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

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 grade level standards. Typically, this involves a combination of other Curriculums and smaller group settings. The most intense tier of RTI would be one-on-one instruction.

Lastly, schools can use the data collected from periodic CBM assessments to report on adequate yearly progress (AYP) for each student. By designing the progress monitoring plan correctly in the IEP, the school should be collecting data through the CBM assessments (or other valid data collection means for non-academic goals) on each goal in the IEP multiple times per grading period. This data can be graphed and analyzed by the parents and school to determine if the student is making progress that is significant enough to meet the goals set in the IEP by the end of the year.

I tell all my parents, “DATA is your BEST friend.” It needs to be collected frequently and be meaningful. Giving a student a reading fluency test one time per grading period right before the progress report comes out is meaningless. Subjective teacher observation reports are meaningless as well when reporting on academic skills. This is a critical area for parent advocacy during a CCC meeting. Do your research and be prepared to make your own recommendation for appropriate progress monitoring plans. A great resource is https://intensiveintervention.org/

Sheila A. Wolfe IEP Services, LLC sheilawolfe@sbcglobal.net