Many Schools Are Grappling With Ways To Assess Outcomes For Children With Disabilities

If you cannot find a research-proven program that matches your available
resources, consider increasing your school’s organizational capacity to implement
the program that your review demonstrates will work best in your school. In this
case, capacity refers to the capability needed to implement a particular program
or practice. Research on education capacity often refers to five types of capacity
needed to implement a program:
- Intellectual capacity—the knowledge and skills needed to implement a program
- Physical capacity—the physical space, materials, and technology needed for
implementation
- Fiscal capacity—the financial resources needed to acquire or develop other
aspects of capacity
- Social capacity—the quality of interpersonal relations and trust needed among
the professional staff, students, and parents to support implementation
- Cultural capacity—the degree to which your district, school, or other units have
shared goals and values for student learning. For example, is there agreement on
the knowledge, skills, and attributes all students should attain or the attributes
for students with varying types of disabilities? Are these attributes aligned with
the new program being considered?
If the program has mostly been implemented in settings different than your own,
you should carefully examine how they are different. You should also find out
whether or not there are results in settings similar to your own.
If you are unable to increase capacity or if the settings are somewhat different,
you may also consider adapting the program to meet your own needs and
circumstances in a way that does not alter its most essential features. When
working with students with disabilities, adaptations to programs or curriculum do
not change the program’s content; they change the conceptual level for the
standard the student is expected to learn. Similarly, for students with disabilities,
accommodations do not change the content or curriculum; they change the input
or output method used by the teacher or student. Your priority should always be,
however, to replicate with fidelity a program that has proven effective through
rigorous evaluation.
Various settings will have different ways of responding that work best for them;
one of the best strategies is to develop a strategic plan for implementing new
programs or practices. This strategic plan could be developed by a planning
committee that would include the major stakeholders who could influence