Special Education Services

Special education expenditures now represent a significant and growing proportion of virtually every school district's total budget. It is evident that aggregate special education costs are rising at a rate faster not only of that of inflation, but at a pace that exceeds the rapidly accelerated rate of general education population. School districts have begun to take the lead toward a path of sound and effective policy compliance and monitoring. Part of this process is a strategic evaluation of Special Education programs.

Our own research has indicated the outcome based evaluation model has the highest degree of probability of arriving at both a valid and reliable assessment. Our outcome based evaluations use the highest quality controls as prescribed by the Joint Committee on Educational Program Evaluation.

Here are a few of the ways we can help:

Since the term “learning disability” was first coined, one of the most widely acknowledged shortcomings of special education programs is found in the "discrepancy method". IDEA (reauthorized in 2004) now permits schools to take other approaches, the most prominent of which is the "Response-to-Intervention" (RTI) approach.

Whether we use the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats/facilitates (SWOT) for both the internal and external conditions facing an organization or a more in-depth analysis where we have used the “Importance Performance Matrix”, at Achievement Link we use advanced research protocols to conduct the types of evaluations which gives clients the ability to answer questions like: 

• Are educational offerings for students with disabilities reflective of contemporary best practices and sufficient to meet the individual needs of the student?
• Is the organization structured in a manner that provides the best service models for students with and without disabilities?
• Is there evidence that students with disabilities are benefiting from special education services and are they making expected gains on their IEP objectives and state performance assessments?
• Do the systems for communication and processes for students with disabilities effectively meet the district, family, and child needs?
• Are administrators (i.e., supervisors, reading specialist and building-level administrative support personnel) situated and supported in a manner to provide proactive structural and instructional support between general and special education?

 These are only a few of the many questions districts continually ask themselves. If you need assistance determining the extent to which you may improve your programs and services, contact our team for additional information.