SRI International Receives $14.6 Million from the Department of Education to Study Special Education Students

MENLO PARK, Calif. (May 16, 2000) - Silicon Valley-based SRI International, a leading independent research firm, will be conducting a $14.6 million study for the U.S. Department of Education, Office of Special Education Programs (OSEP), that focuses on students receiving special education throughout the United States.

SRI’s Center for Education and Human Services will examine, through the 6-year Special Education Elementary Longitudinal Study (SEELS), the experiences of special education students during their elementary and middle school years as they transition from elementary to middle school and from middle to high school. Through SEELS, SRI will be the first to provide a national picture of the experiences and outcomes of students in special education as they move through the vital years of their educational careers.

The goal of the SEELS research is to distinguish students’ educational, social, and personal development in interaction with the familial, social, institutional, and cultural factors that influence their progress. Students are being selected randomly from rosters of students receiving special education provided by local education agencies and special schools that have agreed to participate in the study.

"This study will provide crucial information that will guide federal legislation and practice in schools," said Dr. Mary Wagner, director of the Center for Education and Human Services at SRI International. "Our goal is both to inform policy and to help teachers and parents learn ways to improve special education programs."

About the Study
SEELS will involve a sample that is nationally representative of students receiving special education who are ages 6 through 12 in fall, 1999, ages 11 through 17 when data collection concludes. SEELS data will generalize to special education students as a whole and to students in each of the 12 special education disability categories (as established by OSEP). Approximately 14,000 students receiving special education are being selected from approximately 300 school districts and special schools throughout the United States (representative of the nation in terms of geographic region, student enrollment and district/community income level). Information is being collected in three waves as students transition from elementary to middle school and from middle to high school.

SEELS will have an ongoing analysis and reporting agenda, with SRI International delivering multiple reports and briefing memos on key issues to OSEP through the conclusion of the study in January 2006. SEELS findings regularly will be incorporated into OSEP's Annual Report to Congress on Implementation of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA). In addition, the study’s findings will be significant when IDEA, the federal special education law, comes up for reauthorization, tentatively in 2002. The data that SRI will provide to OSEP will help shift potential debate from philosophy and politics to the reality of the school experiences of students with disabilities.

The results of the study will be geared toward broad policy issues at the federal and state levels. For instance, in a similar study of older children, SRI showed that vocational education had real benefits for this age group; however, increasing graduation requirements for academic courses made it particularly difficult for children with disabilities to incorporate vocational education into their course-taking. This significant finding pointed toward the need to reconsider the policy issues surrounding the standards and graduation requirements for students with disabilities.

For Further Information
For further information, please contact either of the project’s SRI co-directors, Dr. Mary Wagner (mary.wagner@sri.com) or Dr. Jose Blackorby (jose.blackorby@sri.com).

About SRI International’s Center for Education and Human Services
SRI's Center for Education and Human Services (http://www.sri.com/policy/cehs/) is committed to using research, evaluation and policy analysis to improve policies and programs that affect children, youth and families. Particular attention is paid to issues involving children and families who face significant challenges resulting from economic disadvantage, disability, teenage parenthood, neighborhood decay or other factors that put them at risk of poor outcomes. Using a broad range of methodological tools, staff examine the design, implementation and impact of policies, program, and practices at federal, state and community levels in the areas of early childhood education, elementary and secondary education and employment and training issues.

About SRI International
Silicon Valley-based SRI International (www.sri.com) is one of the world’s largest independent research, technology development and consulting organizations. Founded in 1946 as the Stanford Research Institute, SRI has been meeting the strategic needs of global markets for more than 50 years. As part of its strategy to bring its technologies to the marketplace, SRI licenses its technologies, forms strategic partnerships and creates spin-off companies.

Visit SRI on the web at http://www.sri.com/