It is a story that has become altogether too familiar in the past year: special education students, teachers, parents and service providers facing the day to day challenges posed by the coronavirus and remote learning. Everyone feels farther behind and less connected. Students are less prepared for life after graduation. In an environment that is […]
By Andrew Henry For the last several months, I have been arguing that Result-Driven Accountability holds the key to improving special education outcomes. In a series of posts, I’ve set forth a vision for how state education agencies (SEAs) can adopt a results-driven approach to special education compliance monitoring, leading to real improvement gains in […]
By Andrew Henry In the world of special education compliance, state officials typically give local school systems a compliance rating that focuses on whether they did, or didn’t, meet certain indicators. For the most part, it’s up to each school district to independently develop and implement a plan that will improve their numbers by the following year. This […]
By Andrew Henry Like many others in special education, I have argued that the move from monitoring for compliance to improving quality for results is the only thing likely to improve special education outcomes. I have described how states and school systems can empower teams to evaluate the quality of special education programs using data. […]
By Andrew Henry The first post in this series focused on the overall need to make improvements to special education reporting by focusing on results rather than just compliance with federal requirements. Our opportunity in moving beyond mere data collection is to deliver more technical assistance and services to support students with disabilities, leading to improved learning gains. This […]
By Andrew Henry State education officials tasked with improving the delivery of PreK-12 special education services work diligently to review school districts’ special education programs and offer technical assistance to local educators. But all too often, these efforts focus more on compliance with Part B of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act. To a person, […]
If we really want to move the needle on special education outcomes in U.S. schools, then we have to change the conversations we’re having. Too often, these focus on compliance instead of results. Part of the problem is how states measure success under Part B of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA). The Education […]
This October, the Stepwell team attended the annual National Association of State Directors of Special Education (NASDSE) conference. The theme of this year’s conference, “Aligning Systems of Support to Improve Meaningful Daily Outcomes,” relates closely to what Stepwell works toward each day with our mission to drive system improvement at every level. There were a […]
One word you will hear a lot when learning about Stepwell is “visibility.” We use it all the time to describe our platform and our goals. From “providing visibility into special education monitoring” to “creating visibility with timely and relevant data,” we place a lot of importance on that single word. So why are we […]
In our journey to create Stepwell, our team has done a lot of thinking about the work that has to go into improving special education. While our platform focuses on streamlining compliance with the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act, our ultimate goal is to help schools improve the results of their special education programs. When […]