Results-Driven Accountability: The Continuing Search for Scalable Equity in Special Education

• In Event: 75.042 - MTCC Roundtable Session 34
  In Roundtable Session: 75.042-7 - Educational Assessments and Equity in U.S. Schools

Abstract

The Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) has undergone updates and revisions roughly every five years since its inception. Despite these continual modifications, the academic and social outcomes for students with disabilities lags behind that of regular education peers. In 2014, the Office of Special Education Programs initiated Results-Driven Accountability (RDA) to improve the efficacy of both Special Education programs and the indicators used to measure progress. This paper traces the data that led to this major change and examines the critical role of State Education Agencies (SEAs) in the success of this initiative, including how the implementation process currently used by SEAs might be scaled for state wide impact and some of the successes and challenges in that process.

Author

• Barbara Hickman, University of Wyoming