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

1. Module 2:Creating 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

8. Sample Data Sheet for Percentage Data Taking You can add a student’s 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

11. Level of Independence/Rating System 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. Student’s name: __________________________

12. 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.

13. Using a Generic Rating System for Multiple Goals 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. Student’s name: __________________________

14. 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”

15. Sample Frequency Data Sheet 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.

16. 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.

17. 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.

18. 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

19. 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.

20. 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

21. 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