Evaluation Parameters for a Special Education Instructional System: The Six-S Paradigm (original) (raw)
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Guidelines for Assessment in Special Education
Focus on Exceptional Children
Assessment in special education is useful when it helps us make decisions that promote appropriate and effective services to students. In particular, assessment should assist us in making two general types of decisions: (I) who should be served? (classification decisions); and (2) how should eligible students be served? (programming decisions). Although all of us involved in special education recognize that assessment is crucially involved in our efforts to make appropriate classification and programming decisions, we are often much less sure about how to provide helpful assessment services. We ask questions such as: How should we organize our assessment program? How can we assess all the students who need it and still ensure quality assessment work? What assessment techniques should be used with different types of students? The specific suggestions in this article may be more easily applied in some school systems than in others. This caution reflects several important points. One is that assessment requires integration of a number of factors including goals of assessment, legal requirements, ethical responsibilities, and available assessment techniques (Helton, Workman, & Matuszek, 1982, pp. 1-2). Partly because of the need to integrate so many factors, assessment is a complex activity, subject to varied emphases and interpretations. It is also an activity that generates much controversy about specific theoretical and applied issues. Hence, each professional involved in assessment and each school system must ultimately make judgments about the varied emphases, interpretations, and viewpoints, rather than depending on others for "packaged" answers. And, of course, a genuine concern for our students and honest teamwork are necessary in any assessment program.
In 1964, Samuel Kirk wrote a definitive review of the literature to that date and concluded that the research methodology used to make the comparisons was flawed and that the only sound study found no significant long-term differences in academic outcomes. In more recent years, other authorities have voiced similar concerns with regard to both methodological adequacy and relative efficacy. Despite the lack of consistency regarding the benefits of general education placement, students with disabilities are primarily enrolled in that setting because the federal Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) mandates placement in the least restrictive environment (LRE).
Accommodations: Results of a Survey of Alabama Special Education Teachers
cehd.umn.edu
This report contains the findings from a survey of 2,336 special education teachers in the state of Alabama on making and implementing decisions about accommodations. Key findings included: • When making instructional accommodations decisions 51% of the survey respondents considered student characteristics as an important factor. Only 12% of respondents considered student's performance in the classroom to be an important factor. • Almost half of the respondents took into consideration whether instructional accommodations would facilitate access to the curriculum. • The respondents were more than twice as likely to consider student characteristics than student needs that impede success in class when determining instructional accommodations. • The most frequently provided assessment accommodations were small group/individual administration, administration by student's special education teacher, extended time, and administration in the special education classroom. • More than one-third of the teachers considered state policies and guidelines to be an important factor when making assessment accommodations decisions. • Student input was rarely considered to be an important factor in the accommodations process by the survey respondents. • Nearly two-thirds of the respondents indicated that the use of an assessment accommodation should correspond to its use as an instructional accommodation. A number of areas of strength were noted in the survey responses provided by this large sample of Alabama special education teachers. The special education teachers who responded to the survey demonstrated overall knowledge of accommodations use, despite the challenging items presented to them. Nevertheless, there is an evident need for professional development on making accommodations decisions and on implementing accommodations for instruction and assessment.
An Evaluation of Southeast School District\u27s Special Education Program\u27s Compliance
2017
This study is a program evaluation of a small, rural school district’s special education program’s compliance with key processes, including the child study, eligibility, and individual education plan (IEP) processes. The goals of the evaluation were to identify potential weaknesses in the special education program implementation, and to provide suggestions for improvement. The program evaluation model used is the Context, Input, Process, Product (CIPP) model, which was developed by Daniel Stufflebeam. The research questions assessed the alignment of the school district’s special education handbook with federal and state guidelines for special education, as well as the implementation of the special education processes and procedures as intended, including the use of standards-based IEPs. Additionally, the evaluation focused on factors that either contributed to or inhibited the successful implementation of the special education program. The study used a mixed methods approach with th...
Special Educator Evaluation: Cautions, Concerns and Considerations
Journal of American Academy of Special Education Professionals, 2013
There is currently little consensus on how special education teachers should be evaluated in a way that is effective, fair and responsive to their unique teaching responsibilities. In this paper, we explain several of the current approaches to teacher evaluation under consideration, and then provide an overview of the challenges associated with the use of these models for special education teachers. We describe a model currently under development that is designed to better meet the unique characteristics of special education teacher evaluation. Our alternative approach proposes to evaluate special education teacher effectiveness through two primary components: observations of the special educator's use of research-based instructional practices, and the resulting student outcomes reported through effect sizes on measures aligned with relevant student goals. Special Educator Evaluation: Cautions, Concerns and Considerations The purpose of special education is to provide individualized instruction to meet the needs of a heterogeneous group of students with disabilities. Students served through special education often have the most intense instructional needs, and require specially designed instruction; meeting the needs of this group of students is extremely challenging and requires teachers who are highly skilled. Unfortunately however, students with disabilities are more often served by a special education teaching force that is highly subject to attrition and turnover (Billingsley, 2004; Boe, Cook, & Sunderland, 2008; Connelly & Graham, 2009). Additionally, special education is consistently indicated as a high demand field, with positions filled by teachers who lack adequate preparation to meet the demands of the job (Boe et al., 2008). These factors impact student outcomesnationally, as few as 30% of students with disabilities are able to meet performance standards (Cortiella, 2011) and post-school outcomes for students with disabilities are not encouraging (U.S. Department of Education, 2011).
Texas Special Education Effectiveness Study
1998
Worth (Texas), was designated to continue a project implemented in 1990 by the Texas Education Agency to study the overall effectiveness of special education programs. The 1996 project was extended in 1997. This paper reports on the first of three newly planned study components, the "Adult Outcome Component," which was designed to look at students in their last year of high school and to follow them for 4 years after graduation. Other components will focus on the secondary school experience of special education students and case studies of student records, interviews, and observations. For the adult outcome component, 832 students in special education programs from 40 school districts were identified. A comparison sample of students without disabilities remains to be selected. A 65-item questionnaire was developed to gather information from each student's comprehensive and special education records, and a followup questionnaire is to be developed to elicit student responses about their educational experiences. Over the next several years, a number of efforts will be implemented to gather information about students, and data will be analyzed on individual differences among disability categories, gender, ethnicity, and community type. Findings of previous studies indicate that students with disabilities do not fare as well as their nondisabled counterparts after graduating from high school. State and federal legislative changes that have affected special education, especially in the delivery of transition services, should have favorable impacts on the quality and effectiveness of programs for students with disabilities. (Contains eight tables and one reference.) (SLD)