Back-to-Basics on the Role of Evaluation in Improving Results for Children and Youth With Disabilities

This new webinar continued IDC’s Back-to-Basics webinar series. The webinar provided an overview of the basics of evaluation and the fundamental role that evaluation can play in informing special education or early intervention services to improve results for children and youth with disabilities and their families. The webinar examined evaluation as a learning tool to help states know if the actions they are taking across the many state initiatives, programs, and policies are resulting in intended outcomes. The webinar also addressed how states can leverage the data they collect to target areas for programmatic and service improvement, make decisions about resource allocation, and support improved results for children and youth with disabilities and their families. The webinar reviewed the components of evaluation, what makes a good evaluation, and how high-quality evaluation can help build a culture of data use within states.

The webinar was intended for state staff who want beginning level information on evaluation or have new evaluation-related assignments, including state special education directors, Part C coordinators, Part B and Part C data managers, and others with program and policy decision-making responsibilities.