This week’s Weekly Round Up focuses on one topic of particular interest – Results-Driven Accountability (RDA) – the U.S. Department of Education’s recent initiative to implement a revised accountability system under the IDEA. This change shifts the Department’s accountability efforts from a primary emphasis on compliance to a framework focused on improving results for students with disabilities, while continuing to assist States in ensuring compliance with the IDEA’s requirements.

This past week, the U.S. DOE issued 2014 IDEA determinations under RDA that present a very interesting picture as compared to IDEA determinations based on compliance data alone. In fact, last year, when the DOE only considered compliance data in making annual determinations, 41 states and territories met requirements. However, with this year’s IDEA determinations under RDA, the DOE looked at multiple outcome measures of student performance. As a result only 18 states and territories met requirements for 2014.

Check out the stories below for more information on RDA and what it means for districts in your state.

New Accountability Framework Raises the Bar for State Special Education Programs

To improve the educational outcomes of America’s 6.5 million children and youth with disabilities, the U.S. Department of Education announced a major shift in the way it oversees the effectiveness of states’ special education programs.

States’ special education services face tighter oversight by the Obama administration

The Obama administration is tightening its oversight of the way states educate special-needs students, applying more- stringent criteria that drop the number of jurisdictions in compliance with federal law from 38 to 15.

Higher Expectations to Better Outcomes for Children with Disabilities

While the vast majority of students in special education do not have significant cognitive impairments that prohibit them from learning rigorous academic content, fewer than 10 percent of eighth graders with disabilities are proficient in reading and math on the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP). Too often, students’ educational opportunities are limited by low expectations. We must do better.

Education Secretary Lauds Revised Special Education Evaluation System

Evaluating states on the academic performance of students with disabilities—rather than focusing on how states comply with deadlines and paperwork—is an important shift away from “complacency,” said U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan in a press call Tuesday.






Shift in Law on Disability and Students Shows Lapses

Fewer than a third of states and territories now comply with federal disability law under a change announced Tuesday in the way the Department of Education evaluates how well public schools educate students with disabilities. Under the old system, nearly three-quarters of states and territories met the standards.