IEP Quality
High-quality IEPs must include clear, measurable objectives aligned with IDEA guidelines, but many fall short in linking goals to curriculum, measuring behaviors, and addressing parental concerns, highlighting the need for improvement.
High-Quality IEPs: What Makes Them Effective? 🍎
Individualized Education Plans (IEPs) for students with special needs must be personalized. Research shows a good IEP includes:
- Clear descriptions of a student's current performance.
- Goals that are:
- Specific
- Measurable
- Observable
- Attainable
IDEA regulations and NRC best practices help achieve these goals.
Our IEP Assessment Tool 🛠️
We developed a tool to evaluate IEP objectives based on NRC guidelines and IDEA requirements. It has two parts:
- Overall plan assessment.
- Individual objective quality evaluation using IDEA indicators.
Scoring 📊
Objectives were scored as:
- 0 = Not described at all
- 1 = Some, but not enough
- 2 = Fully described
We also checked if parental concerns were addressed.
What We Found 🔍
Many IEPs were lacking. Common problems included:
- Not connecting objectives to general or developmental curriculum goals.
- Using behavioral measures that don't accurately measure the behavior.
- Not specifying the conditions under which the behavior should occur.
- Lack of individualized instruction or goal measurement methods.
Concerned About Your Child's IEP? 🤔
Enroll in VillageED today!