External Evaluation of the National Center for Systemic Improvement

Overview

The Meadows Center for Preventing Educational Risk at The University of Texas at Austin provides the external evaluation for WestEd’s National Center for Systemic Improvement (NCSI). Originally launched in October 2014, NCSI is a multiyear cooperative agreement funded by the U.S. Department of Education, Office of Special Education Programs.

NCSI provides differentiated support through universal, targeted, and intensive technical assistance to support state education agencies (SEAs) to best use their general supervision and professional development systems to establish and meet high expectations for every student with a disability. MCPER’s evaluation efforts provide high-quality formative and summative data that support NCSI’s continuous improvement efforts and document the extent to which NCSI has met its expected outcomes.

Outcomes of Interest

The following are NCSI’s targeted objectives:

  1. Increased capacity of SEAs to support local education agencies (LEAs) and schools in selecting and implementing evidence-based and high-leverage practices within frameworks to improve educational results and functional outcomes for students with disabilities
  2. Increased capacity of SEAs to use data to evaluate, analyze, refine, strengthen, and redesign their general supervision systems to ensure that all components are reasonably designed and inform continuous improvement efforts
  3. Increased capacity of SEAs to consistently use their policies and procedures to implement their general supervision systems to support LEAs and schools to effectively implement the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) and deliver effective IDEA services
  4. Increased capacity of SEAs to use data for continuous improvement that builds more effective and sustainable state systems to improve educational results and functional outcomes for children and youth with disabilities and their families
  5. Increased capacity of SEAs to meaningfully engage state and local administrators, educators, doctoral students, community members, and families in decision-making processes