Artifact Five: Individualized Education Program (IEP) Analysis

Including this artifact in my portfolio provided me with an opportunity to highlight my

previous experience working with IEP’s and my ability to make fluent connections to relevant

accommodations regarding classroom environment, academic and social needs as well. As a

parent of a teenager diagnosed high-functioning autism and ADHD, I have been involved with

advocating for testing, supports and I have contributed to building effective IEP’s for the last

eleven years. I have a strong appreciation for educators that educate themselves about the

challenges their students are experiencing and utilize the IEP effectively and as a living

document, facilitating constructive conversations with the student’s family and experts within the

school board. This artifact demonstrates my ability to synthesize the current IEP for a student

and identify areas where the IEP needs to be reworked in order to appropriately support learning

opportunities and the assessment of the student.

The relevant professional standards for this artifact are: InTASC Standard #2, 3, 4, 5, 6,

7, 8, 9, 10 and #1: Learner Development: The teacher understands how learners grow and

develop, recognizing that patterns of learning and development vary individually within and

across the cognitive, linguistic, social, emotional, and physical areas, and designs and

implements developmentally appropriate and challenging learning experiences; NYS Code of

Ethics for Educators, Principles #2, 3, 4, 5 and #1: Educators nurture the intellectual, physical,

emotional, social, and civic potential of each student; DOE Claims & CAEP Standards Claims 1,

2 and 3: Medaille College graduates are caring educators; International Society for Technology

Education for Teachers and Students (ISTE) standards 1, 2, 4, 6, 7 and 5a: Educators use

technology to create, adapt and personalize learning experiences that foster independent learning

and accommodate learner differences and needs; International Literacy Association (ILA)
Standards #2, 3, 4, 5 and 6: Professional Learning and Leadership: Candidates recognize the

importance of, participate in, and facilitate ongoing professional learning as part of career-long

leadership roles and responsibilities; Council for Exceptional Children (CEC) Standards 1, 2, 3,

4, 5, 6 and 7: Initial Preparation Standard 7: Collaboration; The Ontario Ethical Teacher

Standards Respect, Trust, Integrity and Care - The ethical standard of Care includes compassion,

acceptance, interest and insight for developing students' potential. Members express their

commitment to students' well-being and learning through positive influence, professional

judgement and empathy in practice.

Christopher Curry
Student Introduction:

Reviewing the Individualized Education Plan(IEP) for Cai Davis provided me with an excellent

learning opportunity. This document included a holistic view for understanding the educational

experience for a student and their interactions with the support systems available to them. Cai Davis is

noted as being an eight-year-old, Grade Three student in New York state. He is classified as having a

learning disability and the teacher has appropriately provided a lot of background information based on

her observations in the classroom as well as his scoring on State exams. This analysis will review his

current strengths, challenges and supports in place as well and may suggest recommendations to

further support the student.

Cai’s Strengths:

Cai is noted to be strong in reading, math and in his socialization with other students. The

document notes that he enjoys reading and discussing stories in the classroom with his teacher and

classmates. His comprehension of the materials is scored as being at 95% accuracy. Cai is also noted as

being very proficient at mathematics, as he scored very high, 380 (range of scale score 137-397) on a

recent math assessment. Cai is also noted for his positive behaviour, positive relationships with

classmates, teachers and his family and for his consistent attention to his schoolwork. He has

demonstrated strong abilities to help out other students and performs well in small and large group

activities. Cai is described as being healthy and performing at grade level for physical expections and it is

noted that he is on the school soccer teams and participates appropriately in physical education class.

Cai’s Challenges:

The primary issue that Cai struggles with is his writing. It is noted as being below grade level and

to quantify that, he scored below grade level on 3 separate tests from the CORE Assessing Reading
Multiple measures for K-8 (CORE). The delays are noted for spelling, phonemic, orthographic and

morphological awareness.

Review of Current Classroom Programs/Modifications/Accommodations:

The current modifications, accommodations and programs that have been put in place do align

with the student’s needs, however, there are areas where additional resources should be considered.

He has been provided an electronic speller to use as needed and especially for his writing assignments.

Cai is in his regular class and that has been encouraged as it is the least disruptive environment. Cai is

also receiving daily spelling and writing instruction to assist him with his independent assignments and

group work. The recommendations noted in the IEP for Cai to receive integrated co-teaching services for

ELA, Social Studies, Math and Science periods are appropriate. Additionally, it is recommended that Cai

receive support with his teacher, checking in with him to make sure he understands what is being asked

of him and highlighting misspelled words.

Absent from his IEP are any testing accommodations. I find this to be highly inappropriate, given his

moderate learning disability and noted challenges with spelling and producing written work. This

student will certainly have a difficult time producing coherent and correctly spelled written responses to

questions on a test. If he were to be graded using the same rubric that his classmates would be, without

an accommodation, this would certainly put him at a disadvantage. His graded responses would only

lead to highlight his disability instead of more accurately reflecting his comprehension, analysis and

ability to interact with the content being tested. In addition, in situations where the teacher is more

concerned with Cai’s comprehension, he should be provided with the electronic speller as well as

increased amounts of time to complete the test. Another possibility would be for oral dictation to be

used instead of written responses.

Review of Goals:
 The IEP notes measurable goals for reading and writing with the timeframe to achieve these

goals noted as being five weeks. The goal for reading is that Cai would correctly decode 10 words from

reading narratives or specific informational text from Cai's content area subjects on the Third grade

level, 90% of the time, 4 out of 5 trials over the 5 weeks. Cai’s first goal for writing is that he would spell

90% of 10 words selected by the teacher from his reading literature and content area subjects, upon

request. His second writing goal is that he would spell 90% of 10 words selected by the teacher from his

reading literature and content area subjects, correctly in written assignments. The third writing goal is

that Cai will use the writing processes of revising and editing to strengthen writing utilizing a writing

rubric to evaluate and quantify the revision and editing process when he has been given a writing

assignment, 90% of the time. These goals appear reasonable, and with the additional support that he

will be receiving, reflect consideration to make sure Cai is being led to perform just outside of his ability

but with support, as per Vygotsky’s theory of the zone of proximal development.

Review of Educational Strategies:

The strategies of identifying the specific challenges Cai has with his academic performance and

breaking them down into smaller, measurable goals, is appropriate for supporting this student’s

academic performance. There were no behavioural concerns noted, so the absence of strategies

provided to assist in those areas is also appropriate.

Reflection:

My goal for this IEP analysis was to review the IEP, learn from the teaching and goal-setting

strategies noted by the contributors and identify areas of enhancement to both support the learning

opportunities for the student and the strategies being utilized by the teacher for assessing Cai’s skills.

Cai’s IEP identified a number of teaching strategies to assist him: providing check-in’s to confirm

understanding, providing co-teaching resources to assist with spelling during relevant teaching periods
and providing the service of the electronic speller when necessary. The suggestions I have made

regarding accommodations during testing periods should be considered as I believe they will ensure that

the assessments for higher-order thinking will more accurately assess his skills and not his spelling

ability.

[Back to Table of Contents]