Writing Instructionally Appropriate IEPs Tied to Common Core State Standards

1. Writing Instructionally Appropriate IEPs Tied to Common Core State Standards TN Department of Education Curriculum & Instruction Special Populations

2. Short Term Objective Use • The proposed change will remove the requirement for short term objectives with the following exception: • Students with a significant cognitive disability assessed on an alternate assessment will continue to need short term objectives • The IEP team may decide a student requires short term objectives in order to be successful

3. Short Term Objective Use • Has not helped close the achievement gap • Have not been well linked to present levels of performance • Are not easily measured in the inclusive classroom

4. What Will Replace Short Term Objectives • With the RTI model, the student will have a measurable annual goal in a specific area and will be progress monitored in that specific deficit area • Information/progress monitoring should be given to parents every 4.5 weeks • Students will require progress monitoring at least bi-weekly (academic deficit) or more often depending on area of deficit

5. What Will Replace Short Term Objectives • Common core Tier 1 skills worksheets will provide teachers with a way to differentiate Tier 1 instruction • These are fluid documents • Assist the general education and special education teacher with making instructional decisions for Tier 1instruction • Students with an IEP need access to common core with differentiation of Tier 1 support • Data from ongoing benchmark data, progress monitoring data, and updated Tier 1 worksheets will be provided every 9 weeks

6. Accountability • Is in the data • Focus on teacher effectiveness, gap closures on AMOs • School and district data • Students should make growth towards the goal • Individual student data

7. Annual Goals Are • Measurable. • Based on student’s area of deficit. • Written on % or accuracy 100% of the time.

8. What is an Instructionally Appropriate IEP? • An Instructionally Appropriate IEP describes a process in which the IEP team has incorporated state content standards in its development • Specific accommodations and modifications addressing student’s needs to access the general education instructional program are included in the Instructionally Appropriate IEP for student’s present grade-level and course content requirements.

9. What is the difference betweenthe Traditional and Instructionally Appropriate IEP?

10. What are the components of an Instructionally Appropriate IEP? • The components are the same as the traditional IEP

11. What are the benefits of a Instructionally Appropriate IEP? • Ties the IEP to the general education curriculum • Provides positive directions and goals for intervention • Utilizes standards to identify specific content critical to a student's successful progress in the general education curriculum • Promotes a single educational system that is inclusive through common language and curriculum for special and general education students • Ensures greater consistency across schools and districts • Encourages higher expectations for students with disabilities

12. Are all special education students required to have an Instructionally Appropriate IEP? • Best practice would suggest that an Instructionally Appropriate IEP would be beneficial for all students. However, at this time, only students who are eligible to take the PARCC assessment must have Instructionally Appropriate IEPs. • Students assessed on the alternate assessment will continue to have short term objectives Regardless of short term objective use, All Annual Goals must be measureable and connected to the student’s present level of performance.

13. Does an Instructionally Appropriate IEP imply that the student is on grade-level in that content area? • No, the student may not be on grade-level in that content area. However, they are working toward meeting grade-level expectations and are receiving grade-level content instruction.

14. How do you develop a grade-level Instructionally Appropriate IEP when a student is not on grade-level? • The National Association of State Directors of Special Education (NASDSE) has produced a document that illustrates a recommended seven-step process, with accompanying guiding questions, to assist special education teachers and other professionals in developing a standards-based IEP.

15. Instructionally Appropriate IEP • Developing the Present Level of Academic Achievement and Functional Performance (PLP)

16. Step 1: Review the Grade-Level Standards • All members of the IEP team, including parents, should become familiar with the general education grade level standards • Note that IEPs that span two school years may require goals from both grade levels (e.g. 7th grade ELA and 8th grade ELA). • Consider how the student is performing in relation to the grade-level content standards for the grade in which he or she is currently enrolled. • Ask: • What is the intent of the content standard? • What must the student know and be able to do to meet the content standard?

17. Step 2: Examine Classroom and Student Data Analyze the student’s performance relative to grade-level Common Core standards on: • Informal class assessments, statewide assessments, real-world performance tasks, criterion-based evaluations, curriculum-based assessments, and work samples. • Identify the grade-level Common Core standards that are most affected by the student’s disability. • Consider whether the data are valid measures of the student’s abilities. • Use the data to predict future learning needs. • Consider parent and student input. • Review previous IEPs and progress monitoring data regarding the student’s performance.

18. Step 2: Examine Classroom and Student Data • Ask: • What can the IEP team learn from the data about the student’s performance on grade-level content standards and skills? • Can the assessment data provide useful information for identifying the student’s strengths and needs? • What gaps in knowledge and skills does the student have? • What can we learn from the way the student responded to previous accommodations? • Were the previous interventions successful? • Are there skills from previous grade levels that the student has not learned that are crucial to acquiring the grade-level standard? Which are most important to supporting progress? • Are there authentic, real-world tasks that demonstrate evidence of student learning? • Are there data on student reflection and self-assessment? • Is anyone collecting multiple measures? If so, who?

19. Step 3: Writing the PLP • Describe individual strengths and needs of the student in relation to accessing the general curriculum. • Include data from evaluations, classroom and state assessments, observations, information from parents and students, and other resources (examples listed above). • Identify the skills and knowledge that a student needs to achieve to meet academic grade-level content standards. • Identified needs will be used to develop annual IEP goals.

