Writing Meaningful and Compliant Standard Based IEP’s February 4 th, 2011 Created by Caren Porter

Standards-Based IEPs “Standards-based IEP” describes both a process and a document that is framed by state academic content standards and contain annual goals aligned with, and chosen, to facilitate the student’s achievement of state grade-level academic standards. IEPs for students taking the MCA-Modified must include goals based on grade-level content standards in math and/or reading/lang arts. Not that different from writing “a good IEP”.

Paradigm Shift At first this will be a BIG SHIFT and a different way of looking at IEP’s…..but just like learning anything new, it will get easier as you write more SB-IEP’s.

Standards-Based IEP- 5 Steps 1.Identify the academic standards that ALL students at a specific grade should “know and be able to do.” (Gold Standards) 2.Assess where the student is functioning with regard to the academic standards. (PLAAFP) 3.Determine the GAP—the disability-related needs that prevent the student from being proficient on academic standards. 4.Develop annual goals/objectives to address these needs. Identify the grade-level and the starting standard in PLEP. 5.Identify Specially Designed Instruction required for the student to show progress

First…. Where do you locate the standards? District Website? MDE –Accountability Programs –Academic Excellence

MDE Standards MDE Academic Excellence Academic Standards Language Arts –2010 LA Standards Math Standards

MCA Test Spec’s MDE website Accountability Programs Assessment and Testing MCA MCA Test Specifications Reading/Math MCAII Specs

How do you choose which grade level standards and benchmarks?  Start with grade level standard and benchmarks  Identify the student’s skills in that area  If student is lacking the skills to achieve those benchmarks in one year…  Go down a standard, until you find the standard that fit’s with the students skills  Prioritize benchmarks to use for objectives

IEP Present Levels of Academic Achievement and Functional Performance (PLAAFP) The IEP includes a statement of the child’s Present Levels of Academic Achievement and Functional Performance, including how the child’s disability affects the child’s involvement and progress in the general education curriculum (i.e., the same curriculum as for nondisabled children); or for preschool children, as appropriate, how the disability affects the child’s participation in appropriate activities. 34 C.F.R. § (a) (1)

PLAAFP should address: Impact of disability on involvement/progress in general education Review grade level standards and identify priorities. Summarize current skills. What specific data do we have regarding the students current skills level? Other relevant information to describe child- health, parent info. Educational Needs = The Gaps

Impact on General Education How does the student’s disability affect involvement and progress in the general education curriculum?  Does the student participate in gen. ed. curriculum?  How does disability affect progress in gen ed. curriculum?  Is the student working on grade-level standards and curriculum?  Alternative curriculum?

Examples of how the disability impacts the student’s involvement/progress in the general education curriculum - Joe’s auditory processing needs affect his ability to take notes during lectures. Joe’s lack of organizational skills impacts his timely work completion. Joe’s attention, concentration, focus and work habits negatively impact daily performance. Joe’s poor word analysis and comprehension strategy skills continue to negatively impact daily work. Joe has a tendency to rush through his work and needs frequent reminders to slow down and work for quality and accuracy. Joe’s reading is significantly below grade level, so he receives reading instruction in a special education setting to help accelerate his progress in the general education curriculum. He is currently working with the 5 th grade reading curriculum.

Example: Three benchmarks that are priorities for Joe Convert between equivalent representations of positive real numbers Represent real-world or mathematical situations using equations and inequalities involving variables and positive rational numbers Solve real-world and mathematical problems requiring arithmetic with decimals, fractions and mixed numbers.

Examples of Gen Ed statements Too Vague John’s learning disability affects his progress in the general curriculum. More Specific Joe receives math instruction with his general education peers. Joe has difficulty retaining information he has been taught, causing gaps in his knowledge. A special education teacher works with him in this classroom to provide focused re-teaching and review when concepts are difficult for Joe.

Summarize Current Skills What data do we have regarding current levels of skills Data should be:  Measurable  Objective  Current  Both academic and functional  From multiple sources (standardized-tests, classroom grades/work completion, MAP, MCA’s, DRA, AVMR, special ed. testing, continuous progress monitoring)

Example of Current Skill Data Too Vague A list of Woodcock-Johnson III scores without any explanations John earned a C in geometry last semester. Jane is reading at grade level. However, she struggles with writing papers. More Specific Joe accurately computes addition, subtraction and multiplication problems, but completes division fact tests with an average of 55% accuracy. He is easily confused by negative numbers and MAP testing showed that he missed all test items covering this concept. In recent common assessments, he could not determine what operations to use when presented with an algebraic equation.

Additional Information Is there additional, relevant information that could be added to provide a more complete picture of this student? –Student strengths –Include information from teachers, parent/guardian and student –What modifications or adaptations is student currently using? Are they helpful?

Examples of Additional Information Joe’s mother reports spending nearly two hours each night helping him with classroom homework. Joe’s teacher reported that he has difficulty starting assignments and usually requires assistance to begin. Joe typically uses a calculator in class for basic calculations.

Gap Analysis What skills/accommodations does student need to learn to meet the standard? –Academic skills – look at learning progressions, benchmarks from previous goals –Accommodations/AT –Non-academic skills (organization, attention, frustration tolerance)

Example of Gap Analysis in the PLAAFP In order to make progress toward grade-level standards, Joe will need to increase his computational math skills. He also needs to learn to ask for help in the classroom when he does not know what to do. Brief and to the point

Example of Gap Analysis PLEP In order to make progress toward grade-level standards, Joe will need to increase his skills in dividing numbers, adding and subtracting negative numbers and recognizing when he needs to add, subtract, multiply or divide in simple equations. Joe is working at the 4 th grade standard level on these skills. More detailed than the PLAAFP, and states grade level standard and standard student is starting from.

Educational Needs A statement of measurable annual goals, including academic and functional goals designed to-- (A) Meet the child's needs that result from the child's disability to enable the child to be involved in and make progress in the general education curriculum; and (B) Meet each of the child's other educational needs that result from the child's disability; 34 C.F.R. § (a) (2) The evaluation report should clearly list the student’s educational needs. These needs should be listed in the IEP. Standards referenced in evaluations? When writing a continuing IEP, the educational needs arise from unmet goals from previous IEPs and/or gaps between student’s present level and what is expected for their age/grade (standards).

Note on Special Education Needs It is not a special education need for a student to do what is expected of everyone in their age group/grade.  Needs/goals that relate to attendance, passing state assessments, earning passing grades and/or earning credits for graduation are goals of all students and are not considered specialized instruction. If these are issues of concern for the student, write needs to address the skills needed to get to school on time, pass classes or pass the state tests.

Examples Don’t….. Matt needs to earn Cs or better in his math classes. Matt needs to pass the MN Graduation test in mathematics. Do….. Matt needs to increase his ability to add and subtract fractions. Matt needs to ask for help when he does not understand new concepts.

Review Need = Gap between the student’s skills and the grade level standard Standard = Goal Benchmarks = Objectives

Questions ????