Improving Educational Access, Performance, and Outcomes for Students with Disabilities
The Center for Public Research and Leadership (CPRL) at Columbia University has conducted comprehensive research on state and district structures and processes for oversight and support of special education services in schools across the country. The report, Improving Educational Access, Performance, and Outcomes for Students with Disabilities: Monitoring and Support for Continuous Improvement in the New Orleans Public Charter Schools, also examines structures in the Louisiana Department of Education and New Orleans Public Schools against effective practices in other states and districts.
This study found that monitoring and oversight structures that focus merely or substantially on compliance with legal mandates are not enough to ensure that students with disabilities are properly served and achieve better outcomes; nor are they enough to ensure that local education agencies (LEAs) continuously improve service delivery. The report concludes that effective monitoring and oversight systems must focus on performance and outcomes, while ensuring that any monitoring and intervention activities are designed to facilitate continuous improvement. Moreover, the research finds, it is critical that oversight agencies such as state education agencies and charter authorizers provide or support quality technical assistance to often under-resourced and over-stretched local education agencies. This is particularly the case with small LEAs, like many of the charter schools in New Orleans, that do not have the economies of scale or resources to address all of the needs of their diverse learners.
CPRL’s research consisted of an analysis of relevant scholarly literature and other materials, more than 20 semi-structured interviews with experts and other stakeholders, and case studies of various agency practices in special education monitoring and oversight in different regions across the country.