IDEA 1997 Individuals with Disabilities Education Act IDEA

IDEA – 1997 Individuals with Disabilities Education Act

IDEA 1997 IDEA – 1997 provides all students with disabilities a free, appropriate public education (FAPE) in the latest restrictive environment that emphasized special education and related services designed to meet their unique needs and prepare them for employment and independent living. Significant changes were made in IDEA – 1997 and the accompanying 1999 Regulations

The New Law: • Strengthens the role of parents • Ensures that children with disabilities have access to the general education curriculum • Gives increased attention to racial, ethnic, and linguistic diversity to prevent inappropriate identification and mislabeling • Increases the participation of the general education teacher

The New Law: • Requires that transition planning begins when a child is 14 years old • Provides a way for parents and educators to work out their differences using the process of mediation • Specifies ADD/ADHD as a condition in a category of disability: Other Health Impaired

The New Law: • Requires a functional behavioral intervention for a child with a disability who exhibits troublesome behavior • Requires that parents be informed on a regular basis of the child’s progress

IEP Individualized Education Program

IEP A major provision of the law is the requirement that each public school child who receives special education and related services must have an individualized education program (IEP). Each IEP must be designed for one student and must be a truly individualized document. The IEP is the cornerstone of a quality education for each child with a disability.

Purposes of the IEP 1. It is a written plan for a particular student. The IEP is a written statement developed by the IEP or case conference team that prescribes specific educational objectives and placement for an individual student. 2. It is a management tool for the entire assessment-teaching process. In this sense, the IEP also serves a much broader purpose. As the core of the entire assessment-teaching process, the IEP involves all assessment evaluations as well as all teaching procedures. It becomes the critical link between the student with learning disabilities and the special teaching that the student requires.

Referral Stages Stage 1: Prereferral Activities Stage 2: Referral and Initial Planning

Assessment Stages are the core of the process and involve the tasks of evaluation and developing and writing the IEP Stage 3: Multidisciplinary Evaluation Stage 4: The IEP Meeting – Writing the IEP

The Participants at the IEP Meeting 1. The student’s parent(s) or legal guardian 2. At least one general education teacher if the child is in general education or being considered for general education 3. A special education teacher 4. A LEA (local education agency) representative knowledgeable about the general curriculum and resources available within the school district

The Participants at the IEP Meeting 5. A person who can interpret the instructional implications of evaluation results (may be one of the previously mentioned members) 6. The child, if the situation is appropriate 7. Any other person invited by the parent or the school who has knowledge or special expertise regarding the child, including, when appropriate, related services personnel

The Contents of the IEP 1. Present levels of the student’s performance (How does the disability affect his or her involvement and progress in the general education curriculum? ) 2. Measurable annual goals, including benchmarks or short-term objectives, related to: a) Meeting the child’s needs to enable him or her to be involved in the general curriculum b) Meeting other needs resulting from the disability

The Contents of the IEP 3. Special education and other services necessary for the student to meet annual goals, such as supplementary aids, any program modifications, or support for school personnel 4. An explanation of the extent to which the child will not participate in general education

The Contents of the IEP 5. Individual modifications in the administration of achievement tests (or an explanation of why such modifications are not appropriate) and how the child will be assessed 6. A projected date for beginning services and anticipated service frequency, location, and duration 7. Measures of progress toward annual goals and an explanation of how parents will be kept informed of their child’s progress

Intelligence Quotient - IQ The earliest and least sophisticated term for describing a person’s level of intellectual functioning is mental age. Mental age is an estimate of one's intellectual level and is different from chronological age. A 5 -yearold who successfully completes tasks typically performed only by children 7 years of age would be considered to have a mental age of 7 years.

Related Services • In addition to determining the necessary special education services, the IEP team also determines the need for “related services” that may be required to enable a child with a disability to benefit from special education. These may include transportation and developmental, corrective, and other supportive services. Such assistance may include speech-language pathology and auditory services, psychological services, physical and occupational therapy (including therapeutic recreation), social work services, counseling services (including rehabilitation counseling), orientation and mobility services, and medical services for diagnostic and evaluation purposes.

Instruction Stages Stage 5: Implementing the Teaching Plan Stage 6: Review and Reevaluation of the Student’s progress

Positive Behavioral Intervention and Support • IDEA-1997 indicates that if the child’s behavior interferes with his or her learning or the learning of others, the IEP team will consider strategies and supports to address the child’s behavior. If a child with disabilities displays behavior that impedes his or her learning or that of others, the IEP team must be able to evaluate the child’s behavior through a functional behavior assessment and to design a positive behavior support to change the student’s troublesome behavior

Functional Behavioral Assessment 1. Identify the target problem 2. Develop a hypothesis about what conditions provoke the problem behavior 3. Determine what seems to maintain the occurrence of the behavior

Positive Functional Behavior Intervention IDEA-1997 stipulates that if a child’s behavior impedes the child’s learning or the learning of others, the IEP shall consider strategies, including positive behavioral interventions, and supports to address the behavior. Positive behavior support is designed as a general term that refers to the culturally appropriate applications of positive behavioral interventions and systems to achieve socially important behavior change.

