Measuring Progress on IEP Goals

1
Module 2Creating Quality IEPs for Students with
Autism Spectrum Disorders

• Lesson 4
• Measuring Progress on IEP Goals

2
Outline

• Importance of data collection
• Data collection for general education placements
• Types of data collection
• Percentage
• Levels of independence/Rating system
• Frequency
• Lists
• Analyzing data

3
Importance of Data Collection

• Data must be collected on student progress
  towards meeting the IEP goals
• At annual reviews this data will be shared with
  the IEP team
• It is not appropriate to simply state, Yes, the
  student has mastered the skill, or No, the
  student has not mastered the skill.
• Data allows the team to make informed decisions
  throughout the implementation of the IEP and when
  reviewing the goals each year

4
Data Collection for General Education Placements

• When students with ASD are included in general
  education classrooms, the type or data collected
  should fit with the context of the setting
• For example, it is not always appropriate or
  possible for general education teachers to take
  trial by trial data for every goal the student is
  working on
• The general education teacher and the special
  education teacher should work as a team to decide
  who will take what type of data for each of the
  IEP goals

5
Types of Data Collection

• There are numerous methods for collecting data,
  but the following methods will be discussed in
  detail as they are more likely to fit within the
  context of a general education classroom
• Percentage
• Levels of independence/Rating system
• Frequency
• Lists

6
Taking Percentage Data

• You may choose to take percentage data for
  academic goals and possibly some communication,
  social interaction, behavioral, or independent
  functioning goals
• However, do not choose taking percentage data if
  you will tend to make up your percentages
  because you can not easily obtain them

7
Examples of Goals that You May Choose to Take
Percentage Data

• Math goals
• Spelling/Phonemic awareness goals
• Reading comprehension
• Answering yes and no questions
• Assignment completion
• Following directions
• Responding to social greetings
• Responding to social comments/questions

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Sample Data Sheet for Percentage Data Taking
Goal 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
Yes/no
Count to 5 expressively
Literal Comp ?s 2nd grade
Respond to social comments
Follow one step simple direct.
Decode unfamiliar words 1st grade level

• You can add a students name and date on top. For
  each opportunity, you can put a for correct, -
  for incorrect, or a P for prompted response. In
  the last column take a percentage of the correct
  responses out of the total opportunities for each
  goal.

9
Graphing Percentage Data

• For all percentage data taken, you should then
  have a graph for each goal where you record the
  percentage for each day data was collected. You
  can do this manually or you can use computer
  software such as excel. The graph to the left was
  created using excel to show data collection
  across ten days. It took just a minute or so to
  create.

10
Level of Independence/Rating System Data
Collection

• If percentage data is not easily done for a
  specific goal, you may choose to create a level
  system or rating system
• For example, for a goal related to maintaining
  cooperative play with a peer for five minutes,
  you can use a level of independence system such
  as
• 1 Requires frequent teacher redirection
• 2 Requires teacher redirection 3-4 times
• 3 Requires teacher redirection 1-2 times
• 4 Independent

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Level of Independence/Rating System
Students name __________________________
Goal Date Date Date Date Date Date Date Date Date
Play for 5 min. 4 3 2 1 4 3 2 1 4 3 2 1 4 3 2 1 4 3 2 1 4 3 2 1 4 3 2 1 4 3 2 1 4 3 2 1

• When using a data sheet such as this, you simply
  circle the rating for the day. Each day you
  connect the circles with a line to create a graph.

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General Level of Independence Data Collection

• It can become quite time consuming to create
  rating systems for multiple goals for multiple
  students.
• Therefore, it may be helpful to create a generic
  rating system that can be used for a variety of
  goals such as
• 1 maximum prompting/assistance
• 2 moderate prompting/assistance
• 3 minimum prompting/assistance
• 4 independent
• For the goals in which a generic rating such as
  this do not apply, you can create a rating that
  makes sense for those goals.

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Using a Generic Rating System for Multiple Goals
Students name __________________________
Goal Date Date Date Date Date Date Date Date Date
Play for 5 min. 4 3 2 1 4 3 2 1 4 3 2 1 4 3 2 1 4 3 2 1 4 3 2 1 4 3 2 1 4 3 2 1 4 3 2 1
Ask for help 4 3 2 1 4 3 2 1 4 3 2 1 4 3 2 1 4 3 2 1 4 3 2 1 4 3 2 1 4 3 2 1 4 3 2 1
Work indep. for 5 min. 4 3 2 1 4 3 2 1 4 3 2 1 4 3 2 1 4 3 2 1 4 3 2 1 4 3 2 1 4 3 2 1 4 3 2 1

• If you are using a generic rating system, you can
  put multiple goals on one data sheet. This data
  sheet above can be used for two weeks and it
  would be on one piece of paper.

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Frequency Data Collection

• For some goals, it may simply make sense to take
  frequency counts (use event recording)
• An example of a goal for which frequency data
  would be appropriate may be The student will
  raise his hand at least twice during whole group
  instruction lessons to answer teacher questions

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Sample Frequency Data Sheet
Goal Date Date Date Date Date Date Date Date
Raise hand whole group
Initiate a conversation with peer
Use the bathroom independently
Offer to share a toy

• For a data sheet such as this, you can simply put
  tally marks in each box to represent the number
  of times the student displayed the skill each
  day. Just like with percentage data, this
  information should then be placed on a graph for
  each goal.

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Lists

• For some expressive language goals, none of the
  previously discussed data collection tools are
  appropriate
• Sometimes, simply keeping lists of
  words/phrases/sentences used independently is
  more appropriate
• For example, if a goal is for a student to
  expressively label at least 50 different common
  objects, keeping a list of the words the students
  uses independently is probably the most efficient
  and informative way to take data.

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Additional Notes About Data Collection

• There are other methods of data collection such
  as duration recording, latency recording, and
  momentary time sampling. Detailed instructions
  for these are not included, but can be accessed
  by communicating with other professionals in your
  schools and/or searching on the internet
• For some goals, you may want to use a level of
  independence/rating system and then periodically
  take percentage data (probe) to add to the
  objectivity of your data
• It is not always necessary to take data on a
  daily basis for every IEP goal. Some data may be
  taken daily, others bi-weekly, weekly,
  bi-monthly, or monthly.

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Analyzing Data

• There is no point in taking data if you are not
  going to use it to make instructional decisions
• Therefore, the data must be analyzed on a regular
  basis for purposes of
• Documenting mastery
• Responding to lack of progress

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Documenting Mastery

• Many times, teachers document a goal as mastered
  too soon
• You should see a definite trend of mastery before
  stopping data collection
• The trend should be seen at least for a five day
  stretch
• Even though you may stop taking data after a goal
  is mastered, the goal should be continually used
  to maintain the skills or built upon for the next
  goal
• For example if a student masters counting 1-5,
  that skill would be built upon as the student
  learns to count 1-10.

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Responding to Lack of Progress

• If a student is not making progress, you should
  ask the following questions in the exact order
• Is the data being taken correctly?
• Are the teaching procedures being implemented as
  planned?
• Should the teaching procedures be altered or
  changed?
• Is the goal developmentally appropriate?
• While it may be that the goal needs to be
  changed, you should first attempt a variety of
  teaching strategies before deciding to change the
  goal

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Module 2 Lesson 4 Activity

• Choose two goals from an IEP for a student with
  autism
• Select a method for collecting data on those two
  goals
• Submit the goals, a description of your data
  collection procedures, the actual data collected,
  and an analysis of the data you collected