April 2008

Welcome Back: ICI’s NCEO Returns to Pattee Hall

The walls have been painted lavender and green, new carpet has been laid, and the movers are on their way. This week the Institute on Community Integration (ICI) welcomes back to Pattee Hall its National Center on Educational Outcomes (NCEO). This ICI-affiliated center has been housed in Elliott Hall for nearly 15 years, and is now returning to the building where it began in 1990. To mark the occasion, NCEO will be holding an open house/kickoff party in its new space on the second floor of Pattee on Tuesday, April 22, from 12-1:30.

NCEO, under the direction of Martha Thurlow, provides national leadership in developing educational policies and practices that ensure all students – including students with disabilities – have access to the general education curriculum and can benefit from accountability and standards-based reforms. Its 27 staff work on projects in five broad areas::

• Working with states and federal agencies to identify important outcomes of education for students with disabilities.
  
  
• Examining the participation of students in national and state assessments, including the use of accommodations and alternate assessments.
  
  
• Evaluating national and state practices in reporting assessment information on students with disabilities.
  
  
• Bridging general education, special education, and other systems as they work to increase accountability for results of education for all students.
  
  
• Conducting directed research in the area of assessment and accountability.

In addition, NCEO staff are also working on the Partnership for Accessible Reading Assessment (PARA), another ICI-affiliated center and project of NCEO. PARA is engaging in research on and development of accessible reading assessments that provide a valid demonstration of reading proficiency for increasingly diverse populations of students in our public schools, and particularly for those students who have disabilities that affect reading.

Through its ongoing technical assistance to states nationwide, its 300-plus publications and conference presentations, and its innovative use of the Web through resources such as Data Viewer (http://data.nceo.info/), NCEO shares its knowledge with policymakers, educators, researchers, and parents around the country. And with its new space on the second floor of Pattee Hall, its staff more easily bring their tremendous energy, knowledge, and drive into day-to-day interaction with their other colleagues at ICI.

“We are excited about all of the possibilities that the move creates for increased interactions with other ICI staff,” said Martha Thurlow. “We look forward to gaining a new sense of community with ICI.”

NCEO is funded by a five-year, $5 million core grant from the Office of Special Education Programs, U.S. Department of Education, with additional project funding from other sources. FFI contact Martha at thurl001@umn.edu or (612) 624-4826.