Thurlow’s leadership legacy: Fairness, wisdom in education

December 18, 2019

Longtime colleagues weighed in this month on the legacy of Martha Thurlow, who stepped down recently after 20 years at the helm of ICI’s National Center on Educational Outcomes (NCEO). University of Minnesota President Emeritus Robert Bruininks, himself a former NCEO director, highlighted Thurlow’s foundational work to expand educational opportunity for children with disabilities. Noted leaders outside of ICI also praised Thurlow’s contributions at NCEO.

“Her passion and commitment, and her ability to bridge theory to practice, has truly improved outcomes for students,” said Sheryl Lazarus, who assumed the role of NCEO director October 1.

A prolific writer, Thurlow is still working on a couple of academic book chapters and will continue on with ICI under a retirement appointment.

“Seeing the work of NCEO reflected in federal education laws and in the work that states are doing to improve the outcomes of students with disabilities” are among Thurlow’s proudest achievements, she said.

“Anything I have accomplished is due to my many mentors and the colleagues I have worked with at ICI and NCEO through the years,” she said.

Reflecting on Thurlow’s time leading NCEO, former ICI director David Johnson recalled occasions when federal education officials sought out her opinion on special education policy. He described her imprint at both the federal and state levels of education policy as remarkable.

“When you think about accountability for including all students in standards and assessments, she has probably had more influence on making that happen than anybody else in the country,” Johnson said. See FULL story here.

Thurlow speaks at White House convening on education

December 21, 2016

Martha Thurlow, director of the National Center on Educational Outcomes (NCEO) at the college’s Institute on Community Integration, participated in the White House Convening on Better, Fairer, and Fewer Assessments in Washington, D.c., on Dec. 7.

The convening brought together about 100 representatives from states, districts, and schools, as well as researchers, and assessment developers. The purpose was to discuss how to improve assessments and reduce the burden of redundant assessments, consistent with the Obama Testing Action Plan released in October 2015.

Thurlow (pictured here, center) participated in a panel discussion on better, fairer, and fewer assessments. Representing the “fairer” aspect of the convening, she responded to questions from Gene Wilhoit, director of the National Center for Innovation in Education, and the audience. Thurlow also collaborated with Jose Blackorby of CAST in a breakout session focused on increasing accessibility.

“It was a great opportunity to ensure that the development of innovative assessments and efforts to reduce the number of assessments continue to ensure that the results are fair to all students, including those with disabilities and those who are English learners,” noted Thurlow.

NCEO provides national leadership in designing and building educational assessments and accountability systems that appropriately monitor educational results for all students, including students with disabilities and students who are English Language Learners. NCEO receives funding from the federal government, states, and other organizations.

NCEO: Working nationwide for students with disabilities and educators

January 26, 2016

Martha Thurlow, Director of the National Center on Educational Outcomes (NCEO).

As President Obama signed the Every Student Succeeds Act on December 10, Martha Thurlow was meeting with several states to ensure that students with disabilities who are English learners are appropriately identified and served. It’s this kind of careful, ground-level work that the National Center on Educational Outcomes (NCEO) at the Institute on Community Integration (ICI) has been doing for over 25 years with one goal in mind: improve the nation’s ability to educate students with disabilities and help them succeed.

While national education policy and school-level practice have evolved in recent decades, NCEO partners with states, educational associations, federal government, and others to support educational assessments and accountability systems that appropriately monitor educational results for all students, including students with disabilities and students who are English Language Learners (ELLs). As Director Martha Thurlow notes, “NCEO’s work has contributed to dramatic shifts in attention to the educational success of students with disabilities.”

This past year alone, NCEO staff have traveled the country, conducting research, training, consultations, and information-sharing on needs ranging from accommodating test-takers with disabilities to including ELLs with disabilities in assessments. Some of the center’s activities include:

