Study of School Accountability for Students with Disabilities
Contract Information
Current Status:
This study has been completed.
Duration:
February 2008 – February 2015
Cost:
$3,626,218
Contract Number:
ED-04-CO-0025/0013
Contractor(s):
American Institutes for Research
NORC at the University of Chicago
Contact:
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. Funded at $12.6 billion in Fiscal Year 2012, IDEA supports early intervention services for infants and toddlers, special education services for children ages 3 through 21, and early intervening services for students not in special education but in need of academic or behavioral support.
The focus of this study—conducted as part of the National Assessment of IDEA under Section 664 of IDEA 2004 to assess the implementation and effectiveness of key programs and services supported under the law—was on the inclusion of students with disabilities (SWDs) in school accountability systems and the variation in school practices in schools accountable and schools not accountable for the performance of the students with disabilities (SWD) subgroup under the Elementary and Secondary Education Act.
- To what extent were schools accountable for the performance of the students with disabilities (SWD) subgroup, and how did this accountability vary across schools and over time?
- To what extent were schools accountable for the SWD subgroup identified as needing improvement?
- How did school accountability for the SWD subgroup relate to regular and special education practices for students with disabilities?
This evaluation relied on descriptive statistics to study patterns of school accountability across states and over time and to examine how school practices varied with school accountability for the SWD subgroup. Data sources for the evaluation included extant data from the U.S. Department of Education's EDFacts database and 2011 surveys of principals and special education designees from elementary and middle schools in 12 states.
A final report, titled School Practices and Accountability for Students With Disabilities, was released in February 2015.
Other publications from this study are listed below.
- Across the 44 states with relevant data and DC, 35 percent of public schools were accountable for the performance of the SWD subgroup in the 2009–10 school year, representing 59 percent of SWDs in those states. In those same 44 states and DC, 62 percent of middle schools were accountable for SWD performance, while 32 percent of elementary schools and 23 percent of high schools were accountable.
- In 31 states with relevant data, 56 percent of public schools were not accountable for the SWD subgroup in any of the 4 years examined, in comparison with 23 percent of schools that were consistently accountable in each of the 4 years.
- Among schools that were consistently accountable for the performance of the SWD subgroup across 22 states during the 4 years, 56 percent were never identified for school improvement over this time period. By comparison, among schools that were consistently not accountable for SWD subgroup performance in these states, 80 percent were never identified for improvement.
- When surveyed in 2011, elementary schools accountable for the SWD subgroup were 15.8 percentage-points more likely than never-accountable elementary schools to report moving students with disabilities from self-contained settings to regular classrooms over the previous five years. Middle schools accountable for the SWD subgroup were 16.7 percentage-points more likely than never-accountable middle schools to report moving students with disabilities from self-contained settings to regular classrooms over the previous five years.