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SEELS FAQ

This page contains answers to many frequently asked questions about SEELS. Please contact us if you have additional questions or comments.

General FAQs

• Why conduct SEELS?
  
  
• Who conducts SEELS?
  
  
• Who funds SEELS?
  
  
• What is the study timeline?
  
  
• How much time will the data collection activities take?
  
  
• Will SEELS information be confidential?
  
  
• How were school districts and students selected for the study?
  
  
• How does SEELS get permission to include a particular student?
  
  
• Who will participate in all the SEELS study activities?
  
  
• Who will participate in only some SEELS study activities?
  
  
• Who will not participate in any SEELS study activities?
  
  
• How are parents and school personnel compensated for participating in SEELS?
  

Direct Assessment FAQs

• What will the direct assessment component of SEELS entail?
  
  
• Who will conduct/administer the direct assessments?
  
  
• Which students will participate in the direct assessment?
  
  
• What if the student cannot read or write, or take a test of any kind?
  
  
• Can a parent or school have a copy of or the results from an individual student assessment?
  
  
• Can a parent or school get a copy of the combined results of the assessments?
  
  
• What will SEELS do with the completed student assessments?
  
  
• Will completing an assessment take time away from the student's planned therapy or instructional time?
  
  
• Can the direct assessment be completed somewhere other than at the school?
  
  
• What if the student does not want to participate in the direct assessment?
  
  
• How are individuals compensated for participating in the direct assessment?

School Data Collection FAQs

• What is the school data collection component, and who should complete the surveys?
  
  
• Should pen or pencil be used to complete the surveys?
  
  
• What if notes need to be added to a survey for clarification?
  
  
• Why did schools get multiple mailings? Do these forms need to be completed twice?
  
  
• What happens if surveys are not completed?
  
  
• What if the child is not receiving special education services, or is no longer receiving special education services?
  
  
• What if the surveys cannot be completed without copies of consents?
  
  
• What if schools never heard of some of the students?
  
  
• What if the students are home-schooled?

General FAQs

• Why conduct SEELS?

SEELS is being conducted to help policymakers and other interested people understand what is happening with students who are receiving or have received special education services. This will help us know how students who receive special education services are doing, what services schools are providing to students and families, and to what extent special education is helping students and families. Because this study uses a nationally representative student sample, SEELS will provide an important national picture of special education.

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• Who conducts SEELS?

SEELS is being conducted by SRI International, a scientific research institute located in Menlo Park, California, and Westat, a social scientific research firm located in Rockville, Maryland.

SEELS includes approximately 13,000 students who were receiving special education services at the start of the study. Students represented the 13 federal disability categories and ranged in age from 6 to 13 when the study began in 1999. They will be from 11 to 18 years old when the study ends in 2006.

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• Who funds SEELS?

SEELS is funded by the Office of Special Education Programs in the U.S. Department of Education as part of the national assessment of IDEA 97.

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• What is the study timeline?

SEELS has three primary data collection activities: parent telephone interviews, student assessments, and school surveys. In addition, SEELS will send out a written family survey for those families that were unable to be interviewed. The telephone interviews with parents and the family surveys are provided in both English and Spanish.

The table below depicts the timing of each planned study activity. Note that the school characteristics survey will need to be completed only once in the event that several sampled students attend the same school. In addition, the school characteristics survey will be completed for each new school that sampled students attend, not the same school repeatedly.

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• How much time will the data collection activities take?

The table below shows the estimated time that will be required for each type of data collection.

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• Will SEELS information be confidential?

Yes. All information collected as part of SEELS will be completely confidential. Study reports will report only group summaries. No information about individual students will be reported to school districts or individual schools.

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• How were school districts and students selected for the study?

Through a careful process, a selected number of school districts were identified, based on their geographic region, size, and socioeconomic status. These school districts were invited to participate in the study. Based on their agreement to participate, SEELS asked for the district's list of special education students along with their date of birth and disability classification. From this list, only a certain number of students were randomly selected to participate in SEELS. This selection was based primarily on the student's age and disability classification. In a few cases, SEELS used a different approach to select students based on what student information the district was willing to provide. For example, some districts wanted to notify parents regarding the study before giving out the names of the students; others asked SEELS to select students from a roster that did not include student names, but included an ID number along with the other information SEELS needed to make a selection (e.g., age and disability classification). Once a selection based on the ID number was made, the district provided the student information that SEELS needed.