20. Step 3: Writing the PLP • Ask: • What are the grade-level content standards? • What is the student’s performance in relation to grade-level standards? • What are the student’s strengths in terms of accessing and mastering the general curriculum? Include sources of this information. • What are this student’s areas of need in accessing and mastering the general curriculum? Include sources of this information. • What academic skills and behaviors is the student able/unable to perform? • What functional skills and behaviors is the student able/unable to perform? • Do functional, organizational, or social skills issues affect the student’s involvement and progress in the general curriculum? • What strategies, accommodations, and/or interventions have been successful in helping the student make progress in the general curriculum? • How does the identified disability affect involvement and progress in the general curriculum? • What are the parental concerns? • What are the student’s interests, preferences, and goals? Include postsecondary aspirations if age-appropriate. • Is the student progressing at a rate to achieve grade-level proficiency within the year?

21. PLP Quick Check • Is the information educationally valuable and written in a user-friendly fashion? • Does the baseline data represent the student’s needs in relationship to the general education curriculum? • Would any teacher know where to begin instruction based on the information provided in the PLP?

22. Sample PLOP

23. Instructionally Appropriate Individualized Education Program (IEP): Developing Instructionally-Appropriate Measurable Annual Goals Ask: • What are the student’s needs as identified in the present level of performance? • What skills does the student require to master the content of the curriculum? • What can the student reasonably be expected to accomplish in one school year?

24. Components of Annual Goals Example: Matthew (who) will correctly add single-digit sums (behavior) using math manipulatives (conditions) at least 80% of the time (criterion) by the end of the first grading period (time frame).

25. Components of Annual Goals • Ask: • Does the goal have a specific time frame? • Are the conditions for meeting the goal addressed? • How will you measure the outcome of the goal? • Are the goals written in terms that parents and teachers can understand? • Do the goals support participation and progress in the general education curriculum? • Do the annual goals support postsecondary goals?

26. Developing Measurable Postsecondary Goals and Transition Needs • Ask: • What do you want to do when you finish high school? • If you go to college, what do you want to study? • What kind of work do you want to do? • What do you want to learn more about? • Where do you plan on living?

27. Instructionally Appropriate Individualized Education Program: Assessing and Reporting Student Progress

28. Assess and report the student’s progress throughout the year. • Ask: • How does the student demonstrate what he/she knows on classroom, benchmark, and state assessments? • Are a variety of assessments used to measure progress? • How will progress be reported to parents? • Did the student make the progress expected by the IEP team? (criteria) • How does the student’s performance compare with the performance of general education students? • Is the student more independent in the goal area? • Will work in the goal be continued or will student be dismissed from this goal area?

29. Progress Monitoring: At the time the IEP is developed, specify how progress will be measured, including; • What will be monitored, • Who will monitor it, • When it will be monitored, • Where the monitoring will be conducted, • How will the data be reported.

30. Reporting Student Progress • Progress on IEP goals and short-term objectives (if required) is reported to parents as often as non-disabled students receive academic progress reports. • Timeline: Mid-Quarter (Interim Reports), Quarterly • Format: Compilation Forms, Graphs, Narratives

31. Instructionally Appropriate Individualized Education Program (IEP): • Identifying Special Education and Related Services

32. Identifying Special Education and Related Services • Ask: • What related services or accommodations are needed to enable the student to access the knowledge in the general education curriculum? • What accommodations have been used with the student and were they effective? • Has the complexity of the materials been changed in such a way that the content has been modified?

33. Types of Related Service interventions offered by schools include: • Direct Services – Related service professional interacts directly with the student i.e.. – one on one counseling • Indirect Services – Related service professional interacts with other personnel i.e.. – training teacher how to implement a behavior management program

34. Identifying the Supplementary Aids and Services: • Accommodations - Accommodations do not reduce learning expectations. They provide access. • Modifications - Modifications refer to practices that change, lower or reduce learning expectations.

35. Types of Accommodations • Presentation Accommodations—Allow students to access information in ways that do not require them to visually read standard print. These alternate modes of access are auditory, multi-sensory, tactile, and visual. • Response Accommodations—Allow students to complete activities, assignments, and assessments in different ways or to solve or organize problems using some type of assistive device or organizer. • Setting Accommodations—Change the location in which a test or assignment is given or the conditions of the assessment setting. • Timing and Scheduling Accommodations—Increase the allowable length of time to complete an assessment or assignment and perhaps change the way the time is organized.

36. Instructionally Appropriate Individualized Education Program (IEP): Determining the Most Appropriate Assessment Option

37. Selecting the most appropriate assessment option Ask: • What types of assessments are offered in the state? • What types of responses do different state assessments require? • Has the student received Standards-based, grade-level instruction? • What was the student’s instructional level? • Can the student make progress toward grade-level standards in same timeframe? • Can the student demonstrate what he/she knows on the assessment option under consideration?

38. Credits • Much of the material in this presentation was adapted from Virginia’s training presentation, available at http://www.doe.virginia.gov/special_ed/iep_instruct_svcs/stds-based_iep/index.shtml.