Progress monitoring

[Victoria.R]

My daughters (6th grade)  math ICT has been monitoring her progress with her modified classroom test or classroom lesson work book pages. She can’t say what pages she used on the days that she did the trials and can’t tell me when she used the test to monitor either. So I have no work samples from the trial dates. I have a very basic report with no details at all of how she did or what she did, just the typical 3 or of 5, 4 out of 5 and so on. She’s saying she’s making progress and expected to meet the goal with absolutely no real data to back it up. I’ve requested multiple time for work samples to back up the reports. They don’t have them from my understanding. Fast forward to a meeting with head of sped departments and superintendent because of  how we were completely disregarding in her annual meeting by the head of sped. It comes out that the head of sped department spoke with math ICT and it was said that she is making inconsistent progress toward her math goal…. That’s not what was said 3+ times in her annual meeting that was the driving point to remove the goal for next year. We don’t see the progress they are spoking of. All of her other assignments are coming back at a K-2 math level but some how she’s getting 78%-85%-100% on her in class test. We believe that’s due to her modified test and her accommodation. We have another meeting on the 9th to continue the discussion. Superintendent mentioned it needs to be data driven and we are 100% on the same page and requested again to see the data. he agreed and told the head of sped to have the teachers provide us the data. My question is… can they monitor IEP goal progress with a modified classroom test? If so how is that accurate? 

[Carolyn Rowlett]

Lots of red flags here regarding the ICT teacher.  First, I agree with you that modified tests and lessons are not an accurate way to monitor progress or to tell what her true level is compared to her peers.  And the fact that she has no supporting documentation for the trial dates is very suspicious.  At a minimum she should have a graph or something showing the dates the data was taken.

Not to make your post "all about me," but I have a similar situation and was considering posting about it.  Mine involves reading data.  The school district found my client ineligible for special education based on an RTI model and have shown us graphs plotting data and dates, but when my client asked for the actual reading passages used to get the data, she was told they were done on the computer and are not saved.  If anyone reading this post and my response has any suggestions, please respond.  It doesn't seem right that the parent can't see the actual data used to plot on a graph.  The school district could easily  fabricate the data.  We want to see the passage for several reasons - to ensure they are on grade level, to see the words missed, and to see how far she read in one minute.  Just FYI - they also did an evaluation and we requested an IEE, but they are only relying on their RTI data to show she's making "sufficient progress" and therefore does not need an IEP.  Another question:  Does anyone know what "sufficient progress" should be under an RTI  model?  The director of spec ed said she has to fall below 10%...???

Back to this post.  I think you're on the right track with involving the superintendent.  Hopefully, since the superintendent is making the request, you will get to see the data.  Even if you get the data, I would still take further action.  When was the last time the school evaluated your daughter?  If it has been over a year, I would definitely ask for a re-evaluation (you can request one once a year).  This would give you testing data without any modifications.  Then, if you don't like the results from the school evaluation, I would request an IEE (Independent Educational Evaluation).  You don't have to give reasons for this request - just that you disagree with the school's evaluation.  Because you are correct - data drives the goals and it doesn't appear that you can trust the special education teacher to provide the data.

[Carolyn Rowlett]

Also, I would assume she's taking standardized tests of some sort.  What are these showing?  They would not be modified and would be data.

[Victoria.R]

Thank you for your reply. The red flags are definitely flying. I have no understanding of where she's at compared to her peers in math. I have no graphs that represents her trials. I have a single piece of showing the date's the trial was done and the mark she got, so something like 3 out of 5.  No note as to what she even did on the trial. no comments, nothing. Then I have the quarterly report that shows. "progressing satisfactory". Again no comments. which we now know isn't accurate based of the ICT and Head of Sped's conversation. her PLOP literally only talks about how she was doing on the current unit they were working on (Geometry) at the time of the CSE but nothing at all about how she is preforming on anything else. especially not toward her two step math word problems goal. if she's clearly still struggling with that goal shouldn't that be in her PLOP? Its like she didn't mention it so we wouldn't question why the goal was removed with no data to support that. its very suspicious. Having the meeting with the superintendent was me trying to be reasonable and see if maybe he could kick this into gear. My next step is a Lawyer and a state complaint if  we can't get this right for my daughter this time. Last summer we had a whole Neuropsychological eval done though our insurance. The school did take that report and added any new diagnosis to her IEP. We made some changes where they were needed. My daughters triennial is this November, the start of her 7th grade year. Im very interested in seeing those evals because they love to say mention how well my daughters grades are but can't seem to comprehend that they are this good because of the mods and accommodations. They were not this well maintained prior to her being classified. Ive been doing a lot of reading on IEE's and if I need to request one I will definitely be ready to. I am having a very hard time trusting the Math ICT teacher. I know she doesn't have what I requested for months now so I feel as though she's going just show me her work book and call that the progress monitoring. It's so infuriating trying to get the bare minimum from her. Yes she is taking standardized test, Math iReady shows she is at a K-2 domain well below in all areas of math, 25th percentile . and her MAP testing is low for all areas of math as well. from 1st to 6th grade she had only gained 10 points?!?! 1st- 172 and now 6th- 180. she never scored higher then a 185 for the RIT score.  This is WELL below. NYS test also well below. Every year I speak on these scores. the district literally tells me they "hold no weight"....? "what matters is how she is doing in the classroom." "kids just click though the assessments". my argument it that my daughters scores are too consistent for her to "just be clicking though" her scores would be dramatically all over the place if that was the case. They are consistent across 3 difference assessments THEY are give! but she's getting 70%,80%,100% on the classroom test...? Make it make sense for me please. Its like they don't understand what she needs and are trying to just throw some things out there and see what sticks. her new math goal is "student will show her work"..... WHAT?? when questioning it. the answer we got was "so we can pinpoint a deficit". That's not what a goal is for that's what an assessment is for. maybe if you had documentation from progress monitoring you would know what her deficit was? am I incorrect?  This was why we tabled the meeting. It was a rushed MESS and they wouldn't listen to us. How can any of us be making diction with no data? I don't get it. this would be year 3 with a very similar math word problem goal and I just won't have it. what they are doing isn't working and they still fail to listen to us because her grades are good.

what verbiage should I be using when asking for progress monitoring like work samples?

[JSD24]

Schools follow the IEP.  Ask for work samples to be required as part of progress monitoring.  If she's getting 4 out of 5 correct, have the ICT teacher send you a copy of those 5 math problems.

The other thing that can be done is a sp ed assessment.  Ask the school to evaluate her math ability to see how things are going since the ICT teacher's data is incongruent with state testing, MAP and iReady results.  Something has got to be inaccurate.  Students who are getting B's shouldn't be scoring well below basic.

Another option you can do is print out some unmodified problems and have your child work through them.  Save a copy of what she did & note how long it took her to do.  (I know PA has sample questions on the website that lists state standards.)  If she's meeting goals of 80% on modified tests, what's the next goal?  90%?  Unmodified questions?

 

And for Carolyn.  They might not have saved the passages but they can tell you their protocol.  They used an online test of some sort.  What's the name of the website?  What grade level did they pick?  (I remember a story from an advocate about a teacher who gave the same passage each time.  Student had unbelievable progress but the testing was invalid.)  You can also make up an assessment yourself.  Write a passage that's ~100 words.  (With 100 words, the math on words/minute is EZ to calculate.)  Have the child read it.  Look at the state standards or get help from a librarian to make sure it's at grade level.  Your results might not be all that accurate but it'll be better than the nothing the school provided.  Here's an example of how you can do this:  

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