Special Education

Learning Disabilities Group Releases State Scorecards

By Christina A. Samuels — January 10, 2011 1 min read
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The National Center for Learning Disabilities has released scorecards on the 50 states that include such information as student enrollment, funding levels, and how states are meeting federal standards in areas related to educating students with disabilities.

The scorecards focus on students with specific learning disabilities. At 40 percent, students with disabilities are the largest of the 13 disability categories covered under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act.

These scorecards are intended to be a snapshot, not an exhaustive analysis of special education programs in the states. However, they’re a nice central location for information about state performance plans and annual performance reports, a federally-mandated process that requires states to analyze their own special education performance. I’ve written extensively about the SPP/APR, including complaints from state officials that the process as currently enacted is too onerous and doesn’t really measure important measures of student performance.

Despite the perceived flaws of the SPP/APR process, it’s nice to have a central location for this information, because some states don’t do the best job making this information available and easy to understand.

A version of this news article first appeared in the On Special Education blog.