Re: Standarized testing

[Guest guest]

The objectives are not SMART.  De3mand they be made SMART.  The need to be specific, measurable, use action words, relevant, and time limited.  See any time limitatons in the above?The student identifies a sentence made up of a group of words.

Change to:  The student will identify a sentence made up of ___#__ words taken from _______grade level Dolche sight words (or three-letter words etc... BE SPECIFIC.  The student will correctly identify  7 out of ten sentences correctly every (day, week, six weeks- you choose wht is a good trial).  The student will be given a benchmark test consisting of ten sentences at the end of each six weeks until the student demonstrates mastery at 7 out of ten trials consistently.

 or K.04b the student asks and responds to questions about texts read aloud.Change to something like: The student will ask  and respond to " wh " questions (who, what, when, where, and why) regarding orally read text taken from _______________.  The student will be given visual and auditory cues and answer 7 out of ten questions correctly with minimal prompting in order to achieve mastery.  A benchmark test of ten questions will be given at the end of each six weeks to determine goal and intervention suitability.  (If your child has autism aqnd auditory processing disorder --it is ludicrous to expect the child to process any oral work, and I doubt mastery could be achieved in a yeaqr's time on this one.  The text needs to be visual and I would suggest it be read aloud first.  Then the child reads it aloud.  I think this is not an acceptable goal.

 or K.03b the student uses knowledge of letter-sound relationships to decode

regular words in text and independent of content. (e.g. VC, CVC, CCVC, and CVCC words).Ask them lots of questions about this one.  How is the child going to do this? What regular words?  Where will these words come from?  What are they going to do if the child can't decode the words?  How will they address it so that it is independent of content?  How are they going to measure this?  What supports will be given.  It needs to be measured by trials and benchmark testing at the end of each six weeks.

Have them write it in where it state " Criterion of mastery will be measure by.... Also have them put it in the minutes.  Also have them put in there that criterion of mastery will only be accepted by the parents with respect to yearly standardized testing scores which show the child is progressing.

Follow this up with a letter to the district and principal sitting the same. Let them know that if your child does not show progress via standardized testing, you will not believe the child is making progress.  Steer away from " observation " as a criterion for mastery, and if they do it at all, they must use tracking reports and the reports must state how much prompting was given.  We do not count prompted answers as correct in our home program.n  I mean, if my son needs only a little prompting, he loses some points, if he needs moderate prompting he loses a point.  If he needs lots of prompting to achieve a correct answer, then he cannot be given a mastery score for the question.  If they are dragging correct answer out, then the kid is not getting it.

Hope this helps.

[Guest guest]

>

> I seriously don't think they have any idea how to make them SMART. I know the

resource teacher doesn't! Of course I can do my best but I don't want to screw

up so who can help with this?

> Sent from my Verizon Wireless BlackBerry

>

> Re: Standarized testing

>

> You tell them that that is BS! It is not a cadillac version. It is what is

> appropriate:

>

> IDEA Section 1414 B II " a statement of MEASURABLE annual goals, including

> academic and functional goals designed to:

>

> (aa) meet the child's needs that result from the child's disability (ies) to

> ENABLE the child to be involved in and make progress in the general

> curriculum AND

>

> (bb) meet EACH of the child's other educational needs that result from the

> child's disability;

>

> (III) a description of HOW progress toward meeting the annual goals

> described in sub-clause (II) will be measured and when periodic reports on

> the PROGRESS the child is making toward meeting the annual goals (such as

> through the use of quarterly or other periodic reports, concurrent

> with the issuance of report cards will be provided.

>

> (IV) A statement of the special education and related services and

> supplementary aids and services BASED ON PEER REVIEWED RESEARCH to the

> extent practicable, to be provided to the child, or on behalf of the

> child......

>

> They have to be written SMART to provide what is APPROPRIATE under the law.

> If they refuse, demand they fill out a " Rejection of proposed IEP's

> requested by parent " Make them put it in writing! If they do this, they

> are preventing you from MEANINGFUL PARTICIPATION in the ARD process, and

> this too is a violation of the law.