Positive Functional Behavior Intervention The following can be done to implement positive functional behavioral interventions: A desirable replacement behavior should be taught to the student. For example, if the student throws math books, he or she would be removed from the math class. A replacement behavior would be to give the student an alternative math assignment. The environment could be modified to increase the effectiveness of the replacement behavior. For example, the student would receive a consequence for throwing the book but could not avoid attending math class.

Assistive Technology Devices or Services IDEA-1997 requires that the IEP team must always consider whether the child needs assistive technology devices or services

Assistive Technology Devices or Services • The term assistive technology devices refers to equipment or products designed to help the functional capabilities of a child with a disability. For example, a speechrecognition system that allows a person to operate a computer by speaking into it is such a device

Assistive Technology Devices or Services • The term assistive technology services refers to any service that directly assists a child with a disability in the selection, acquisition, or use of an assistive technology device. For example, teaching a child who has a disability in writing the needed keyboarding skills for word processing would be an assistive technology service

Standardized Norm-Referenced Tests In the evaluation process the student’s performance and achievement are measured. Two approaches for measuring student skills are: 1) Standardized Tests 2) Alternate or Informal Measures

Formal Standardized Tests Statistically designed so that one-half of the student scores will be below the mean (average), and one-half will be above. Of course, communities want all of their children to score above average.

Standardized Tests Standardized tests require strict procedures in administration, scoring, and interpretation. They also have the following four characteristics: 1. The test is usually available in more than one form so that a student can be tested more than once without being able to obtain a higher score due to practice 2. The test is accompanied by a manual giving directions for administration, scoring, and interpretation

Standardized Tests Characteristics 3. The manual contains grade norms, age norms, percentile ranks, or some other form of scaled scores 4. The manual has information on validity (the degree to which the test measures what it is supposed to measure). The manual also shows reliability (consistency or similarity of performance). A reliability coefficient of 0. 90 indicates that if the test were given to the student again, it is 90 percent likely that the student would obtain a score in the same range

Alternate and Informal Assessment Measures Useful and practical assessment procedures that test students on the ordinary materials and activities they are currently working with in the classroom. A major advantage of using classroom materials for informal tests is that the assessment is as close as possible to the expected behaviors. Informal tests also give teachers freedom in administration and interpretation

Levels of Reading Informal Assessment Four levels may be identified through the use of the Classroom Reading Inventory: 1. Independent 2. Instructional 3. Frustration 4. Hearing capacity

Levels of Reading Independent Level The teacher’s first aim is to find the level at which the student reads comfortably. The teacher will use the independent level estimate in selecting supplementary reading material and the library and trade books the student will read on his or her own. Since this is the type of reading the student will be doing for personal recreation and information, it is important that the student be given reading material from which he or she can extract content without the hazards of unfamiliar vocabulary and concepts.

Levels of Reading Instructional Level As the selections become more difficult the student will reach a level at which he or she can read with at least 95% accuracy in word recognition, and with 75% comprehension or better. At this level the student needs the teacher’s help. This is the student’s instructional level, useful in determining the level of textbook that he or she can read with teacher guidance. Note: Considerable time is saved by not attempting to estimate the student’s frustration and hearing capacity levels. However, these levels are included in the event the teacher feels the need to obtain such data.

Levels of Reading Frustration Level When the student reads a selection that is beyond his or her instructional level, the teacher may observe symptoms of frustration such as tension, excessive finger-pointing, slow halting word-byword reading, and so on. Comprehension will be extremely poor, usually most of the concepts and questions are inaccurately discussed by the student. This represents a level that should be avoided when textbooks and supplementary reading material are being selected.

Levels of Reading Hearing Capacity Level The teacher is asked to read orally more difficult selections to determine whether the student can understand discuss what was heard at levels beyond the instructional level. The highest level (ability to answer 75% of the questions asked by the teacher) is the probable hearing capacity level. This level gives the teacher an index as to the student’s ability to gain and use information through listening. When the hearing capacity level is higher than the instructional level, it is assumed that the reading skills might be improved through further instruction, at least to the hearing capacity.

Levels of Reading Procedure Present the graded oral paragraphs (story), starting at the highest level at which the student successfully recognized all twenty words in a word list in Part 1.

Procedure Ask the student to read the paragraphs “out loud. ” Tell the student that you will ask several questions when he or she is finished reading the paragraphs or story.

Procedure Each graded oral paragraph is accompanied by a picture in the student booklet and a brief background description called motivation in the inventory record for teachers. Listening to all or some aspect of the motivation and brief inspection of the picture should provide the student with a measure of readiness for the oral selection that he or she is asked to read.

