The Research to Practice Division (RTP) of the Department of Education's Office of Special Education Programs (OSEP) oversees the implementation of knowledge development, transfer, and use to improve educational results for infants, toddlers, children, and youth with disabilities. RTP is responsible for implementing this agenda through a systematic approach to program improvement through research, demonstration, outreach, technology development, technical assistance, training, evaluation and service delivery.

Project activities include developing annual and long-term measures, indicators, and data collection procedures; collecting and analyzing performance data; and conducting evaluations to provide data to Congress under Government Performance and Results Act (GPRA) and for OMB on the Performance Assessment Rating Tool (PART). Each of RRP's programs has its own unique performance indicators, which will be measured by developing rating scales for the quality, relevance and usefulness of the programs' services and products, implementing new data collection requirements for grantees, establishing independent review panels, and in some cases, surveying consumers. This project also involves conducting annual updates on all of the Part D National Program GPRA indicators and annual PART performance measures; analyzing the annual evaluations; providing a report to OSEP on the annual evaluation results; analyzing data trends across years; responding to quick turn around request regarding the Part D National Program indicators; improving, modifying and adapting current evaluation processes as needed; and developing evaluation procedures for new indicators as needed.