Archived Resources

This webinar highlighted the IDEA state reporting requirements for early childhood transitions for both Part C and Part B, found in the SPP/APR Part C Indicator 8 and Part B Indicators 11 and 12. Participants shared resources related to transition, data collection, and reporting, as well as the use of both Part C and Part B data to facilitate high quality transitions. North Dakota's Part C coordinator and data manager and Montana's 619 coordinator and data manager described how their states collect and use transition data to ensure smooth transitions for all young children as they turn three and move from early intervention services to preschool 619 services.

The webinar featured the purpose and history of the Annual Report to Congress on the Implementation of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act, its current organization and content, links to the report and its data sources, and suggestions for how participants can use the report. The webinar was designed so that participants would have a greater understanding of why it is important to work to improve the quality of IDEA-related data by seeing how the U.S. Department of Education uses IDEA data to meet an annual statutory requirement to report to Congress;. In addition, it was designed to help participants become familiar with a key resource on state and national IDEA data and related information and prompt them to think about how they might use the resource.

During this interactive workshop, the IDC Evaluation Team helped participants find new ways to measure infrastructure changes and build on what is already being done in the state with data and evaluation. Participants also learned about new resources for evaluating infrastructure changes. For the 2016 Conference on Improving Data, Improving Outcomes held August 15-17, the content of this workshop was updated as Evaluating Infrastructure Changes: Tracking Improvement Strategies and Identifying Outcomes, along with an updated handout and resource guide.

Presenters and participants discussed strategies that SEAs can use to help LEAs in collecting section 618 and other state-required data that is of high-quality. They explored IDC’s Knowledge Lab that lists various resources around different data collections. The Knowledge Lab contains many resources designed to help SEAs and LEAs gather, collect, validate, and report high-quality data. The discussion allowed for state input on how the state uses or can use these resources.

The required measurements for APR Indicators B3, B4, B5, B6, B9, and B10 (the assessment, discipline, LRE, and disproportionality indicators) are based on Section 618 data. This session focused on selected section 618 data submissions and how the data can be explored to provide more in-depth information for use in discussion with state’s APR stakeholders. Presenters demonstrated some practical methods for taking a deeper look at data in the IDEA EDFacts file submissions using readily available data analysis tools (Microsoft Excel).

IDC staff provided an introduction to data visualization approaches that are particularly useful for presenting IDEA data for the public. Participants learned simple strategies, chart types, and report styles that can be used to visualize the state’s data using Microsoft Excel, PowerPoint, and free online tools. Presenters also provided a set of activities so participants can continue developing their capacity in follow-up to the interactive institute.

This interactive role-alike presentation for SPP/APR Coordinators engaged states in discussion and dialogue around their experiences with select APR Indicators that address student outcomes. The session included one state's experiences with capturing and using high-quality data and how the data are used to inform the APR and drive decisions for selecting and implementing strategies to improve student outcomes. Participants were encouraged to share their state's examples to improve the APR and student outcomes.