Dr. Naomi Zigmond and Molly Cable, staff member and graduate student, discuss the components of the Pennsylvania Alternate System of Assessment (PASA). If you visit the fifth floor of Posvar Hall April through June you will have to walk through a maze. For the past several years, she has led a team of researchers and practitioners in the development of a large-scale alternate
assessment for students with significant disabilities, the Pennsylvania Alternate System of Assessment (PASA). This project overtakes the hallways. She and her team assemble approximately 5200 PASA kits and mail them to the 501 schools throughout Pennsylvania. In June, Dr. Zigmond can be found driving a 14 foot truck to the scoring conference.
Dr. Zigmond, Professor of Special Education in the Department of Instruction and Learning, has been an active special education researcher and teacher for more than a quarter of a century. Two themes run through her research. First, she is interested in the secondary and post-secondary school experiences of students with mild disabilities, the impact of graduating or dropping out, and the improvement of high school programs for this very vulnerable
population. Second, she is interested in the organization of special education services for students with learning disabilities in elementary and secondary schools and the impact of program organization, particularly full inclusion, on student achievement.
Dr. Zigmond has held a number of clinical, academic, and administrative positions at the Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston University, and the University of Pittsburgh. The PASA project is but one of many projects under the direction of Dr. Zigmond and her team. She is also co-directing the External Evaluation of the Pennsylvania Reading First initiative, Dr. Zigmond recently completed studies of "Good High Schools" for student with disabilities and is currently directing a model
demonstration project involving progress monitoring for reading growth in one school district in PA.
Dr. Zigmond has published more than 90 articles in refereed journals, 20 book chapters, and 5 books, and spent 5 years as Editor of Exceptional Children. In 1997, Dr. Zigmond received the Research Award from the Council for Exceptional Children in recognition of research that has contributed significantly to the body of knowledge about the education of exceptional children and youth.
