Understanding Special Education: Assessments & IEP

Posted on Mar 5, 2025 in Psychology and Sociology

Individuals with Disabilities Education Improvement Act

  • Meeting goals and outcomes identified in a child’s IEP.
  • Access to general education.

IEP Process

  1. Referral by parent or teacher.
  2. Pre-referral intervention (RTI).
  3. Referral to the IEP team.
  4. Request assessments (e.g., KTEA).
  5. Share assessments.
  6. Develop and approve the IEP.
  7. Implement the IEP.
  8. Review annually.
  9. Re-evaluation (every 3 years).

Key Principles of IDEA

  • Zero Reject: All students with disabilities are entitled to FAPE.
  • Free Appropriate Public Education (FAPE): Special education and related services are provided at no cost to the family.
  • Least Restrictive Environment (LRE): Students with disabilities should be educated with their non-disabled peers to the maximum extent appropriate.
  • Parent and Student Participation: Shared decision-making.
  • Procedural Safeguards:
    • Prior written notice of meetings, revisions, or placements.
    • Parents have the right to access student work.
    • Due process and mediation are available.
  • Non-discriminatory Evaluation and Identification: Students must be evaluated prior to receiving special education services.

Disability Categories (not exhaustive)

Autism, Other Health Impairment, Emotional Disturbance (ED), Intellectual Disability (ID), Specific Learning Disability (SLD), Orthopedic Impairment, Multiple Disabilities, Speech/Language Impairment, Visual Impairment, Deafness, Traumatic Brain Injury.

Understanding Assessment Data

Normative Performance

Uses a bell curve to compare a student’s performance to same-age or same-grade peers (e.g., very low, low, below average, average, above average, high, very high).

Benchmark Scores

Criterion-referenced target scores that represent reading progress:

  • At or Above Benchmark: Likely to need core support.
  • Below Benchmark: Likely to need strategic support.
  • Well Below Benchmark: Likely to need intensive support.

Rate of Improvement (ROI)

The average rate of increase for the raw score per week (ROI x weeks + baseline).

Goal Setting (ABCD)

Audience, Behavior, Condition, Degree. Example: “When provided a 2nd-grade passage, [Student’s Name] will read at least 65 words correct per minute (WCPM) by the end of 2nd grade as measured by DIBELS Grade Two Oral Reading Fluency (ORF).”

Curriculum-Based Measurement (CBM)

CBM assesses special education in spelling, reading, math, and written expression. It is short, uses parallel forms, and includes benchmark and progress monitoring assessments. It has an end goal in mind and is used for progress monitoring.

Educational Evaluations

Used to request assessments to determine if a child needs an IEP (e.g., KTEA-3, WJ IV, WIAT).

Behavior Rating Scales

Tools to quantitatively measure specific behaviors. Adaptive behavior assesses everyday living skills to determine the type and amount of assistance a special education student needs. Oral language tests assess receptive language.

Statistical Concepts for Assessment

  • Chronological Age: Used to determine a student’s actual age for normative performance comparisons.
  • Standard Score: Allows comparisons of how people of the same age/grade are performing.
  • Measures of Central Tendency: Statistics that describe how scores are distributed around the mean (mean, median, mode).
  • Measures of Dispersion: Statistics that describe the variability of scores (range, variance, standard deviation).
  • Standard Error of Measurement (SEM): The standard deviation around a person’s true score, which has a normal distribution (1 SD = 68%, 2 SD = 95%, 3 SD = 99%).

Standardized Tests

Tests administered using strict guidelines for examiner behavior. Students answer the same questions in the same way. Results are compared to a group of students (norm-referenced).

KTEA Example Analysis

  1. Composites and subtests (Standard Score, Percentile Rank, Confidence Interval, Raw Score, Age Equivalent, Descriptive Category).
  2. Bell curve interpretation.
  3. Error analysis.
  4. Error analysis with teaching objectives and intervention.

General Outcome Measure vs. Mastery Measure

  • General Outcome Measure: Assesses a student’s performance in content knowledge or basic skills. It shows whether an intervention was effective, but not in specifics.
  • Mastery Measure: A specific assessment of skills that shows what changes need to be made.