Attachment 2

NYS Sampling Methodology for Some Federal Indicators
in the 2005-2010 State Performance Plan

NYS will collect data from a statewide representative sample of school districts on six federal indicators. No district will report on all indicators every year except New York City. All school districts will provide data on all six indicators distributed over a six-year period beginning with the initial year in which data are collected for each indicator. The six indicators are as follows:

• Indicator 7: Percent of preschool children with IEPs who demonstrate improved: A. Positive social-emotional skills (including social relationships); B. Acquisition and use of knowledge and skills (including early language/communication and early literacy); and C. Use of appropriate behaviors to meet their needs.
   

• Indicator 8: Percent of parents with a child receiving special education services who report that schools facilitated parent involvement as a means of improving services and results for children with disabilities
   

• Indicator 11: Percent of children with parental consent to evaluate, who were evaluated and eligibility determined within 30 school days for preschool children and 60 calendar days for school-age students.

• Indicator 12: Percent of children referred by Part C prior to age 3, who are found eligible for Part B, and who have an IEP developed and implemented by their third birthdays.

• Indicator 13: Percent of youth aged 16 and above with an IEP that includes coordinated, measurable, annual IEP goals and transition services that will reasonably enable the student to meet the postsecondary goals.

• Indicator 14: Percent of youth who had IEPs, are no longer in secondary school and who have been competitively employed, enrolled in some type of postsecondary school, or both, within one year of leaving high school.

NYS has distributed all school districts among six statewide representative samples. These six groups of school districts were tested with Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) and there was no statistical difference among the six groups of school districts on the population variables listed in the table below. These population variables were from the 2000 decennial census.

New York City is the only LEA in the state with a total enrollment of 50,000 or more students, so it will be represented in each of the six samples.

All school districts will have a choice of reporting data on all eligible students for each federal indicator or submitting data on a randomly selected sample of students. The minimum number of students required for these indicators can be obtained by using the sampling calculator provided by the State and the guidelines provided below. The vast majority of school districts will need to submit data on all eligible students on most indicators. For some large school districts if it will be less burdensome to report on a sample of students, the methodology described below (totally random sampling) is likely to produce a sample that is representative of the school district in terms of all variables, since every eligible student has the same chance as another student to be selected for the sample. 

SED will require that LEAs maintain documentation as described below if they choose to report data on a sample of students. The totally random sampling methodology and required documentation should eliminate selection bias.  School districts will be required to over-sample as described below for indicator 8 where poor response rate is a known issue. Also, school districts will be encouraged to provide surveys for indicator 8 in a variety of ways to improve the response rate.  The Department will attempt to prevent missing data by first describing precisely what the State needs to collect, providing technical assistance and then following up with school districts to request missing data. The completeness of data collection will improve after the first year and will continue to improve as long as requirements remain unchanged. All issues of confidentiality will be handled in accordance with the rules and procedures in FERPA. The Department will also guard against divulging personally identifiable information by not reporting results when there are less than five students for whom data are available or when those results can be easily calculated based on other data provided 
 

The table below demonstrates a schedule for data collection from the six samples of school districts on the six federal indicators listed above.  Please note.

• For indicator 7, entry evaluation data must be collected on all preschool children who are evaluated for preschool special education programs/or services annually by all school districts. Sample 6 reports only entry data in 2005-06 but will not report exit data (i.e., entry to exit progress) until 2010-11.  Exit evaluation data must be collected and reported to the State by the sample of school districts as described below.

• For indicator 14, related to post school outcomes requires school districts to collect contact information on students who will be leaving high school in “Year 1” and collect data on their post-school outcomes in “Year 2”.