June 24, 1999

 

Dr. Judith Holt
Office of Special Education Programs
U.S. Department of Education
Switzer Building, Room 4622
330 C St., SW Washington, DC 20202

Reference: Special Education Elementary Longitudinal Study Design

Task Order 6

SRI Project 3421; RTI Subcontract 2-36U-7051

 

Dear Judy:

Enclosed please find the direct assessment workgroup membership list and work plan for the above-referenced task. These constitute the deliverable for subtask 8.

Please contact me with any questions or comments.

Sincerely,

Jose Blackorby, Ph.D.
Senior Education Researcher
Center for Education and Human Services

cc: Mary Wagner, CEHS Center director
Donna Schanck, SRI Contract Administrator
Sandra Warren, RTI Task Order Manager

 


SPECIAL EDUCATION ELEMENTARY LONGITUDINAL STUDY (SEELS)

Direct Assessment Workgroup Membership and Work Plan

In commissioning a design for a direct assessment as a part of the Special Education Elementary Longitudinal Study (SEELS), the Office of Special Education Programs sought technical support for design activities from a workgroup composed of researchers with outstanding experience in a variety of content and technical areas, including issues related to early reading, psychological measurement and instrumentation, functional assessment, low-incidence disabilities, cognitive disabilities, deafness, blindness/visual impairments, learning disabilities, curriculum-based measurement, language minority issues, social skills measurement, and accommodations.

Direct Assessment Workgroup Members

SRI International proposed the following workgroup members, all of whom were approved by OSEP and have agreed to lend their expertise to the SEELS direct assessment design work.

Name

Organization

Address

Numbers

Tom Allen

Gallaudet University

800 Florida Avenue, N.E.

Washington, DC 20002

Phone: 202-651-5575

Fax: 202-651-5746

tom.allen@gallaudet.edu

Anne Corn

Vanderbilt University

George Peabody College for Teachers

Nashville, TN 37203

Phone: 615-343-8749

Fax: 615-343-1570

anne.corn@vanderbilt.edu

Bill Frey

Westat

4340 East West Highway,

Suite 402

Bethesda, MD 20814

Phone: 301-251-5198

Fax: 301-294-4475

freyw1@westat.com

Douglas Fuchs

Vanderbilt University

George Peabody College for Teachers

Nashville, TN 37203

Phone: 615-343-4782

Fax: 615-343-1570

doug.fuchs@vanderbilt.edu

Frank Gresham

University of California, Riverside

School of Education

900 University Ave

Riverside, CA 92521

Phone: 909-787-4516

Fax: 909-787-3942

frank.gresham@ucr.edu

Judith Holt

Office of Special Education Programs

U.S. Department of Education

Switzer Building, Room 4622

330 C. Street, SW

Washington, DC 20202

Phone: 202-358-3059

Fax: 202-205-8971

home office: 301-951-3461

judith_holt@ed.gov

Joseph Jenkins

University of Washington

1825 7th Ave. W

Seattle, WA 98119

Phone: 206-281-9619

Fax:

jjenkins@u.washington.edu

Kevin McGrew

Institute for Applied Psychometrices

20293 Co. Rd. 45

Clearwater, MN 55320

Phone: 320-558-2314

Fax: 320-255-4237

IAPllc@worldnet.att.net

Rollanda O’Connor

 

University of Pittsburgh

Department of Special Education

4H01 Forbes Quadrangle

Pittsburgh, PA 15260

Phone: 412-648-2621

Fax:

roconnor+@pitt.edu

Martha Thurlow

National Center on Educational Outcomes

University of Minnesota

350 Elliott Hall

75 E. River Road

Minneapolis, MN 55455

Phone: 612-624-4826

Fax: 612-624-0879

thurl001@tc.umn.edu

Addison Watanabe

San Francisco State University

Department of Special Education

1600 Holloway Ave

San Francisco, CA 94132

Phone: 415-338-1248

Fax:

spedad@sfsu.edu

Work Plan

Given the limited amount of time advisors have to offer and for which they can be reimbursed within the budget of the design task (a total of 7 days each), we do not plan to convene the group in person. Rather, we propose to gather their ideas and draw on their expertise through five extended conference calls (2 to 3 hours) at key points in the design process. We will prepare materials as background to each call and will provide an agenda for using the time together effectively. We propose the following points for discussion in the design of the direct assessment. The purpose of each call and the materials to be reviewed before the calls are described briefly.

 

 

Conference Call Topic

Activities/Decisions

Approximate Time Frame

Kick-off meeting, academic measures

  • Review research questions related to academics.
  • Select appropriate Woodcock-Johnson research version subtests.
  • Select other academic measures.
  • Select measures for use with subpopulations or grade levels.

Late June 1999

Social-emotional measurement/student interview

  • Review research questions related to social competence, self-concept, and student "voice."
  • Select appropriate measures of social skills and self-concept.
  • Select student interview items appropriate to age and disability, particularly risk behaviors for older students.

Late July 1999

Inclusion criteria/accommodations

  • Review and revise inclusion criteria.
  • Review and revise logistics for making inclusion decisions.
  • Review and revise accommodation frameworks.

Mid to late August 1999

Alternative assessments

  • Select alternative assessments to be used for students whose educational experiences are not reflected in the "core" assessment materials.
  • Review and revise logistics for administering alternative assessments.

Mid September 1999

Field test of direct assessment

  • Review results of field test and revise content and/or procedures.

November 1999

 

Written comments provided by workgroup members will be shared with OSEP and incorporated into the final versions of the assessment and supporting materials.