How to Use Data to Drive Decisions
“If you’re not sure where you’re going, you’re liable to end up someplace else. If you don’t know where you’re going, the best made maps won’t help you get there.”
When you attend an IEP meeting, the conversation regarding your child’s present levels of performance, goals, and objectives should be driven by data collection such as monthly progress monitoring, progress reports, and recent evaluations. You should not make decisions about new goals and objectives without recent and relevant data.
For example, if you have reviewed the monthly progress monitoring data for the past three months and see no growth in decoding skills and the child is not meeting the decoding objectives, then the intervention is not working and needs to be reconsidered. Do not decrease the ambitiousness of the objectives; instead explore the current needs of the child and whether the intervention and trained staff member are supporting those needs.
If you do not have relevant data, I advise postponing the IEP meeting until the relevant data is collected. Ideally, you are receiving monthly data reports that reflect the child’s progress on his objectives.
What are sources of data?
• District evaluations
• Outside/private evaluations
• Progress reports
• Journals/logs
• Monthly data reports
• Work samples
• Quizzes/tests
• Standardized test results
• Input from parents, student, and staff
When this data is properly analyzed, it should then drive goals and objectives that are SMART – Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic and Timely. If goals and objectives are SMART then it is easy to return to them and determine whether the child is progressing. Do not wait until an annual IEP meeting to determine progress – instead, request that progress monitoring occur monthly. Also, ask the school to chart/detail the progress with a graph. If they will not support that request, then try to graph the data points yourself to see if there is an upward trend in your child’s progress.
Read more of my Top Tips for Productive IEP Meetings including Preparing for an IEP Meeting, Building Your Village, Taking a Child-Centered Approach, and Documenting.