IEPs

> There seem to be different philosophies on this subject. I
> have worked with 3 different diagnosticians in the past 9
> years. One says the short term objectives should be
> generalized because many objectives can be taught under that
> general objective. One says it should be very precise. The
> other one didn’t care.
> I am torn between the two. I understand both views. Does
> anyone have any input on this matter?

The rule of thumb that I’ve been taught is: Goals are more general, but still measurable. Goal Example: Johnny will improve reading by 1.5 grade levels as measured by a classroom reading inventory.

Objective: Johnny will recognize all second grade sight words as measured by teacher-made tests.
Benchmark: Johnny will recognize 50% of 2nd grade sight word test by
the end of semester 1.
Objective 2: Johnny will improve phonemic awareness as measured by teacher-made phonics tests.
Benchmark 1: Johnny will visually identify all consonant and vowel letters and orally produce corresponding sounds.
Benchmark2: Johnny will segment words with up to 4 consonants and one short vowel sound by the end of semester 1.
Benchmark2: Johnny will segment on-set patterns (i.e. cl-, pl-, gl-, dr-,…) by the end of the 3rd grading period.
Benchmark3: Johnny will segment final patterns (i.e. -nt, -ct, -tch…) by the end of semester2.

Now, these times frames are probably too long for most kids, but it’s a quick example of how I think about goals/objectives/benchmarks.

Two years ago, I developed and implemented a reading program for a 6th grade school of about 1,000 students. I saw 50-60 students per day. Many were IEP students. I wrote the Goals and Objectives and did the testing for the sped teachers. I just used my sequence of phonics instruction and measured what the students did/did not know and could/could not do.

Do you group students in some homogenous manner?

When IEP’s were a new thing and people had high hopes of some reality being addressed, we were taught that IEP goals must be very specific and measurable; for example “Johnny will read short vowel CVC words from a random list with 90% accuracy”. The very general IEP’s are a cop-out; if you can’t measure the progress than you can’t be held accountable. “Johnny will work on his reading every day” can mean anything or nothing at all.

Thank you for your input.
I think I’ll join the “specific and measurable” camp. The IEPS may be pages long, but at least I’ll have hard data for myself, parents and regular education teaachers. My goal is to fill in the gaps for my students and have them work their way into regular education classes.
I’m seeing students that have memorized words and have no phonics skills. I’m going back and reteaching those.
I was also going to post about paperwork overload. After reading “Paperwork Reduction Act of 2002” on this website I don’t feel so alone. Special Ed. teachers spend 5 hours a week on paperwork and regular ed teachers spend 2 hours a week on paperwork. From what I can tell, the Paperwork Reduction Act hopes to alleviate this problem in the next 18 months. I really thought it was just me and that I was not organized enough to handle the paperwork. The article also said that special education teachers leave the field due to the amount of paperwork involved.
Any comments? I live in TX. How is the paperwork load in the rest of the US?

Amy,

I still think you can be specific without making the IEP pages long. If you do that, you will be spending too much time on paperwork. The purpose is not to write our lesson plans on the IEP. Susan’s example was very good. A reading IEP I think should cover (whichever are applicable): phonological awareness/decoding, fluency, sight words, vocabulary, and comprehension. But don’t do more than a couple of objectives for each or you will make yourself crazy every time progress reports are due!.

Yes, I do think the paperwork is very frustrating. I try and remember that most parents want their child to improve, but at the same time, they can get lost in an IEP that is too detailed. I do think special ed. will continue to have teacher shortages until something changes. If I did not teach hearing impaired and have a low caseload, I would probably not stay in public school special education. Many districts care more about whether all the blanks are filled in on the paperwork as opposed to the actual quality of instruction. That’s a hard one for me to swallow.

Janis

In the decoding area, we can move through the objectives fairly quickly. Since there need be enough objectives to fill a whole school year, I either have to lump them together (Student will decode CVC and CVCE syllable types…)

I find having the sequence very comforting when I’m doing quarterly reports. It’s organized and I can think about a skill sequence for each child, see where they were and where they are now. Sometimes I have ten objectives under one Goal—That might mean 4 benchmarks (one for each quarter.)

You are going to think I’m nuts, but I like the paperwork. It keeps me on target and staying focused on the goals for kids. (I don’t ever say that in district meetings or I’m sure my tires would not be intact upon departure. I just keep this to myself. I think my sped director knows because I never complain.)

I know…I need some kind of medication!

Susan,

Can I send you mine? ;-)

Janis

You’re a funny, funny gal, Janis! While I have always liked forms and office supplies and stuff such as that, I’m no glutton for punishment, either. :-)

Susan:

<

I know…I need some kind of medication!>>

There has to be a happy medium between minimal and excessive. I just put a very complicated packet together that consisted of 66 pages long (that’s just the part that went to the Special Ed. dept.but did not include the parent’s copy, the school copy and the teacher’s packet which had nearly as many pages in each pile.) I, however, get just as frustrated when I see an IEP that is written in haste and shows no real effort. There are many pages in our district IEPs that are redundant and add a lot of unnecessary work. That’s what I resent

How many pages are included in your IEP packets for an initial placement, annual review, triennial, and a major change of placement? When I see your answer, I’ll let you know if I think you need the mediction! :)

Marilyn

1. About 50 pages (all included) for an annual IEP Review
2. About 30 pages in a diagnostic summary (now evaluation report)—depending on the number of tests given.
3. About 15-20 extra pages in a triennial review.
4. About 20-25 pages (possibly 30) for a major change of placement. About the same as a triennial review, really.

