E150: Progress Reports and Goals
Are you stairing at your child's progress reports and wondering what the heck is happening and trying to figure out if they are actually making progress? Tume into this episode to get a behind the scenes peek at progress reports and some common challenges....
Are you stairing at your child’s progress reports and wondering what the heck is happening and trying to figure out if they are actually making progress?
Tume into this episode to get a behind the scenes peek at progress reports and some common challenges….
…as well as a discussion on HOW to fix those progress reports and goals both in the short term as a quick-fix, and in the long term!
This is essentially how you ensure your child is learning…so a little on the important side!
PLEASE take time to rate and review the podcast! This helps other parents just like you find the podcast!
Free Facebook Group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/365033878323074/?mibextid=oMANbw
Free podcast listening guide: https://theieplab.com/listen
Goals episode with Matt (episode #58): https://theieplab.com/episode58
E150: Progress Reports & Goals
Samson Q2U Microphone: [00:00:00] At this time of year, you likely just had progress reports come out, or it’s this week, or it might be next week. It’s somewhere around this time. So if you’re looking at your progress reports and scratching your head and not knowing what to do about them because they’re a little bit confusing, we’re going to talk today about the relationship between progress reports and goals and how to address those progress reports that may be a little bit underwhelming.
Samson Q2U Microphone: Because, of course, They both lead into each other. So stay tuned. We’re going to talk about the relationship between progress reports and goals and what to do about them.
Samson Q2U Microphone: You are listening to the Parent IEP Lab, the podcast that helps you become an informed parent advocate to get your child supported and learning in school. I’m Beth Liesenfeld, Occupational Therapist, passionate about leveling the school support information playing field for parent advocates using my experience in over 400 IEP and 504 meetings.
Samson Q2U Microphone: The mission of the Parent IEP Lab podcast And also the online courses, workshop, membership, and summit of the IEP lab [00:01:00] is to provide insider knowledge of the school system so that you can formulate informed, thoughtful questions to fuel collaboration and see your advocacy actually get your child supported in school.
Samson Q2U Microphone: So let’s dive into the topic of progress reports today and think about what we can change and tweak to get the right formula for success for your child to learn and grow at school. Welcome to the lab.
Samson Q2U Microphone: Just a little bit of a personal win, if I can take a second to do so. It is the 150th episode of the Parent IEP Lab podcast, and I am so excited that you are listening.
Samson Q2U Microphone: If you haven’t yet rated or reviewed the podcast and your podcast player, please take the time to do that. I am so thrilled and I read every single one of them and also this helps this information that hopefully you find really helpful get in front of other parent advocates just like you because just like everything these days, it’s an algorithm.
Samson Q2U Microphone: So thank you so much for your support and following the podcast and please [00:02:00] rate and review this podcast as soon as you can. Thanks so much.
Samson Q2U Microphone: Progress reports and goals are like the chicken and the egg. If you have really bad goals, you are going to have really bad progress reports. And if you have really bad progress reports, your goals at the next IEP meeting are going to be, well, maybe we should just say uninformed instead of bad, right?
Samson Q2U Microphone: We do have a really good episode about goals. It’s number 58 with Matt Clovin, and we talk about the essential parts of a really good goal. So I’m not going to get in too far When talking about goals today, but we’re just going to talk about the relationship between the two So if you’re looking at those progress reports and you’re saying This isn’t okay Then we give you some next steps and we’re going to talk about an example from my own Occupational therapy experience of a terrible goal that I kept bringing forward that I finally realized was not a good fit Mostly because I looked at the [00:03:00] progress reports and thought what the heck am I doing?
Samson Q2U Microphone: So, let’s just kind of define some terms, right? So, let’s talk about what an IEP is actually supposed to do. When you look at the law and you study the IDEA law, my personal takeaway from looking at many articles on that website is that what it’s actually meant to do is create access for your child having a disability.
Samson Q2U Microphone: So, ways to get through that barrier of having a disability.
Samson Q2U Microphone: ways to get around it to access their education Progress on learning and goals, and it is supposed to be individualized, which leads us to the goals part of the IEP. So this is the personalized part of I in Individualized education program or plan that I is individualized and there’s so many teams that just copy and paste goals And they don’t really know why they’re picking it or they’re like, oh this child has a specific learning disability in this So this is the goal that I usually use And that’s what I fell [00:04:00] into when I was an OT in the schools because we addressed a lot of handwriting and motor challenges.
Samson Q2U Microphone: So we’ll circle back to that in a bit. The next thing I want to really define and point out is that progress reports are periodic check ins that let you know if they are making progress on goals. And so, I was just looking back at the content in the Parent Advocacy Club and I was like, oh yeah, back in June.
Samson Q2U Microphone: I gave everybody a IEP tracking progress sheet and that was one of the free downloads in the club for June and you can still access that even if you join it right now. But it’s this like simple, simple checklist of What did they mark for each progress report so that you can take a thousand foot view and see, are they actually making progress on these goals that we set or are they not?
Samson Q2U Microphone: And do we know why? Sometimes it’s like a hospitalization and it’s like, well, of course they’re not going to be able to learn if they’re having this backslide in, in their health, right? Something like that. But [00:05:00] if we’re not really paying attention to the big picture, all of a sudden we can get. to the IEP and be like, Oh my gosh, they didn’t meet this goal.
