with disabilities and measuring the results/outcomes of those programs. Across the country, IDEA Part C Programs for Infants and Toddlers and IDEA Part B, Section 619 Preschool…

This directory contains 338 discretionary projects addressing the early childhood provisions of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) that received funds in 2005. It was compiled from 4 volumes separately published by the National Dissemination Center for Children with Disabilities (NICHCY). The Research to Practice Division of…

Most special education administrators do not get the chance to network regularly with professional peers to discuss job challenges and strategies. School-district special education directors routinely juggle complex, difficult, time-consuming, and emotion-laden job demands, but when things get tough, they usually find themselves solving problems…

This directory contains 355 discretionary projects addressing the early childhood provisions of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) that received funds in 2004. It was compiled from 4 volumes separately published by the National Dissemination Center for Children with Disabilities (NICHCY). The Research to Practice Division of…

Policy decision makers, early educators, and early interventionists face numerous challenges as they develop and implement statewide accountability systems to evaluate and improve children's early intervention and early childhood special education outcomes. Kansas was an early adopter of the Child Outcomes Summary Form (COSF) developed by the…

Kentucky has developed an assessment and accountability system that provides outcome data for a set of state early childhood standards for children birth to 5 years of age that are aligned with early childhood outcomes designated by the Office of Special Education Programs (OSEP). Within this flexible and comprehensive state assessment system,…

This review examined the evaluation components from 10 awarded state improvement grants designed to improve systems providing services for students with disabilities. The review examined the following aspects of the evaluation components: purposes, conceptual framework for the evaluation and systems reform, evaluation design and approaches,…

The Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction implemented, in 71 school districts, a pilot project designed to assist handicapped learners to participate in vocational education programs. The program, called Designated Vocational Instruction (DVI), is intended to improve the scope and quality of secondary-level vocational education for special…

This workshop manual focuses on validation procedures designed to foster program improvement rather than compliance monitoring. The manual is in eight chapters. Chapter 1 looks at the elements to be evaluated--organization and management, training, student assessment, design and implementation of classroom interventions, team work, screening a…

This report, the second in a series of independent analyses by The National Council on Disability on federal enforcement of civil rights laws looks at more than two decades of federal monitoring and enforcement of compliance with Part B of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA). Separate parts of the report address: (1) development…

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…

The Community Transition Team Model guides the process of systematic program change in secondary special education and transition programs in Oregon. The model uses a management-by-objectives paradigm for implementing its principles, which include local control, a developmental perspective on change, a focus on program capacity, and networking…

In response to the recommendations of the New Jersey Special Education Study Commission and input from parents, educators, and the general public, the New Jersey Department of Education's Division of Special Education developed "A Plan To Revise Special Education in New Jersey" (1986), commonly called P2R. P2R calls for changes in the…

State and local agencies must work to provide appropriately designed vocational education programs to vocational students in order to help them become self-sufficient in living and working. In view of the employment potential of disabled people and the legal and economic reasons for facilitating their access to employment-related programs, state…

This report covers the second year of work by the National Center for Research in Vocational Education in assisting states to increase their ability to evaluate programs and services for special populations. The report also provides information on changes that have occurred in the total evaluation system of the participating states since the start…