In all cases, a district was given the option not to participate in SEELS.

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• How does SEELS get permission to include a particular student?

SEELS has tried a variety of strategies for making sure we get parental consent, because we believe it is best to do so. However, we are also aware that some parents who may be willing to have their children included in the study are neutral about their children being included in the study, or simply did not feel it was important to return the signed parent consent form. Since SEELS will provide information to everyone in the special education field, we have tried to balance the need to gain written parental consent with the need to obtain sufficient information to meet the goals of the study. To do this, we have sent all parents who were interviewed by telephone a parent consent form, which asks them to sign if they will be willing to have their child participate in either some of or all of the study activities. For those we did not hear from, we sent a second letter. Following these two attempts, if we had not yet heard from a parent, we sent a letter asking the parent to actively refuse by returning a signed refusal if he/she did not want his/her child to participate. If we still did not receive anything from the parent, we classified the child as having "parental consent assumed" (or passive consent). We realize this may not be ideal; however, the parent will have an opportunity to refuse one more time prior to a direct assessment. Once a direct assessment is scheduled, the field assessor will send a notification to the parent, advising him/her to call SEELS if he/she does not want the child to participate in the assessment.

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• Who will participate in all the SEELS study activities?

• Students whose parents completed a telephone interview and have not actively refused.
  
  
• Students whose parents may not have completed a telephone interview but have returned a signed consent form.
  
  
• Students whose parents may not have completed a telephone interview but returned a family survey.
  
  
• Students who attend a district or school that has agreed to participate in SEELS.

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• Who will participate in only some SEELS study activities?

• Students whose parents have refused consent (either on the consent form or during the telephone interview) for the child to participate in certain aspects of the study. These students may be included in the parts for which the parent gave consent.
  
  
• Students who attend a district or school where written parental consent is required for the direct assessment and for whom we have not obtained written parental consent. These students may be included in the school data collection.
  
  
• Students whose parents have given consent but the district or school does not want to participate. These students may be included in the parent interview and direct assessment.
  
  
• Students who attend a district or school that has agreed to participate in SEELS and does not require written parental consent, but whose parents did not complete a telephone interview. These students may be included in the school data collection and, possibly, the direct assessment if parents have not refused consent.

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• Who will not participate in any SEELS study activities?

• Students whose parents have refused consent for all parts of SEELS and who attend a district or school that requires written parental consent.
  
  
• Students whose parents have never been reached either by completing a telephone interview, a family survey, or a signed parent consent form, and who attend a district or school that requires written parental consent.

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• How are parents and school personnel compensated for participating in SEELS?

Although SEELS cannot compensate study participants, we realize that people must take time out of already busy schedules to help make SEELS successful. We rely on the willingness of educators, parents, and students. As a result, we want to provide individuals with a small "thank you." SEELS will randomly draw names of individuals who will receive a "thank-you" gift from the study at the end of the school year (usually this will be during the summer) in which the specific study activity is completed. These "thank-you" gifts include:

• Parent Interview/Survey. 11 individuals will be selected among parents/guardians: one will receive a computer and 10 will receive a $100 gift certificate.
  
  
• Teacher Survey. 11 individuals will be selected among teachers: one will receive a computer and 10 will receive a $100 gift certificate.
  
  
• School Program Survey. 11 individuals will be selected among school personnel: one will receive a computer and 10 will receive a $100 gift certificate.
  
  
• School Characteristics Survey. 6 individuals will be selected among school personnel: one will receive a computer and five will receive a $100 gift certificate.

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Direct Assessment FAQs

• What will the direct assessment component of SEELS entail?

The direct assessment is intended to accomplish three objectives: (1) assess academic skills, (2) assess social skills, and (3) conduct a short interview with students.

