In Summer 2018, ABC conducted a national survey to understand how schools collect, analyze, and use data to inform their decision-making and programming for students with disabilities. With 527 analyzed responses across a diverse group of school types, sizes, geography, and approaches to special education, many trends emerge. Our White Paper, Opportunity Accelerated: Exploring the Connection between Data Collection, Special Education Programming, and Improved Outcomes, highlights those trends, illuminates key drivers for special education improvement, and describes how ABC is solving some of the critical challenges faced by schools today.

The foundation of ABC’s vision for improvement is our Framework for Special Education Quality, developed through a year-long project that brought together a cross-functional group of educators from around the country to identify the key drivers, or dimensions, of a successful special education program.  Using the Framework and our direct school partnerships to guide our research, we uncover insights about successful school practice that can be turned into actionable tools and solutions. As we grow, our vision is to connect schools seeking improvement together so that impact can be amplified from a school-by-school approach into a broader networked community.