Federal special education officials on Monday reaffirmed a pledge to focus more on how special education students are faring, rather than almost exclusively concentrating on whether states are technically upholding the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act.
At the IDEA Leadership Conference, Melody Musgrove, the director of the office of special education programs, shared trends on students’ performance on state assessments and on dropout rates for students with disabilities, which have been largely unchanged for the past few years.
“We’re proposing a new way to be held accountable in special ed,” Musgrove said.
While federal monitoring of some specific issues has improved states’ work in those areas, said Ruth Ryder, deputy director of the office of special education programs, focusing almost exclusively on compliance with the law hasn’t made much of a difference where it counts: those test scores and dropout rates, among other measures.
via Feds Pledge More Focus on Outcomes for Students With Disabilities.