This article provides a description of the birth of The Odyssey Initiative. As teachers, this group of three, all educators, knew that there was outrage about the state of education in America. Griping about our nation's schools has almost become a pastime, and with very good reason. However, they found the solutions being offered to save our…

Individualized learning plans (ILPs) are becoming an important tool used by states to support youth in becoming college ready and career ready. The contents and names of ILPs vary from state to state. Based upon several years of research investigating the nature and use of ILPs in states across the United States, the National Collaborative on…

The MICRO-CMI system designed at the University of Wisconsin combines the grouping, diagnosis, and prescription functions of two previously designed systems, with the additional dimension of a sheet scanner to input grades and to score tests. Moreover, the user may specify a unique program of studies for each student, thus enabling the support of…

The document contains a composite of the summaries written for every Texas special education research and evaluation project in the 1977-78 school year. Sections address the following projects: Evaluation of the Implementation of Individualized Educational Plans, Project Help-Screening, Project KIDS (Kindling Individual Development Systems),…

The Fostering Individualized Assistance Program (FIAP) was driven by permanency and family-focused values and involved intense case management to ensure that services could be adjusted as children's situations and needs changed. Compared to children in standard foster care, FIAP children with, or at risk for, emotional/behavioral disorders showed…

Family-Centered Intensive Case Management, a New York State-sponsored research demonstration project, empowers and supports families of children with serious emotional disturbance, by providing respite care, flexible funding, parent support groups, and behavior management skills training. The project found that, given intensive and individualized…

This article examines the employment and child care responses of families participating in 10 experimental welfare reform programs conducted in the United States between 1989 and 2002. For the programs analyzed, child care use increases by about the same amount as the increase in employment. Most of the increased child care comprises informal care…

The Families Involved in Schools and Community (FISC) Project was a federally funded project to develop and demonstrate the use of a model Individualized Family Service Plan process for young children with challenging needs and their families. The model emphasizes an individualized family systems perspective, informal nonintrusive assessment and…

The National Center on Educational Outcomes (NCEO) has been tracking and analyzing state policies on assessment participation and accommodations since 1992. The purpose of the current analysis is to update information on these policies that was last reported by NCEO in 2008 (based on 2007 data). In addition, current state accommodations policies…

Achieving positive postschool outcomes continues to be a challenge for many students. These challenges are compounded for students with disabilities, even years after the Individuals With Disabilities Education Act (1990; IDEA) required systematic transition planning. In this era of accountability through high-stakes testing, schools and families…

The present study examined the effect accommodations have on test results of students with and without disabilities and documented experts' judgments about the appropriateness of testing accommodations. Test score data were collected from 218 fourth-grade students with and without disabilities on mathematics and science performance tasks and from…

In an era of standards and norms where assessment tends to minimize or dismiss individual differences and results in punitive outcomes or no action at all, Assessment of Young Children provides teachers with an approach to assessment that is in the best interest of both children and their families. Author Lisa B. Fiore explores a variety of ways…

The U.S. Department of Education's Office of Special Education Programs (OSEP) recognizes the current challenges faced by states and schools relative to the provision of high-quality intervener services for children who are deaf-blind. To respond to these challenges, OSEP asked the National Consortium on Deaf-Blindness (NCDB) to conduct an…

Synchronizing the availability of team members for Individual Education Plan (IEP) meetings can be a daunting task. Fortunately, the Individuals with Disabilities Education Improvement Act of 2004 permits alternative means of conducting such meetings. An example of an alternate means is a telephone conference, whereby parents communicate over the…

A person-environment fit conceptualization of intellectual disability (ID) requires educators to focus on the gap between a student's competencies and the demands of activities and settings in schools. In this article the implications of the person-environment fit conceptual model are considered in regard to instructional benefits, special…