Abstract
Currently, there is a strong push in California and across the country to provide effective evidence-based educational programs for all students, including students with moderate to severe disabilities, and to show accountability and proof of legal compliance as well as increased student performance through these programs. The purpose of this project was to synthesize current best practices in special education, along with existing tools for evaluating special education programs, to create a valid measure of accountability and success for the special services programs that serve students with moderate to severe disabilities. The county office of education that is the focus of this project is centered in a large, rural area of northern California. This county office of education was striving to develop a meaningful way to measure the effectiveness of the programs that served students with moderate to severe disabilities. Although a few systems were in place to gather data and report progress of students on individual goals, no holistic tool pulled together the existing splintered assessments to inform change and improvement in the special education programs. To create a document to gather important data in a comprehensive format, the current author reviewed research-based literature on current best practices in special education and evaluative documents from other special education entities in California. The current author also interviewed stakeholders within the county to gather information on need areas when providing education and services for students with moderate to severe disabilities. As the information was gathered and synthesized, quality indicators were collected into a document, or measurement tool, to be used to evaluate special education programs and services in the county. This measurement tool, along with the evaluation process, is called the Program Quality Review, or PQR. The Program Quality Review process and measurement tool will provide an ongoing process to assess and evaluate the effectiveness of the programs within the Special Services Department in a way that will inform the improvement process. The development and implementation of the project resulted in many positive outcomes. Better awareness by general education administrators of the importance of including students with moderate to severe disabilities was noted. The teachers involved were able to strengthen their programs to include better medical support for the students, as well as more involvement by parents and families. General education teachers and special education teachers were able to increase collaborative efforts to provide more effective learning opportunities for all students.