Focus on Outcomes

As reported from the US Department of Education:

"To improve the educational outcomes of America’s 6.5 million children and youth with disabilities, the U.S. Department of Education today announced a major shift in the way it oversees the effectiveness of states’ special education programs."

"Until now, the Department’s primary focus was to determine whether states were meeting procedural requirements such as timelines for evaluations, due process hearings and transitioning children into preschool services."  

Results-Driven Accountability (RDA) will focus on outcomes for students with disabilities.  As indicated in the article this is long overdue.  Through my experience, so much effort is placed on compliance and paperwork we don't focus on C&I efforts to improve student achievement for special education students.  I was hoping to see something related to other outcomes for student's with disabilities such as completing vocational programs that lead to employment rather than just reading and math test scores.  We are way off when it come to this.

The article also shows data related to states readiness for RDA and how students with disabilities fared on high stakes tests.


  Link to Article