But, we are computerized and our system is web-based. (If my computer were faster at school, I could get much more done there. I usually bring it home and do it in the evening on my faster machine…) That’s the part *I* complain about…not having the system to allow me to do my job at my job.
We do have an excellent copy machine that has sorter, stapler, and document feeder. That’s a help.

I only have 12-14 on my caseload. I know many with more. Maybe that makes the difference.

We also redo all IEP’s in the fall. I like that and think it facilitates better planning. By Thanksgiving, a huge part of the paperwork is finished.

Susan,

50 pages for an annual review?!! I have never in my entire teaching career in 4 states ever heard of such a thing! Wow. We’d have no teachers if we had to do 50 page IEP’s.

Our routine annual review papers consist of: 1 page invitation to conference, goal sheets (usually averaging 3-5 pages, 1 major goal per page), and about 3 pages to determine amount of service, accommodations/modifications, place and duration of services, etc. If any change in services such as adding or exiting a related service adds 2 more pages. So a typical annual review would consist of about 7 to 10 pages. If it is time for a re-evaluation determination, that will add a couple more pages.

We also have a computerized IEP program, but I do not like it so I usually hand-write my IEP’s. I wish they would get a better program.

Janis

First off, our Present Level of Education Performance must be 1.5 pages minimum. Mine are usually 2-3 so I’m sure to include every piece of data including what little Johnny likes to eat for breakfast that makes him able to sit better in his chair.

Our computer systems prompts for lots of category things (related services, collaborating agencies, etc., etc., etc.) but creates more pages in that process because categories are printed even though there may be nothing in the section.

By the time you add in all the notification forms, meeting attendance forms, and Procedural Safeguards, you’ve got a bunch of pages needing to be copied and handled. The actual IEP occupies about 15 pages of it all.

I’ve seen annual corporate board reports with fewer pages… ;-)

If I only had a decent computer at school, though, I wouldn’t mind. My caseload isn’t really big at 13 right now.

I have been a Resource Specialist for 12 years in CA. I have always taught in large urban districts. I d have a concern with the paperwork. My largest concerns tends to be:
1. Time to ido what is written in the IEP /the necessary instrction/support on the IEP
2. The amount of time spent writing an IEP.
3. Making sure the IEP is a document accessible to the parent, child and to the many general educatuion teachers who must impliment it.
In both districts in which I’ve taught, NONE of the IEP is on the computer! Everything written is done in handwriting. My reports showing academic test results, suggestions, teacher input… can be typed, but all by me, by hand. Then I must photocopy the report onto the appropriate blank IEP page. We must press hard enough for the writing to go through 5 carbon sheets for all of the goal sheets, promotion retention sheets, etc. We must document the student’s periodic progress on the current IEP throughout the year, photocopy this, mail it to the parent and maintain a copy to be sent to the Special Education Office at the annual review. All by hand. It’s hard to believe that I live minutes from Silicon Valley!

Okay. It sounds like the program is wasting space. However, our PLP area is about the size of 1/4 of a page. You can type maybe 8 to 10 sentences in that space. We do one for each goal, however. Y’all are writing much more detail than we are for that area apparently.

Janis

Our state department of education said that anyone looking at this IEP should be able to have a “clear and complete picture” of any student’s current level by reading the PLEP.

Most of my kids like Cocoa Puffs w/choc milk for breakfast…

Since the program is pretty fast to work on at home, I make a copy, work from the cum file at school (grades, test scores, absences,etc.) and then input at home on my fast computer. I’ll keep some of the blank spaces as long as the input is fast.

Sleep time!

Well, I just listed that one as a specific example. Another specific and measurable objective would be “Johnny will read orally with fewer than 10 errors per page from any appropriate textbook using the first 200 Dolch words.” Or “Johnny will pass a test with 90% accuracy reading orally 100 phonetic words taken from *all* sections of Scholar’s Choice Book 2”
The objective can summarize a lot of smaller objectives, just that it has to state a specific skill and a method and level of success to measure that skill.

… the midterm report I had to write was *grueling* but the examination of student progress and strengths, etc. helped me immensely. I would invariably re-focus lessons and teach better. Of course, having a caseload of 13 made that possible, if difficult — and I had lots of old reports to use as models which had most of the key phrases somehwere in ‘em.

I worked in a system once where we were told we had to handwrite the IEPS — so they would be “individual.” SOmehow if we did them on a computer they weren’t. Instead of saying “we’ve had parents complain that the IEPS were too general, let’s make sure we individualize” we were handed down an arbitrary rule to make things *appear* more individualized instead — we all know appearances are all that matters. (Fortunately that was a central office guy… didn’t actually have a whole lot to do with what we *did* in the school.)