Evaluating Considerable Improvement in IEP Goal Progress Reporting

Every parent or guardian wants to feel confident their student is making meaningful progress in their educational environment, especially when that child has a disability. While Individualized Education Program (IEP) progress reports should relay this information, many do not provide the statistical data necessary to understand whether students are making considerable improvements.

What is an Individualized Education Program (IEP) Progress Report?

Progress monitoring for IEP goals is a way to measure a student’s progression toward their IEP goals, both academically and behaviorally. A special needs child’s parents or guardians receive these reports at the end of a grading period when general education students receive their report cards.

An IEP progress report should include the following elements:

• The student’s annual goals
• The means of measuring the student’s progress toward each goal
• Indications of how the student’s performance compares to their IEP goals
• Summary and notes about the student’s progress toward meeting their goals

Why Specific IEP Progress Monitoring is So Important

The comments within an IEP progress report are useless to parents and guardians if they do not contain specific data points to indicate how successful or unsuccessful the student and their teacher have been at achieving their goals.

Specific progress monitoring for IEP goals lets parents address concerns or clarify any misunderstandings. It can also help parents consider whether the IEP goals need to be revised. 

How to Measure Improvement in the IEP Progress Report

IEP goals need to be measurable to have any meaning for parents. As such, the foundation of good progress reporting is good goal writing. For example, if the goal is to have the child “read well enough to understand” a passage, educators will have no reliable way of measuring their progress. 

On the other hand, if the goal includes correctly reading a certain number of words per minute, teachers have an objective means of measuring a student’s progress. If your IEP goals do not currently read this way, you should insist on revising the wording of the goal.

What Does a “Bad” Progress Report Look Like? 

IEP progress reports are meaningless if their language employs generalizations rather than specific data. Examples of “bad” progress report comments include:

• “Student is making progress toward the goal.”
• “Student is doing better at understanding what she reads.”
• “Student reads sufficiently for comprehension.”
• “Student’s behavior is improving.”
• “Student is getting better at remaining in his seat.”

These types of reports do not speak to the types of data-driven goals that will allow you to measure your student’s progress objectively. A comment that includes measurable data might read, “The student remains in his seat 52 percent of the time.” Such reports offer a more meaningful way of knowing how to work with the student or when changes need to be made. 

Contact a Special Education Attorney at Susan Clark Law Group LLC

If your student’s IEP goals and progress reporting do not enable you to understand their true progress, a New Jersey special education lawyer can advocate for clarity on your family’s behalf. Contact Susan Clark Law Group LLC today to learn more about how we can help.