>

> Whenever they say " Cadillac, " You tell them what they are offering is a

> burned out PINTO from the junk yard. You tell them what you are asking

> them to do is what is APPROPRIATE -- NO MORE, NO LESS.

>

> For every IEP they write, you must ask the who, what, why, when and how

> questions to get them to be specific. Vague just gives them an excuse not

> to produce progress in your child. ACCEPT nothing less than documented

> proof of progress as assessed by standardized testing done by a licensed

> diagnostician as a criterion for mastery. The benchmark tests every six

> weeks will give you an idea whether their program is APPROPRIATE. If the

> child is not passing these, then the program is not working and needs to

> change.

>

[Guest guest]

My reply to my school district since Aug 2004 when he regressed in 81% of his skills was that he was not even close to getting anything that looked like appropriate.  Someone brought up the Cadillac.  I said, " Hey, I'd take the Chevy, but you're giving him the Pinto. "   Hilda From: Texas-Autism-Advocacy [mailto:Texas-Autism-Advocacy ] On Behalf Of Hilda BowenSent: Thursday, November 11, 2010 5:34 PMTo: Texas-Autism-Advocacy Subject: RE: Standarized testing You'll like this. If you actually read the case where this cadillac version was said by the school district's attorney, the judge, in his statement, said, that, " No matter what 'car' you decided to deliver the services in, it had to be gassed up and able to reach its destination. " I thought that was cool. Use that on them. Hilda From: Texas-Autism-Advocacy [mailto:Texas-Autism-Advocacy ] On Behalf Of GainerSent: Thursday, November 11, 2010 1:48 PMTo: Texas-Autism-Advocacy Subject: Re: Standarized testing All last year whenever I demanded the objectives be SMART they told me that they DO NOT have to make sure they are SMART that this is the cadillac version. Where in the Special Education Law does it indicate this? I have been fighting this for 3 years now. My dd is in Kindergarten and pulled out 3 times per day for 45 minutes and this is pretty much where her learning takes place. The Resource teacher is fresh out of college and willing to learn. She is the one making the IEP objectives but she has no idea how to modify them to reflect SMART. The problem may come in when we go to ARD to approve and they aren't wanting to be so specific. Haven I love how you are so on top of things and I would love to send you the other objectives for you to make SMART :)To: Texas-Autism-Advocacy Sent: Thu, November 11, 2010 8:47:20 AMSubject: Re: Standarized testing The objectives are not SMART. De3mand they be made SMART. The need to be specific, measurable, use action words, relevant, and time limited. See any time limitatons in the above?The student identifies a sentence made up of a group of words.Change to: The student will identify a sentence made up of ___#__ words taken from _______grade level Dolche sight words (or three-letter words etc... BE SPECIFIC. The student will correctly identify 7 out of ten sentences correctly every (day, week, six weeks- you choose wht is a good trial). The student will be given a benchmark test consisting of ten sentences at the end of each six weeks until the student demonstrates mastery at 7 out of ten trials consistently. or K.04b the student asks and responds to questions about texts read aloud.Change to something like: The student will ask and respond to " wh " questions (who, what, when, where, and why) regarding orally read text taken from _______________. The student will be given visual and auditory cues and answer 7 out of ten questions correctly with minimal prompting in order to achieve mastery. A benchmark test of ten questions will be given at the end of each six weeks to determine goal and intervention suitability. (If your child has autism aqnd auditory processing disorder --it is ludicrous to expect the child to process any oral work, and I doubt mastery could be achieved in a yeaqr's time on this one. The text needs to be visual and I would suggest it be read aloud first. Then the child reads it aloud. I think this is not an acceptable goal. or K.03b the student uses knowledge of letter-sound relationships to decode regular words in text and independent of content. (e.g. VC, CVC, CCVC, and CVCC words).Ask them lots of questions about this one. How is the child going to do this? What regular words? Where will these words come from? What are they going to do if the child can't decode the words? How will they address it so that it is independent of content? How are they going to measure this? What supports will be given. It needs to be measured by trials and benchmark testing at the end of each six weeks.Have them write it in where it state " Criterion of mastery will be measure by.... Also have them put it in the minutes. Also have them put in there that criterion of mastery will only be accepted by the parents with respect to yearly standardized testing scores which show the child is progressing.Follow this up with a letter to the district and principal sitting the same. Let them know that if your child does not show progress via standardized testing, you will not believe the child is making progress. Steer away from " observation " as a criterion for mastery, and if they do it at all, they must use tracking reports and the reports must state how much prompting was given. We do not count prompted answers as correct in our home program.n I mean, if my son needs only a little prompting, he loses some points, if he needs moderate prompting he loses a point. If he needs lots of prompting to achieve a correct answer, then he cannot be given a mastery score for the question. If they are dragging correct answer out, then the kid is not getting it.Hope this helps.

