The ABCs of IEPs
By Sheila Wolfe IEP Services
In almost every article I have written for this column, I mentioned the importance of data to appropriately inform the case conference committee’s (CCC) decisions regarding the needs of any student. The collection of meaningful data serves three basic functions: 1) To determine present levels of performance to set appropriate goals. 2) To determine if the chosen instructional approach/methodology is effective. This is also referred to as response to intervention, or RTI. 3) To report periodically on the progress of the student toward meeting the annual goals in the IEP.
We reviewed in a previous article the importance of getting an appropriate and thorough educational evaluation to understand the student’s present levels of performance in all areas of concern. By getting accurate data regarding the student’s current
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14 Special Needs Living • June 2021
skills, the case conference committee can set appropriate goals for student achievement in the next IEP year. For example, if a student is currently comprehending written material with 80% accuracy at the 4.2-grade level, the CCC would want to write a goal for the student to reach a reading comprehension grade level of 5.2 by the end of the IEP year. In addition, the student’s IEP must describe in detail the method and frequency for progress monitoring of every goal. It is extremely important to understand the type of academic progress monitoring assessment proposed by the school during the case conference. Parents need to insist that the school use a curriculum-based measure (CBM), such as AIMSweb, DIBELS, etc., when progress monitoring a student and not a “mastery measurement,” which is a typical test given at the end of a certain skill being taught in the classroom (i.e. 20 addition problems with regrouping to test if the student understands how to do this skill). Mastery measurement testing can be problematic since performance on a single skill assessment can be misleading. It also does not account for generalization or check for skill retention over time. CBM assessments focus on general outcome measures and not one skill. In other words, the skills needed to achieve, for example, an understanding of first-grade math, not just math facts. These tests are research-based (which is a requirement if being used as part of an IEP) and are standardized for administration and scoring. CBMs provide an easy and reliable way to monitor student progress on a regular schedule as dictated by the CCC/IEP. A CBM assessment generates the data needed to inform the educational team regarding the student’s response to intervention (RTI). This allows the team to make needed adjustments to the student’s instruction if adequate progress is not being made, with no need for additional testing. Parents need to become familiar with the school’s RTI protocol. This is a link to just one of many websites describing RTI and how to use it to improve student progress – http://www.rtinetwork.org/learn/research/ progress-monitoring-within-a-rti-model. Each school has some form of RTI in the areas of language arts and math. ALL students should have the opportunity to intensify their instruction if they are falling behind gradelevel standards. Typically, this involves a combination of other
