The University announced Thursday that the College of Education has received a $3.5 million federal grant to help states measure the success of disabled students once they’ve left high school.
The University’s new National Post School Outcomes Center, the only one of its kind in the nation, is fully funded by the grant and will serve as a technical assistance program for states striving to meet new federal requirements on monitoring the post-secondary success of students involved with special education programs.
“It gives us an opportunity to find out what’s happening to youth when they get out of high school,” NPSO Project Coordinator Jane Falls said. “We’re helping schools to be able to know how they’re helping to prepare young people for life.”
Falls, an educational consultant for the College of Education’s Western Regional Resource Center, is one of a number of experts from the college’s Special Education program involved with NPSO.
“A number of states are doing this kind of work and designing their own system,” Falls said. “What we’re trying to do is understand the ways that states are doing it and advise those who’ve not yet started.”
The center will ultimately work with all 50 states and 10 federal jurisdictions as the government’s leading assistance vehicle for the new requirements.
NPSO is currently having “ongoing conversations” with Kansas, Maine and Oregon, said NPSO Director Michael Bullis, professor of special education. He estimated that the center will start working more directly with states by summer.
Bullis added that the project will last five years, after which the
University may need to compete again for funding.
“There’s a probability that we will continue to be funded if this area remains a priority with the federal government,” Bullis said.
College of Education Dean Martin Kaufman said the idea behind the project is the improvement of special education programs.
“(The center) allows us to work with state departments and, through them, local school districts to allow them to improve the outcomes that individuals with disabilities are able to access,” Kaufman said.
Sources said the federal grant is a further affirmation of the College of Education’s success. US News & World Report ranked the college’s Special Education program as third-best program of its kind in the nation.
“The college of education has long been a leader in working with people with disabilities and trying to work out ways for them to participate in the broadest way possible in society,” Senior Vice President and Provost John Moseley said. “They are already one of the leading if not the leading research group of this kind in the country.”
Kaufman said the project will help strengthen the College of Education.
“What we keep doing is building a performance track record of success, and success begets success if we continue to invest in a research agenda,” Kaufman said. “There is competition for superior students and faculty of excellence. Having these centers contributes to our competitiveness and, ultimately, our success.”
“It’s a very important grant in that it builds on expertise that they have developed over many years,” Moseley said. “I’m very excited and, frankly, not surprised that they got it.”

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