The Heart of the IEP: Goals for Students with Dyslexia
Creating effective Individualized Education Program (IEP) goals is crucial for the academic success of students with dyslexia. As a Special Education Director, it's essential to ensure that these goals are not only tailored to meet each student's unique needs but also align with educational standards and legal requirements. Let's delve into the key components of crafting meaningful IEP goals, focusing on students with dyslexia.
Understanding the Mantra: Needs Drive Goals and Goals Drive Services
The foundation of any IEP goal is the student's needs. These needs are identified through various assessments, including standardized tests, teacher observations, and input from parents. Once identified, these needs guide the development of specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-bound (SMART) goals. These goals, in turn, dictate the services and support the student will receive.
Common Areas of Need for Students with Dyslexia
- Phonemic Awareness
- Phonics
- Spelling
- Fluency
- Comprehension
- Writing
- Morphological Awareness
How Are Needs Identified?
Needs are identified through a combination of:
- Standardized and informal assessments
- Teacher-kept data
- Observations from school staff, parents, and others
- Outside assessments
The Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) mandates the use of a variety of assessment tools to gather relevant information about the child's functional, developmental, and academic needs.
Crafting SMART Goals
SMART goals are a cornerstone of effective IEPs. Here's a breakdown of what makes a goal SMART:
- Specific: Clearly defines the skill or knowledge to be acquired.
- Measurable: Includes criteria for measuring progress.
- Achievable: Is realistic and attainable given the resources available.
- Relevant: Aligns with the student's needs and educational priorities.
- Time-bound: Includes a timeframe for achieving the goal.
Examples of Revised Goals
Let's consider an example to illustrate how to revise a goal effectively:
Original Goal: "Keegan will be able to decode multisyllabic words that include words with long vowel sounds (a,e,i) in words like turmoil and chipper."
Revised Goal: "By (one year from today), when given a list of 50 unpracticed, 4th-grade words, Keegan will be able to decode multisyllabic words that contain closed, open, vowel-consonant-e, and vowel team syllable types with 90% accuracy in three out of four trials as measured by teacher records."
Progress Monitoring
Effective progress monitoring is essential for assessing the success of IEP goals. Types of assessments include:
- Diagnostic Assessment: Identifies specific areas of difficulty.
- Formative Assessment: Occurs during instruction to guide teaching adjustments.
- Summative Assessment: Evaluates overall student learning at the end of an instructional period.
Tools like Curriculum-Based Measurement (CBM) can be used to track progress over time, with data compared to predetermined goals and graphed for visual representation.
Conclusion
Creating effective IEP goals for students with dyslexia requires a comprehensive understanding of their needs, the development of SMART goals, and consistent progress monitoring. By focusing on these areas, educators can provide targeted support that fosters academic success.
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