Have you ever been in an IEP meeting, and wondered how to make the process more effective. The IEP process is a place where teachers, specialist, and parents come together to make a plan that best serves the child. It is a collaborative process. The goal is to create a plan based on observation and testing which will insure a child’s individual educational needs are addressed. Assessments should compare performance over time as well as current performance. The end product should be a well thought out plan that shows yearly progress.
Once eligibility for services is determined the next step is to write clear achievable goals. This can be a difficult task; however, goals are the critical key to an effective plan that both parents and teachers will use to assess progress. An example of a goal might be “Johnnie will be able to read a chapter in a story and give a visual description of the setting(s)” At home when Johnnie is reading, he can be asked what he is visualizing. In school during class he can be called on to share his vision of the story. Both teacher and parent can formally and informal assess this goal. In order, to assure that the IEP is effective the goals must be written in a way that they are clear and measurable by both parents and teachers.