Results Driven Accountability. Everyone can agree that it’s a good idea in theory. Of course we should focus on the quality of education for students with special needs rather than whether teachers and administrators can fill out the correct compliance paperwork. But how do we ensure appropriate education and get results? The Office of Special […]
During our User Experience (UX) research, we noticed a common problem that many administrators struggled with: getting relevant data and figuring out how to use it effectively. School administrators and teachers who we talked to had trouble finding data that showed how their schools were changing over time, having to settle for large scale data at […]
In the effort to ensure compliance with the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) , state administrators often find themselves traveling to every corner of their state to keep track of school districts that are out of compliance. This can be a daunting task, especially for larger states with many remotely-located districts. Monitoring team members […]
While managing Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) compliance, it is easy to lose track of the issue at hand: educating students with disabilities. Local school administrators, technical assistance providers and state administrators often find they spend more time completing paperwork and entering the same data into multiple software systems than implementing the corrective actions […]
The Stepwell team learned quite a bit about the burden of documentation while conducting our User Experience (UX) research. State agencies share a common headache: managing mountains of paperwork to monitor compliance with requirements set out in Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA). Not only is completing documentation time-consuming for administrators, but the sheer amount […]
We’ve all been there: spending far too long staring at a screen, trying to figure out where to go next. Or maybe you’ve clicked away somewhere, and inadvertently lost all your work. Or you find yourself spending two long minutes just to get to a page that you return to twenty times a day. Software […]
“Well, most people probably–” Aaaand, stop. Assumptions are the enemy of usability. Assumptions are the reason your colorblind co-worker can’t read a table that uses red to indicate “bad” and green for “good.” They’re why it’s so difficult to click that link on your tablet, and why that one website looks just awful on your […]
Our team leader, Andrew Henry, previously served as the director of a state agency. While all of us are excited to put an effective solution into the hands of SEAs, he is especially eager to see positive change in his former work environment. Here is, in Andrew’s own words, a breakdown of exactly how Stepwell […]
As a federal law, the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) demands specific and stringent adherence to its rules. But even with clear policies and guidelines carefully established ahead of time, unforeseen mistakes can slip through the cracks, resulting in costly, time-consuming, and burdensome repercussions. Since its passing in 1975, the act has drastically improved […]
At first glance, IDEA Parts B and C compliance is a swirl of IEP meetings, documentation, deadlines, data analysis, and handoffs between local and state education agencies. Keeping track of workflow can be a daunting task, especially for the educators and administrators who have an abundance of other responsibilities with their own demands and deadlines. […]