Procedure The information (picture and motivation) has been checked to make certain that answers are not supplied for the comprehension questions that follow each oral reading selection. Discontinue the graded oral paragraphs when the student experiences frustration in either word recognition or comprehension.

Word Recognition Reading Oral Paragraphs As the student reads each selection orally, record his word-recognition errors on the separate inventory record for teachers. The student makes word-recognition errors when he or she repeats, substitutes, omits, or needs teacher assistance in pronouncing words.

The following symbols will enable the teacher to quickly record the type of word-recognition errors made during the oral reading: Common Error Symbol Notes Repetition Mark word(s) repeated Insertion Add additional word(s) Substitution Add substituted word

Word Recognition Errors Common Error Symbol Notes Omission Needs Assistance Circle word(s) omitted p Pronounce word when it’s apparent that the student does not know the word(s)

Word Recognition Errors Sample is It was the day to go to the farm p “Get in the bus. ” said Mrs. Brown.

Flow Chart of the Steps in the Informal Reading Inventory

Select an IRI (Teacher-made or Commercial) Informal Reading Flow Chart Estimate Beginning Level for Testing Go to Next Level Give Oral Reading and Silent Reading Tests at Selected Level Code Errors (or Miscues) and Ask Comprehension Questions Score Oral Reading and Comprehension No Has Frustration Level Been Reached? Yes Stop Testing

Informal Reading Flow Chart Go to Next Level Give Oral Reading and Silent Reading Tests at Selected Level Code Errors (or Miscues) and Ask Comprehension Questions Score Oral Reading and Comprehension No Has Frustration Level Been Reached? Yes Stop Testing Determine Three Reading Levels Analyze Word Recognition and Comprehension Responses

Authentic Assessment Authentic assessment makes realistic demands and is set in real-life contexts such as at school or at home. (In contrast, a formal test often is not related to the child’s curriculum. ) Examples of authentic assessment situations include actually reading a passage (reading), giving a persuasive speech (oral expression), writing a letter to the editor (written expression), or using mathematics to solve a real-life problem (mathematics)

Performance Assessment Performance assessment tests are designed to assess what the student actually does in the curriculum. This assessment requires that the students actively perform some classroom task (produce, demonstrate, perform, create, construct, apply, build, solve, plan, show, illustrate, or explain).

Portfolio Assessment Samples of a student’s actual class work over an extended period of time are collected. This portfolio is used to evaluate the student’s current achievement level and progress over time

Informal Arithmetic Test An informal arithmetic test can be easily devised to point out weaknesses in students’ basic computational skills.

Criterion-Referenced Tests Criterion-referenced tests measure a student’s mastery of specific skills. For example, does the pupil recognize –ing endings? Does the student know the meaning of the prefix dis-? Can the student subtract single-digit numbers through 10? The teacher can set an acceptable criterion for mastery, such as 90 percent. When that performance level is reached, the student is taught the next skill in the sequence.

Criterion-Referenced Tests Criterion-referenced tests describe rather than compare performance, measuring mastery levels rather than grade levels. In contrast, norm-referenced tests (or traditional standardized tests) compare the pupil’s performance to that of other children of the same age.

National Council on Measurement in Education (NCME) In 1995, NCME published its Code of Professional Responsibilities in Educational Measurement. The code was adopted “for all individuals who are engaged in educational assessment activities in the hope that these activities will be conducted in a professionally responsible manner…The code is intended to serve an educational function: to inform and remind those involved in educational assessment of their obligations to uphold the integrity of the manner in which assessments are developed, used, evaluated, and marketed

Tanya generally performs quite well in her language arts class. The school system requires that every student in Tanya’s grade level take a standardized, norm-referenced test. Tanya receives a score of the 35 th percentile rank in language arts. When looking over the student results, one of the teachers on the team notices that Tanya did not complete the language arts section of the test (the last 10 items were left blank). Further, inquiry reveals that all of the language arts questions that Tanya answered were answered correctly.

Tanya Question Is Tanya’s language arts score an accurate representation of what she knows in language arts? What are some issues that should be studied further?

Ian is a first grader in your class. Your school uses a standardized test as one indicator to monitor progress in reading skills. Ian’s parents are very involved in his education and read to him at home. Although Ian has been making good progress in his reading, he receives an average score in reading on the Standardized test. His parents are concerned and make an appointment to see you about Ian’s test score.

Ian Question What will you say to Ian’s parents? Do you think Ian’s score is valid? Why or why not?

Phyllis is a sixth grader who has great difficulty reading. Her school requires each student’s reading comprehension to be assessed using a standard, multiple-choice reading test. While Phyllis’s class is taking the test, an instructional aide notices that Phyllis is very frustrated. She moves Phyllis to another area and reads the test aloud to her.

Phyllis Question Is Phyllis’s score a valid indication of her reading comprehension ability? Why or why not?