After a year of intensive work with a panel of experts, two different types of assessments were created to be used by SEELS: a direct assessment and an alternate assessment. Both types of assessments use shortened sections of common assessments used in education that have proven content and technical characteristics. The chosen measures will have broad applicability across the age range that the study will ultimately cover, as well as across a national norm sample for at least some of the assessment. This will allow SEELS to have some information on how students who are not part of SEELS respond so that some comparisons can be made about how the SEELS students respond in comparison with other students.

The direct assessment is a series of subtests that are administered face-to-face with the student. The subtests include the following areas: reading, math, and a student interview. The established appropriate questions for different ages in the student interview cover how students feel about themselves, about school and learning, and about their social relationships. The direct assessment can be administered to students who speak English or American Sign Language (ASL), who are deaf/HOH (Hard of Hearing), and who are blind/VI (Visually Impaired). Students who use American Sign Language will be provided with an interpreter, if needed (e.g., if the field assessor does not use or understand ASL).

If a non-deaf student does not understand or speak English, he/she will not be given the direct assessment. Such a student will also not receive an alternate assessment, unless his/her skills indicate that he/she has a significant cognitive impairment.

The alternate assessment is a teacher-completed rating scale. Teachers are asked to rate a student's abilities to perform a variety of tasks related to motor skills, speaking, language skills, personal care, and social interactions. In general, only if a student is unable to perform simple letter recognition or reading task will the student be referred for an alternate assessment. In cases where the student is being home-schooled, the parent may be asked to complete the alternate assessment.

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• Who will conduct/administer the direct assessments?

The direct assessments will be administered by trained professionals in the field. Most of these field assessors are school psychologists or special educators/therapists who already work for the school district. In some cases, individuals from a teacher preparation program may be hired to administer assessments. SEELS study staff will also administer some of the assessments. If a field assessor is hired who is not a school district employee or a SEELS project employee, he/she must have completed and passed a criminal background check.

All SEELS field assessors were provided with a self-training program, which included reading an extensive manual of instructions and viewing a training videotape. These field assessors also completed a training self-check to verify that they completed the necessary training and understand the procedures for conducting a direct assessment.

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• Which students will participate in the direct assessment?

To the greatest extent possible, students will participate in either the direct assessment or the alternate assessment. The goal of SEELS is to collect assessment information on every student who is participating in the study.

To participate in the direct assessment, the student must be able to cooperate with an assessor (either the field assessor or someone who is familiar to the student), understand English or sign language, and identify letter names and read words from a word list. For the alternate assessment, a teacher must be willing to complete the alternate assessment rating scale.

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• What if the student cannot read or write, or take a test of any kind?

Using a screening questionnaire, a field assessor will interview a student's teacher to find out whether the student is able to complete a reading test. If the student is able to read words from a word list or identify letters, then the student may be able to participate in some of the direct assessment. SEELS would like to have as many students as possible participate in the direct assessment, even though they may not be able to complete all of the subtests. Our goal is to get whatever information we can about a student, even if that means only information on the student's reading level.

If the student is not able to read words from a word list or is unlikely to cooperate with an assessor (even with a familiar person), then the student would qualify for an alternate assessment. This assessment is a rating scale of how a student performs in a variety of areas, which is completed by the student's teacher.

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• Can a parent or school have a copy of or the results from an individual student assessment?

No, for reasons of confidentiality and the requirements of the test publishers, SEELS cannot give out copies of an individual student's completed assessment. SEELS will, however, post the combined results for the students who participated in the SEELS assessments. These results will be reported as group scores. In fact, even the field assessors will not know the results for an individual student assessment since they are not required to compute any scores.

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• Can a parent or school get a copy of the combined results of the assessments?

Yes, SEELS will send out the results for the whole group of students who participated in the SEELS assessment to all parents. In addition, these results will be available on this Web site under the Info & Reports section.

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• What will SEELS do with the completed student assessments?

All completed student assessments will be handled with the utmost attention to maintaining confidentiality and anonymity of students. Students will be identified by a barcode and first name only. Each completed assessment will be scored by SRI International and maintained in a secure database. This data will be analyzed to answer important SEELS research questions. Results from analyses will be available to the public via this Web site. In addition, a newsletter will highlight key findings from the analyses.

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• Will completing an assessment take time away from the student's planned therapy or instructional time?

