Sisyphean tasks: the reams of paperwork that currently serve as special education's accountability" system distract from the practice of teaching and learning. It is time to focus on results - Forum - focus on special education in the Baltimore, Maryland public school system

Education Next, Wntr, 2003 by Patrick J. Wolf

A sound results-based accountability system could even attract more funding to special education. Congressman Pete Stark (D-Calif.) has introduced legislation to reward improved special education results at the state and local level with increased funding from the federal government. Federal funding is important to the success of special education, since the costs of educating even a few severely disabled students can squeeze the finances of any district, but especially small districts. Congressman Stark's proposal is a laudable attempt to permit states and localities to earn their way to full federal funding in special education, through demonstrated results.

Conclusion

Special education has often been described as a "third rail" of policy reform. Because the current system, with all of its flaws, ensures that many of America's most vulnerable children are given access to special services and, whenever possible, significant exposure to a regular educational environment, parents and advocates oppose reforms because they fear losing the opportunities that children now have. Analysts and reformers tend to focus on the shortcomings of the system, and in so doing they risk being characterized as opponents of children with disabilities. Not surprisingly, special education reformers tend to keep quiet. Thus, the clarion call for reform that has come from liberal and conservative think tanks, respected members of the academy, Republican and Democratic members of Congress, and a bipartisan presidential commission should give us pause. Although the political conditions may not be ripe for major policy reform in special education this year, there is a growing consensus that we can and must design a better system for diagnosing, educating, and verifying the educational progress of special education students.

Legal rights to a special education program for students with disabilities must be preserved, but the specific content of a given student's program ought to be guided by evidence about what is and isn't working for the child, not "one-size-fits-all" mandates from federal, state, and local regulators.

A results-based accountability system would allow special education teachers and administrators to spend more time tracking each student's progress (and using that information to generate even more progress) and less time holding meetings and completing paperwork. Program overseers, legislators, and the general public would have a clearer idea of the extent to which the $50 billion special education system is working. Parents would know more about how their own children are doing in special education and when a dramatic change is needed. As a result of such information, more resources would be invested in the system and more wisely. Perhaps we would inch closer to the vision of what we want to achieve in terms of educating students with disabilities. At a minimum we would have a clearer idea of how much further we need to go. That alone would be a dramatic improvement.