[Guest guest]

Hilda,Yes, what I told ours was that they were giving him a burned out Pinto from the junk yard.Then when I caught them making up data right in front of me, I told them I didn't want made up stuff.  then i asked where they were getting their data from.  the principal said it came from his aides notebook.  I told her that she was preparing my child for no more than life in an institution.  She got a little miffed and stormed away.

I went to the aide and asked for the notebook from which they were supposedly making the tracking sheets from.  The aide said she had thrown the notebook away (which would be illegal).  Do these people honestly believe we parents are THIS stupid?

Oh, BTW, we filed for Due Process some time ago, and THEY waived the resolution meeting.  They requested mediation.  Okay.  Then they call me on Monday and say " their lawyer "   wanted them to call us and schedule an ARD for two days before mediation.  I told them they were NOT supposed to contact us directly at this point in the process and all communication should be between the lawyers.  Then I wrote my son's lawyers.  My son's lawyer's response to them was really good.  She told me this is a ploy districts commonly use but aren't supposed to.

[Guest guest]

Hilda,I would LOVE to know what case this was and which judge said the phrasea bout the car needing to be gassed up.  I'd love to send this judge a thank you card!

[Guest guest]

Haven: I'll see if I can find it. I remember finding it in 2005, but I don't know if I printed it off or just read about it. Hilda From: Texas-Autism-Advocacy [mailto:Texas-Autism-Advocacy ] On Behalf Of Haven DeLaySent: Thursday, November 11, 2010 7:30 PMTo: Texas-Autism-Advocacy Subject: Re: Standarized testing Hilda,I would LOVE to know what case this was and which judge said the phrasea bout the car needing to be gassed up. I'd love to send this judge a thank you card!

[Guest guest]

Schools don't want to make these goals measurable. They will work hard to make as few goals as possible preferably ones that are measured by observation. They are held by law to make progress on these goals. I think somehow teachers are also rated on their performance by how your child performs on these goals but no one would ever admit that.

It's wonderful you have a new teacher but you can bet the administration will get to her and tell her they are not aggreeing to goals that are written this way and she has to go along with what they recommend. When it comes to time needed to teach these goals that's a gotcha too. Of course if you have lots of goals that are measurable you'll need someone working on those goals for say an hour and half a day and you likely have stated that " Student learns new skills one on one then transfers those learned skills to a group environment " right? So the teacher will need to say she beleives she needs X amount of time to work on goals. If she agrees to this in a  Pre Ard someone can get to her after when they have figured out what your asking for and in the ARD this can happen.....

" Miss, X do you beleive this student needs more time one on one to learn these new goals or do you think it can be done in the 30 minutes a day he currently has. " She looked down at the table and said " No he does not need more one on one time. " If she would have said " Yes he needs more time " another staff member would have needed to be hired because goals drive services. You can bet the budget was in mind not my childs needs.

