I noticed in my post on trust and special education personnel’s subjective opinions that I left out some important information about subjective opinions. This is the reason I decided to write a Part II.

While standardized testing is important for determining disabilities, and also determining if a child is making progress, I left out an important issue.

School districts need to show parents data, to determine if a child is making educational progress, not just subjective opinions of special education staff. How is this data collected--by conducting progress monitoring? According to the National Center on Student Progress Monitoring sponsored by the US Department of Education (http://www.studentprogress.org), “Progress monitoring is a scientifically based practice that is used to assess students academic performance and evaluate the effectiveness of instruction. . . “ Pre testing at the beginning of the school year and post testing at the end of the school year can be considered a type of progress monitoring; but should be included with monthly progress monitoring. This is critical so that the curriculum and services can be intensified or changed, if a child is not learning, and showing appropriate progress.

 Information on progress monitoring measures can be found at:  http://www.rti4success.org/tools_charts/progress.php. As a parent you should insist on monthly progress monitoring as well as pre and post testing (pre testing at beginning of school year—post testing at end of the school year).  Ask for progress monitoring information in writing, and make sure that this is listed in your child’s IEP.

Core National Standards:

When discussing your child’s educational progress make sure that your child is being held to the same Core academic standards as students without disabilities. This will keep the expectations high and give your child a great chance for educational success.  The difficulty has been that every state had their own standards, some low and some high. There is a national push for Core Standards. More info can be found at: http://www.corestandards.org/. Currently, 43 states have passed the Core National Standards, which is fantastic! These standards are set high, and it is very clear that these standards apply to all children, even children with disabilities.

Outside help for children:

Many children with disabilities are making educational progress because their parents are spending hour after hour, teaching their child at home, and assisting them with their homework. School personnel often refuse to take this into consideration.  In an OSEP policy letter dated January 13, 2010 it states: “. . . It has been the Departments long standing position that in general it would be appropriate for the evaluation team to consider information about outside or extra learning support provided to the child, to determine whether the child’s current academic achievement reflects the service augmentation, and not what the child’s academic achievement would be without such help.”

I have heard special education personnel state that a child is doing “fine” in school and does not need special education. Of course I address the subjective nature of these comments, but I also bring up help that a child receives at home or from private service providers.

I once advocated for a little girl of a single mother, who was spending hours every evening helping her daughter with her homework. I figured out pretty quickly what was happening with the little girl. The child was struggling so much in all academic areas, that she did not complete her work at school, so the teacher sent it home. Bringing the time spent at home to the schools attention fell on deaf ears. So I told her to stop helping her daughter for hours—only one hour a night—and then send the work back! I also recommended writing on the homework how much help she gave her daughter. The mom was very reluctant to do this, but eventually agreed.  It took only about a week for the school to wake up, and realize that the child needed special education services. While what I asked the parent to do is drastic, unfortunately some situations require drastic measures.

To determine educational progress ask for data from progress monitoring, and do not listen to subjective comments made by special education personnel. Grades are also subjective and should never be used. JoAnn