dad: We have asked for additional corroboration beyond teachers’ grades due to past experiences of classroom grading being too subjective (son “passes” courses but very low scores with standardized testing during same time period).
Have been told teachers’ tests are aligned with common core standards, standardized tests can’t be given too often per administrative rules, and they aren’t appropriate to measure a goal. Any legal cites, etc. to counteract this?
Thx!
I would like to know the same thing!
What I can contribute to this is a name for what you’re looking for: “progress monitoring” or “ongoing progress monitoring.”
Teachers often do fudge when it comes to assigning grades. If you are looking for objective proof that the child is struggling, I suggest you lean heavily on the state and local standardized tests. Note there may be some local standardized tests that you aren’t aware of. Ask for a copy of all the child’s educational records during a particular period. You might be surprised what turns up!
Thanks, Sophie, for the input. Have lots of past tests/evals (both by school & outside), that provide plenty of data on son’s abilities. But he continues to lose ground academically each year, and as is a common problem, standardized assessment scheduling allows too much time to pass when schools say his intermediate grades are fine….
Finally, you may want to get a psychoeducational evaluation, or an academic evaluation from one of those national tutoring centers. The latter won’t have legal validity, but it can help you get an idea of where the child is, objectively.
Did request his complete educational records. There were some hidden ‘gems’ we weren’t aware of (too bad we weren’t informed in a more timely manner), but it was like pulling teeth and required numerous follow-up letters pointing out known missing data to receive info. And wouldn’t doubt there are still missing items,
Anyway, hopefully someone on this forum can provide us some more information on intermediate progress monitoring- relying solely on subjective teachers’ grades vs. also utilizing timely & objective assessments/evaluations to compare with grading.
dad
Two, try to find out what benchmarking assessment system is used in your district — for example, mine uses “Fountas & Pinnell Benchmark Assessment System” for ELA (and apparently nothing for math!). I have also heard of STAR assessments, by Renaissance Learning. Once you find out what they use, ask that they use that for ongoing progress monitoring.
Sometimes one can get helpful insider information (such as what assessments can be used) from a friendly teacher at a PTA meeting, or by calling another school or a neighboring district.
Dad, your experience parallels my own. I also hope we hear more responses to your question. I have two ideas to share.
One, perhaps you could put monthly or bi-weekly progress monitoring in the IEP. But then the problem is that sometimes the teaching staff doesn’t know how to do that. If they are willing to work with you, you yourself could make up some Common Core-based assessments by drawing on released state test questions given in the past, e.g. http://www.engageny.org/resource/released-2015-3-8-ela-and-mathematics-state-test-questions. I look at those and slightly rewrite the questions and give them to my son as practice tests periodically. I have also gotten good test questions out of earlier grades’ tests.
Depending on the areas you want assessed, objective information about a child’s progress in academic areas can be obtained by testing on a single-subject or multi-subject standardized achievement test. Colleges and universities with graduate level psych programs are often willing to do this testing for a minimal fee ($25. at U of OK). The testing is done by grad students who are supervised by professors. Most standardized achievement tests have 2 versions (usually A and B) so a child can be tested twice a year.
Can an IEP list parent as one of the responsible parties to monitor an academic, school based, goal? Literacy/math??
It could be appropriate, if others are monitoring the goal, & their role is clearly stated. It could be appropriate if the goal involves transferring a school to settings outside of the school.
The parent may be “putting the cart before the horse” on this. If it’s decided by the team that there is an appropriate place for the parent in the “who, where, when” of the progress monitoring plan, then I would think absolutely they could be one of the responsible parties. But if the parent simply wants to monitor the child’s teachers, there’s probably a better way…