Research. NCEO is conducting a half-dozen projects and research studies that collect data on the participation and performance of students with disabilities, ELLs, and ELLs with disabilities in K-12 state and district accountability assessments around the U.S. An example of this is the Alternate English Language Learning Assessment (ALTELLA) project. ALTELLA is a collaboration of five states that will apply lessons learned from the past decade of research on assessing ELLs and students with significant cognitive disabilities to develop an alternate English Language Proficiency assessment for ELLs with significant cognitive disabilities.
Training and Presentation. NCEO regularly presents its findings — and trains others how to use the results. Last April, for example, Laurene Christensen and Vitaliy Shyyan presented “Choosing Accommodations for Assessments Based on Common Core State Standards” at the Council for Exceptional Children conference in San Diego. This April, Sheryl Lazarus will co-lead a workshop on formative assessment at the Council for Exceptional Children conference in St. Louis.
Consultation. NCEO has a national network of people who assist states and other agencies as they consider assessment issues. This is important because federal legislation requires that students with disabilities be included on state assessments, but many states struggle to implement this requirement so they seek NCEO’s expertise. For instance, in partnership with the English Language Proficiency Assessment for the 21^st Century (ELPA21) consortium, NCEO is collaborating with 10 states and other organizations to ensure that English language proficiency assessments and instructional supports are accessible for all ELLs, including those with disabilities.
Dissemination. Through its newly-redesigned Web site, NCEO offers over 300 reports and briefs on topics ranging from an online accommodations decision-making curriculum to a new interactive report series titled, Data Analytics.

For more information about NCEO, contact Michael Moore.

Thurlow receives special education lifetime achievement award

January 28, 2015

Martha Thurlow, director of the National Center on Educational Outcomes (NCEO) in the college’s Institute on Community Integration (ICI), has been selected to receive the Council for Exceptional Children’s (CEC) J. E. Wallace Wallin Lifetime Achievement Award for 2015. The award will be presented to her during an awards ceremony
on April 8 at the CEC 2015 Convention & Expo in San Diego.

“This award recognizes an individual who has made continued and sustained contributions to the education of children and youth with exceptionalities,” according to CEC.

In 1990, Dr. Thurlow was part of the team that founded NCEO, a research center that provides national leadership in designing and building educational assessments and accountability systems that appropriately monitor educational results for all students, including students with disabilities and English language learners (ELLs). From 1990 to 1999, she worked as an assistant and associate director for NCEO and in 1999 became its director, a role she has maintained for the past 15 years.

In a nomination letter for the award, ICI director David R. Johnson observed, “For the past 40-plus years, Dr. Thurlow has established herself as one of the pillars of special education services in the United States. She has amassed a body of research and professional publications that has served to influence and guide public policy and professional practice. Her work has influenced the U.S. Congress, the U.S. Department of Education, state legislatures, state education agencies, institutions of higher education, and schools throughout the nation. Dr. Thurlow is one of those rare academics who is able to comfortably integrate research, policy, and practice, to achieve broad levels of impact on the life circumstances of children with disabilities and their families.”

ICI staff share expertise in the Netherlands, San Francisco, and locally

May 17, 2013

In April, staff from the College’s Institute on Community Integration (ICI) gave numerous conference presentations, including:

Autism Society of Minnesota Annual Conference: Joe Timmons and Barb Kleist, “Residential Services for Individuals with Autism: Considerations for Minnesota”; Sharon Mulé, “Redefining Social Skills: The Move to the Adult World.”
AERA Annual Conference: Sheryl Lazarus, Martha Thurlow and Yi-Chen Wu, “Longitudinal Analyses of Effects of Reclassification, Reporting Methods, and Analytical Techniques on Trends in Math Performance of Students with Disabilities”; Chris Bremer and Chris Opsal (with co-presenters), “The Effect of Federal Financial Aid on the Retention of Occupational and Non-Occupational Students at Four Community Colleges.”
Netherlands: Angela Amado, eight presentations on community inclusion at one of the largest Dutch agencies for people with disabilities.

NCEO receives funding for National Assessment Center

October 17, 2011

The National Center on Educational Outcomes in the Institute on Community Integration has received funding for its National Assessment Center through a 5-year, $5 million grant from the Office of Special Education and Rehabilitative Services, U.S. Department of Education. The center, under the direction of Martha Thurlow (left) and Sheryl Lazarus (right), gathers and disseminates research-based information on the inclusion of K-12 students with disabilities in State-level assessments aligned to academic content standards, and provides technical assistance for States and Consortia to support appropriate inclusion of students with disabilities in existing and emerging high quality assessment systems.

CEHD News Martha Thurlow

CEHD News Martha Thurlow