October 15, 1998

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.