Question from a parent: What can I do to track my child’s progress? Specifically, how often should the District communicate progress towards a child’s reading goals? No matter the methodology used, you must be able to objectively measure the data. One way the school can monitor your child’s progress is with the Dynamic Indicator of Basic Early Literacy Skills (Dibels) or Aimsweb. Both are norm-referenced benchmark assessments and provide both age and grade equivalencies for progress monitoring. It is important to note that DIBELS and Aimsweb are only “indicators” of a student’s overall reading status, and are not intended to be in-depth or comprehensive measures of reading. They are not to be considered diagnostic reading assessments for identifying a child’s specific areas of strengths and weaknesses or determining any difficulties that a child may have in learning to read and/or the potential cause of such difficulties, and do not help to determine possible reading intervention strategies and related special needs. This should be done annually! (More on this in a later post!).

Both Dibels and Aimsweb offer one-minute assessments for oral reading fluency, providing for rate and accuracy and report in words read correctly per minute. When used as progress monitoring tool, the school may complete at least one of the individual DIBELS tests as often as once a week!

If your child has a reading goal(s) on his or her IEP, it is important to request and receive this reading data weekly. You want to have this documented (in writing) in your actual IEP. Often, a school will respond that they cannot probe weekly. This is untrue. Each DIBELS probe takes approximately one+ minute to complete. The close monitoring of this progress is very important because it will help determine the effectiveness of the methodology and allows appropriate course-correction. You will know within 2-3 weeks whether or not your child is making progress as you should see a rate of 1 - 2 words gained successfully per week (per grade, see graph). Using the ORF CBM norm, you can graph and track your child’s progress. By using your child’s scores and your IEP goal, you can track the rate of growth by the number of weeks of instruction. Visual representations of your child’s progress (or lack thereof) are extremely effective tools in an IEP meeting. [**Disclosure: I am not a reading specialist, however I am an advocate who loves data, charts, and graphs. The visual proof demonstrating an undebatable lack of progress creates a deafening silence in an IEP meeting.]

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At this point in the school year, all parents should receive an email regarding parent teacher conferences for your children. This also signifies that report cards are soon approaching. But, for parents of children who have an IEP, it should also remind you that you must receive a progress report!

Both Federal and Massachusetts State regulations provide that written progress reports for eligible students shall (shall means MUST) be submitted to parents at least as often as report cards or progress reports for students without disabilities. Meaning, if your school district has a trimester report card system, your student must also receive three separate progress reports (report Card does not equal Progress Report). Therefore, with each report card, you must also receive a progress report.

What are progress reports? Progress reports are based on data collection strategies outlined in the child’s IEP (referring to every goal and benchmarks/objectives) and the format will look like this). Progress reports include written narrative (based on the data collection!) on the student’s progress toward the annual goals in the IEP.  

Progress reports are an important part of the IEP process because they provide all of your service providers one single platform to document and share the progress your child is making toward their goals. It is essential for parents to receive these reports because it allows you to closely monitor your child’s data and potential progress, and then ascertain whether or not progress is expected by the end of your IEP period. Progress reports also provide a written, tangible document of whether the goals are appropriate or effective. If you believe your child is not progressing, you may convene the team (at any time!) and review the goals to ensure your child is receiving appropriate supports, interventions, and services.  Conversely, if your child is mastering goals ahead of schedule, the team should reconvene to evaluate the appropriateness of the goals. It is important to remember that goals are discussed and formulated at your annual IEP, so it is possible that present levels of performance may not accurately reflect current goals. Do not wait for the year to pass to discuss your concerns! And, as always, if you have any concerns, do so in writing! (*email works great! Remember: Always send communications in writing because… written, or it didn't happen!*)