Jose Blackorby

Jose Blackorby, Ph.D., director of the Center for Education and Human Services at SRI International, has more than 20 years of experience in the design and implementation of large-scale, multifaceted studies with research, policy, and practice implications. He has been author or coauthor of reports and journal articles that have provided important information for the development of state and federal policy regarding special education, education reform and innovation, charter schools, and human services coordination.

Blackorby has extensive experience in national studies on students with disabilities. Currently, he is the principal investigator on the National Study of Alternate Assessments, which is documenting states' progress in implementing alternate assessment systems for students with significant cognitive disabilities. He also is principal investigator of a project that is providing analytic support to the Institute of Education Sciences to conduct secondary analyses of national databases to address critical questions about the implementation of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act of 2004.

Blackorby was co-director of the Special Education Elementary Longitudinal Study from 1998 to 2007 and is on the research team for the National Longitudinal Transition Study-2. Both of these studies provide national population estimates for many of the key questions related to programs and outcomes that face students who receive special education services. A key contribution to these studies was his design and oversight of the direct assessments of students' abilities in reading and mathematics and, for secondary school students, content knowledge in science and social studies. These assessments represent the first assessment data ever collected on the entire range of students with disabilities at the national level.

In addition to large-scale research in special education, Blackorby has considerable experience in projects related to emerging trends in education reform and innovation generally, as well as their potential for students with disabilities. He has a diverse range of research and development interests, including students with mild disabilities; reading, math, and science achievement; assistive technology; secondary school programs and transition; assessment and curriculum design; and universal design for learning.

Blackorby serves in an advisory role on national panels for government initiatives, as well as private organizations. Blackorby holds a Ph.D. in special education from the University of Washington.