Everyone admitted my child needed one on one time to learn new skills. No one was willing to do that in any amounts that would actually be productive so they fought with me on every goal and said he couldn't learn. He was never included for more than 15 minutes either until 6th grade. When we found RPM and provided video of his success things finally changed but by then I also had a child a long way into his bio medical treatment and doing well with Dr. so he was able to sit and attend in a large class.

Every ARD before 6th grade was a battle of will and words. I still do a home program of tutoring too I never asked the school to do anything I wasn't willing to do myself. Haven has great advice. But remember Haven is homeschooling even the best advice may end up giving you a education that is less than what your child deserves. Get everything in writing. Don't agree to PreArds take a advocate with you every time.

 

 

My reply to my school district since Aug 2004 when he regressed in 81% of his skills was that he was not even close to getting anything that looked like appropriate.  Someone brought up the Cadillac.  I said, " Hey, I'd take the Chevy, but you're giving him the Pinto. "  

 

Hilda

 

From: Texas-Autism-Advocacy [mailto:Texas-Autism-Advocacy ] On Behalf Of Hilda Bowen

Sent: Thursday, November 11, 2010 5:34 PMTo: Texas-Autism-Advocacy Subject: RE: Standarized testing

 

 

You'll like this.  If you actually read the case where this cadillac version was said by the school district's attorney, the judge, in his statement, said, that, " No matter what 'car' you decided to deliver the services in, it had to be gassed up and able to reach its destination. "  

 

I thought that was cool.  Use that on them.

 

Hilda

 

From: Texas-Autism-Advocacy [mailto:Texas-Autism-Advocacy ] On Behalf Of Gainer

Sent: Thursday, November 11, 2010 1:48 PMTo: Texas-Autism-Advocacy Subject: Re: Standarized testing

 

 

All last year whenever I demanded the objectives be SMART they told me that they DO NOT have to make sure they are SMART that this is the cadillac version. Where in the Special Education Law does it indicate this? I have been fighting this for 3 years now. My dd is in Kindergarten and pulled out 3 times per day for 45 minutes and this is pretty much where her learning takes place. The Resource teacher is fresh out of college and willing to learn. She is the one making the IEP objectives but she has no idea how to modify them to reflect SMART. The problem may come in when we go to ARD to approve and they aren't wanting to be so specific. 

Haven I love how you are so on top of things and I would love to send you the other objectives for you to make SMART

To: Texas-Autism-Advocacy

Sent: Thu, November 11, 2010 8:47:20 AMSubject: Re: Standarized testing 

The objectives are not SMART.  De3mand they be made SMART.  The need to be specific, measurable, use action words, relevant, and time limited.  See any time limitatons in the above?The student identifies a sentence made up of a group of words.

Change to:  The student will identify a sentence made up of ___#__ words taken from _______grade level Dolche sight words (or three-letter words etc... BE SPECIFIC.  The student will correctly identify  7 out of ten sentences correctly every (day, week, six weeks- you choose wht is a good trial).  The student will be given a benchmark test consisting of ten sentences at the end of each six weeks until the student demonstrates mastery at 7 out of ten trials consistently.

 or K.04b the student asks and responds to questions about texts read aloud.Change to something like: The student will ask  and respond to " wh " questions (who, what, when, where, and why) regarding orally read text taken from _______________.  The student will be given visual and auditory cues and answer 7 out of ten questions correctly with minimal prompting in order to achieve mastery.  A benchmark test of ten questions will be given at the end of each six weeks to determine goal and intervention suitability.  (If your child has autism aqnd auditory processing disorder --it is ludicrous to expect the child to process any oral work, and I doubt mastery could be achieved in a yeaqr's time on this one.  The text needs to be visual and I would suggest it be read aloud first.  Then the child reads it aloud.  I think this is not an acceptable goal.

 or K.03b the student uses knowledge of letter-sound relationships to decode regular words in text and independent of content. (e.g. VC, CVC, CCVC, and CVCC words).Ask them lots of questions about this one.  How is the child going to do this? What regular words?  Where will these words come from?  What are they going to do if the child can't decode the words?  How will they address it so that it is independent of content?  How are they going to measure this?  What supports will be given.  It needs to be measured by trials and benchmark testing at the end of each six weeks.