Students will be pulled out during school time for the direct assessment unless a parent says that he/she does not want his/her child to be pulled out of class. However, school personnel who are asked to complete an alternate assessment will be instructed to complete the assessment outside of the school day. School personnel should not use instructional or therapy time to complete the alternate assessment.

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• Can the direct assessment be completed somewhere other than at the school?

Yes, in some cases, the direct assessment may need to be completed at the student's home. This would happen if the parent or school has stated that the student cannot be pulled from the classroom, or if the parent has agreed to participating in the study but the school has declined participation. This may also occur in cases where the field assessor is unavailable during the times that the student is in school. Students who are being home-schooled will also complete a direct assessment in either their home or in another prearranged location that is suitable.

If the student is to complete a direct assessment in the home, the field assessor will make arrangements with the student's parents. If the school has refused to participate in SEELS, the field assessor will conduct the screening questionnaire with the student's parent/guardian.

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• What if the student does not want to participate in the direct assessment?

Before beginning the direct assessment, a student will have the opportunity to say that he/she does not want to participate. If he/she says that he/she does not want to participate, the field assessor will not continue with the assessment. If the student indicates that he/she does not want to participate in the direct assessment before the field assessor even comes to the school, the teacher should call the SEELS toll-free number (1-800-961-9895) as soon as possible.

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• How are individuals compensated for participating in the direct assessment?

Field assessors are compensated with honoraria of $70 per direct assessment that they complete and administer themselves. They are compensated $30 per assessment that a student's teacher completed, and the student's teacher is compensated $40 per completed direct assessment. This applies to both direct assessments and alternate assessments.

As a small "thank-you" to the student, the field assessor will have the student choose a small gift from a "grab bag" on the day of the assessment.

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School Data Collection FAQs

• What is the school data collection component, and who should complete the surveys?

SEELS has three school data collection activities:

• Teacher Survey. Teachers who provide language arts instruction to SEELS students are given surveys about instructional goals and practices, assessment, accommodations, social adjustment, and educational progress.
  
  
• School Program Survey. School personnel who know the students' programs well are given surveys about students' overall programs, placements, and educational progress.
  
  
• School Characteristics Survey. Principals are given surveys about district and school policies, practices, and reform efforts.

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• Should pen or pencil be used to complete the surveys?

Either can be used, but the preference is pen (black or blue ink).

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• What if notes need to be added to a survey for clarification?

If notes need to be added to a survey for clarification, please write them on the right side next to the question.

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• Why did schools get multiple mailings? Do these forms need to be completed twice?

It is a common practice in survey research to send out multiple mailings. This gives respondents who have misplaced the original form another chance to complete it with a new one. School staff who have already provided the requested information on any of the surveys do not need to do so a second time.

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• What happens if surveys are not completed?

Participation is completely voluntary. We believe that the information will provide great benefit to our common efforts to improve schools for children and believe that the school's perspective will be valuable in that effort. We also recognize the great demands for teachers' and principals' time and have tried to make the process as straightforward as possible.

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• What if the child is not receiving special education services, or is no longer receiving special education services?

In some cases, a child may not be receiving special education services, but at some point the child appeared on a district list as receiving some sort of special services (e.g., speech may not be thought of as a special education service). SEELS is interested in learning about how this student is doing with his/her school program now, whether that program includes some sort of special education service, whether it is helping the student's academic performance, etc. Whoever instructs the student in language arts should complete the teacher survey to the best of his/her ability. Whoever knows the student's overall program best should complete the school program survey.

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• What if the surveys cannot be completed without copies of consents?

If your school needs copies of written consents before completing the surveys, please call our toll-free number (1-800-961-9895).

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• What if schools never heard of some of the students?

SEELS has identified schools on the basis of parent reports, school district reports, and a database search. In a few cases, students have been misassigned. We would appreciate your alerting us if this is the case. Please provide us with the names and ID numbers of such students and their status on the Student Enrollment Form (SER).

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• What if the students are home-schooled?

Each district handles home schooling differently. Some children are handled through the school, and others are not connected to a school. If students are handled through the school, school personnel will complete the surveys. If a child is being home-schooled and the parent/guardian is the primary teacher, surveys will be sent to the home.

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last update: 02/03
2003 SRI International