Using Assessment Data Changes the Way Some Schools Do Business

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Tools to Help You Use Quality Assurance Review

• Preparing a Quality Individualized Education Program for a Student with Disabilities is a 35-page document packed with step-by-step directions and worksheets to guide you through preparing, implementing, and evaluating a data-driven IEP. (This document will continue to be revised throughout the remainder of the QAR pilot in 2003-04.)
  • Preparing a Quality Individualized Education Program (IEP) for a Student with Disabilities [PDF]
  • Documents for Preparing a Quality IEP for a Student with Disabilities [PDF]
    
• Compilation of Assessments is a tool developed to help teachers begin to identify, analyze, and use the school’s existing assessment results. [PDF]
  
• QAR Self-Assessment and Planning Personnel Development From Self-Assessment Results. Together with a study of disaggregated Michigan Education Assessment Program (MEAP) result data, these two tools can help administrators make effective decisions about what personnel development is needed and what has the greatest potential for increasing student performance. (QAR pilot schools compared the MEAP results of students with disabilities to those in general education. This information, along with the QAR Self-Assessment, helped administrators determine priorities for personnel development.)
  • Planning Personnel Development: Comparing QAR Self-Assessment Results to MEAP Results [PDF]
  • QAR Action Plan's Personnel Development Strategy [PDF]
  • 2003-2004 QAR Self-Assessment Survey - Classroom Level [PDF]

National Special Education Web Sites with Assessment Information

• National Center on Educational Outcomes (NCEO)
• Federal Resource Center for Special Education (FRC)
  This site includes the publication Special Education in an Era of School Reform: Accountability, Standards and Assessment by Ronald Erickson, Ph.D.
• National Center on Accessing the General Curriculum (NCAC)
  Enter “assessment” into the search site tool

Michigan Special Education Web Sites

• Citizens Alliance to Uphold Special Education (CAUSE)
  Michigan’s designated parent training and information center
• Center for Educational Networking (CEN)
• Michigan Department of Education
  (Click on Administrators, then Special Education)
  

NOTE: The authors are writing as representatives of the entire QAR team, which includes teachers, administrators, staff, and parents at each pilot school. The authors stress that decision-making and exhaustive efforts to continuously improve the pro-ject are on-going team efforts driven by evaluation data. The QAR pilot project continued in two schools throughout 2003-04. The findings from these schools’ implementation of QAR will lead to further changes and adjustments to the process. Additionally, the project began a formal evaluation to measure the impact on teacher practice and student achievement. Evaluaton results and updated QAR informationwill be posted to the CEN Web site at www.cenmi.org.

This article reflects lessons learned by the action research team to date, and the authors claim no exclusive responsibility for the decisions made or the results achieved.

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