First of all I apologize for the length of this posting. I had an IEP meeting today for my daughter who is in 5th grade and has been classified as LD. She took the WJ-III Tests of Achievement on 2/11/5 and was re-tested on 10/4/6. Her scores are as follows:
2/11/5 PR 10/4/6 PR
Oral Lang 70% 52%
Oral Expression 71% 44%
Listening Comp 66% 58%
Broad Reading 18% 18%
Broad Written Lang 12% 10%
Basic Reading Skills 26% 22%
Reading Comp 26% 39%
Letter-Word Identification 20% 14%
Reading Fluency 16% 23%
Story Recall 56% 50%
Understanding Directions 47% 41%
Spelling 12% 6%
Writing Fluency 29% 21%
Passage Comp 31% 32%
Writing Samples 11% 28%
Word Attack 36% 37%
Picture Vocab 74% 43%
Oral Comprehension 76% 68%
Editing 43% 60%
Reading Vocabulary 29% 52%
Spelling of Sounds 26% 1%
Sound Awareness 27% 55%
I graphed these differences and presented them at the meeting today. I was told that this is to be expected as children with LD’s get older there is more required of them and the gap between them and their peers will grow. I asked if this is the case then should I expect by the time my daughter graduates all of her scores will be 1%ile or less. I was also told that if her SS fell within the 68% BAND that shows on the WJ-III Tests of Achievement print-out that my daughter was okay or average. If my daughter’s percentiles are going down doesn’t that mean that her SS and knowledge is also going down? The 68% BAND is different on the two different tests. I thought that the 68% BAND was that 68% of the scores fell in those SS ranges. If the mean is 100 and the SD is 15 then why would this 68% BAND change between the different achievement tests? Shouldn’t the 68% BAND always be 85 SS or -1SD and 115 SS or +1SD?
Another question I have is does anybody know if the QRI’s are subjective or objective? They are trying to tell us that my daughter is reading “instructionally” on a 6th grade level with a fluency of 120. They also say that she can read 7th grade text with a fluency of 80.
I am trying to fight for ESY services for her so that she can close the gap compared to her peers. I am also trying to use this information to see if they will change teaching methods that they are currently using. They have told me that maybe learning to read using phonics is not the way that she can learn. I thought that phonics and phonemic awareness was the first building blocks to reading, writing, spelling, etc. My mind is going in circles after all that was presented today. Can anybody help me understand this stuff and tell me where to go next? I have attended a Wrightslaw conference and use the Special Education Law book as my bible at every IEP meeting. This one has me stumped. The school and district know that I have some experience with the laws and most of their scenarios I am able to prove wrong. I don’t know why my brain gave out this time.
On Wrightslaw there is a great article on Tests and Measurements. It explains how to look at the test scores and understand where your child falls.
As for the reading, I would question how she can be reading above grade level and yet score so low on her testing. That doesn’t make sense.
Just my own experience - my dd couldn’t read above a 3rd grade level until she was in 6th grade and we figured out that she has Irlen Syndrome. She litterally couldn’t see the words well enough to read well. Once it was corrected her reading improved 2 grade levels in a year. Since then she has been making great gains and is now at grade level. The moral: there are many things that can cause reading difficulties and phonics won’t correct all of them. :)