Evaluation of the Personnel Preparation to Improve Services and Results for Children with Disabilities Program

Contractor: Westat; Center for Exceptional Children (CEC); and Compass Consulting (Compass)

Background/Research Questions:

The Individuals with Disabilities Education Improvement Act of 2004 (IDEA 2004) is the most recent authorization of a law passed in 1975 to promote a free appropriate public education for children with disabilities. To alleviate the shortage of fully certified educators in special education, the Personnel Development Program is funded under the IDEA, Title I, Part D, Subpart 2, Sec. 662. Projects funded under the program are designed to help address state-identified needs for personnel in special education, and help ensure that special education personnel are highly qualified and that teachers have the necessary knowledge and skills to provide instruction to students with disabilities in the regular education classroom. The program was funded at $88,153,000 in FY08 and the evaluation is estimated to cost $2,700,000 over four years.

The Personnel Preparation to Improve Services and Results for Children with Disabilities Program awards grants designed to address state-identified needs for personnel who work with children with disabilities. A portion of the grants are awarded to National Centers, which are to provide national capacity-building and scientifically-based products and services to a variety of audiences. Grants are also awarded to specific institutes of higher education to develop courses of study for special education teachers and other service providers. These grants can be used to improve the quality of personnel preparation programs (e.g., hiring faculty; creating new classes) and for stipends that support students enrolled in the programs. The evaluation includes two descriptive studies. The study of the National Centers will address the following questions:

This evaluation, occurring under the National Assessment of IDEA 2004, will address the following questions:

• What materials have been developed and what services have been provided by the National Centers with funds from the Personnel Preparation Program, and what is the quality of the materials and services?
• What is the quality of the materials and services provided by the National Centers using funds awarded from the Personnel Preparation Program?

The study of Personnel Preparation Courses of Study will address the following questions:

• How do applicants that receive Personnel Preparation Program grant funding use the funds? What are the qualifications of new faculty hired and the quality of course of study materials created using program funds? How does this differ by grant focus area?
• How many new students are enrolled in courses of study funded by program funds and how many complete the course or dropout?

Design:

The descriptive study of the twelve National Centers will catalogue the products and services provided by the Centers and the types and numbers of customers targeted and served. In addition, a panel of experts will rate the quality of a sample of products and services from each of the Centers along three dimensions: adherence to scientifically based standards, relevance to the field, and usefulness. The descriptive study of the Courses of Study will include grantees from FY06 and FY07 and will examine a number of outcomes including: how grant funds are spent, the number of students enrolled and who complete the courses since they received funding, and students' entrance test and exit certification test scores. An expert panel will rate the quality of a sample of course materials that were created using grant funding. The study will also survey applicants from FY06 and FY07 who were not funded in those years in order to determine the status of these courses of study.

Duration: 4 years (September 2007 – September 2011)

Current Status:

The contractor is preparing the data collection instruments and the rubrics for the expert panel reviews. The final report on this study will be announced on http://ies.ed.gov/ncee/.