Have them write it in where it state " Criterion of mastery will be measure by.... Also have them put it in the minutes.  Also have them put in there that criterion of mastery will only be accepted by the parents with respect to yearly standardized testing scores which show the child is progressing.

Follow this up with a letter to the district and principal sitting the same. Let them know that if your child does not show progress via standardized testing, you will not believe the child is making progress.  Steer away from " observation " as a criterion for mastery, and if they do it at all, they must use tracking reports and the reports must state how much prompting was given.  We do not count prompted answers as correct in our home program.n  I mean, if my son needs only a little prompting, he loses some points, if he needs moderate prompting he loses a point.  If he needs lots of prompting to achieve a correct answer, then he cannot be given a mastery score for the question.  If they are dragging correct answer out, then the kid is not getting it.

Hope this helps.

[Guest guest]

Yes, I worked hard to try to work with our district, and they fought me every inch of the way.  They made it as uncomfortable as possible.  The first time I brought an advocate they threatened me, " If you are bringing an advocate, we just want you to know that WE will have OUR LAWYER there! "   But I knew they couldn't legally do that (and they did too, but they were hoping they could intimidate me).

So, when they didn't intimidate me, instead we got there, and instead of meeting int he conference room -- as the principal said it was occupied (I went and looked and it was empty) -- they had us meet in a closet!  All of us crammed in this tiny room with no windows or ventilation --I'm telling you it was a storage closet.  the ploy was to make us uncomfortable, and our advocate had to sit behind us!  I looked to be sure there were no tacks in my chair.

I methodically showed year after year that my son was not making progress.  They would change the IEP, but now I know it was just all smoke and mirrors.  They just made up the IEP's and then faked the progress grades -- no tracking reports, no benchmark tests.  When the new principal met us she said she wanted us to forget the past and I said those who forget the past are doomed to repeat it.  She said it was a new day, and I was thinking, " Said the spider to the fly. "

Unless you advocate, unless you learn the law, unless you create paper trails --they WILL throw these kids away.  They care about keeping their jobs.  If a teacher or other employee stands up for one of our kids, they will lose their job.  they could sue for this, but what are they to do while they are waiting ten years for their case to be settled?

If they get money for our kids and they don't really have to work for that money, where is the incentive to do right?  to provide appropriate.  They don't really get policed unless a parent speaks up and files against them.

I would imagine our district has already spent more on attorney fees fighting us than it would have cost them to provide our son's appropriate home program.  when they have free rein with the taxpayers money up against parents who are strapped.....

Vouchers, I believe could make all the difference.  If the money were tied to the appropriateness of the program, and parents could choose where to send their child, then they might get off their .... and start to provide programs that work.

When you've worked your butt off trying to get a FAPE provided for your child only to find out they were faking it, what else can you do?  I'm damn sure not going to turn a blind eye.  You do what you gotta do.

In recent years, Texas school districts have spent an estimated 58 MILLION dollars on attorney fees fighting Texas special ed parents.  Can you imagine the programs that money could have funded?  I think for them it is about " winning, "   It is about putting parents in their place.  What they do has nothing to do with the benefit of the child. 

I am just disgusted with these people who call themselves educators and (Christians and/or God fearing folk).  They don't care if your child winds up in an institution.  They don't care if he winds up in the prison system.  They don't care if he/she winds up unemployed.  They only care about the special ed dollars they can get for your child to be in attendance.  They want your kid " there "   but they haven't the faintest idea how to teach a child with autism.

I don't want to believe this is all schools, but parents need to look very closely at the grades --both on the IEP and the report cards being given to our kids.  You have to look at the work and see if they match up.

Does anyone know of the state with the " best " (as if that were a dirty word) schools for ASD kids?  does anyone know of the best school int he country?  Where are they doing it right?  What schools are making a difference for these kids?