Samson Q2U Microphone: And I didn’t even know. And it’s a year before we talk about it again. And in my opinion, that’s just too long. Um, also just for context, because this is going to come up a little bit later, when we talk about progress reports, they typically have a drop down menu.
Samson Q2U Microphone: Everything is run through a software program, and there are many, many, many different software programs when it comes to IEPs. So this is just a general guide, but the couple that I have used, when you go down to enter in your progress reports, you have a drop down menu underneath each goal, and you can either choose Progress Made, Insufficient Progress Made, Goalmet or GoalNotWorkedOn, and you might have slightly different options with the district and whatever software program they’re using, but in general, that’s what the drop down looks like, and then there’s also a space for narrative information, so we’re going to talk about this in a little bit too, but if somebody [00:06:00] wants to put in a little bit more information, they can actually drop that into the narrative so that you have it all together with the progress as well.
Samson Q2U Microphone: Thank you. So, let’s jump into this example of how terrible I was when I was just getting to know the IEP system. So let me set up some context here, right? We’ve talked before about how therapists and teachers and anything to do with IEPs, it’s like you inherit these goals. And when you are new to the system or new to being a teacher or a therapist, thankfully I was a therapist outside of the schools before I came into it, but you inherit these goals.
Samson Q2U Microphone: And so I was like, okay, I know how to be an OT and I knew how to rate goals, but I wasn’t quite confident in knowing what I was doing in the school system because you have to relate them to standards. We have an episode about standards too, if you’re like, wait, what? They do? Yes, they do.
Samson Q2U Microphone: So there’s a couple different things that we have to look at when we’re writing goals for schools, right? So when you inherit these goals, you’re like, oh, okay, well [00:07:00] this is the way that you do them. And I’m such an example person that I just. I just took that and I was like, okay, well, these are the goals that I’m seeing written.
Samson Q2U Microphone: These have been approved by the district because the IEP is finalized. These are the ones that I should do. This is what it kind of should look like, right? So here’s an example of a goal that I wrote a lot in those first couple of years. I’ll tell you the story of what happened after that. So here’s the example.
Samson Q2U Microphone: So OTs work a lot on handwriting because that’s the main kind of motor barrier to learning that we see. And so here’s an example. So Genevieve will write a three sentence paragraph with correct spacing placement on a line and legibility with 80 percent accuracy as measured in three of four weekly sessions.
Samson Q2U Microphone: So again, referencing Matt Cloven’s episode, we talk a lot about this kind of goal of like, wait, what’s wrong with this? Well, the first thing, and when I sat down to take data on the goal and write the progress report, I was like, [00:08:00] Well, they made progress on placement on a line, but it’s not really any legible.
Samson Q2U Microphone: Or I would say, Oh, their spacing looks amazing. They totally met that. They’re at like a hundred percent for that. It’s amazing. And then placement on a line and legibility were like. Uh, not so much, or maybe they made progress on it, but they didn’t meet that goal. So you have several different things that you’re measuring in this goal.
Samson Q2U Microphone: And so when I sat down to do the progress report, I was like, well, what do I choose from the dropdown? Do I choose goal met? Or do I choose progress made? Or what do I do? Because there’s multiple different answers because I lumped things together. And so many times OTs do this because we’re quote unquote minor parts of the IEP team where it’s like, oh, we don’t want 50, 000 goals.
Samson Q2U Microphone: Because that’s a lot for us to keep track of with 45 kids on our caseload. And so we’re looking at it like, okay, we want one goal so that we can demonstrate what we’re doing with the kid and progress. And so we [00:09:00] kind of lump everything together, even though we’re working on multiple things. We are lumping that together and really we should be doing different things with that.
Samson Q2U Microphone: And we’ll talk about that in a second. So what I ended up doing for a couple years was I realized this, but I didn’t know how to change it, and I didn’t know the system well enough to be like, well, how do I, can I do it this way? Can I do it that way? So what I ended up doing was I used that narrative part underneath it, and I would say, okay, They’re at 100 percent on legibility, but they’re still 20 percent on spacing or they’re 40 percent on placement on the line.
Samson Q2U Microphone: So I broke it up in the narrative beneath the progress report and that, that worked. Parents seemed okay with that. They understood that they’re like, Oh, okay, here’s some more specific information. I never had anybody complain about that. Right.
Samson Q2U Microphone: So, if you are looking at your progress reports right now, and you’re saying, yeah, that’s exactly what’s happening, I’m getting a goal met or insufficient progress made, and I don’t really have any details, and [00:10:00] I don’t really have any information, and nobody’s putting anything in the narrative, the short term fix to this is asking for more data.
Samson Q2U Microphone: So, sending an email back, I think I even have templates inside the Parent Advocacy Club on this, but writing that email back and saying, Hey, I realize that there’s several things in this goal. Can you give me more data about where they’re at with each part of this goal?
Samson Q2U Microphone: Especially if it’s one like my example where it has multiple different things that it’s measuring, right? So you can just ask. You can make a formal request in writing, I would recommend, and you can ask for more data. But the real way to fix it for good, and because, again, you’re going to have more information if you get that data, but when you come to that IEP meeting, they oftentimes just copy and paste what’s in their system into the present levels for goal progress, and if you don’t have that extra information from your emails back and forth, then you’re going to have to ask for that to be inserted and remember it.
Samson Q2U Microphone: And in all of the stress of [00:11:00] the IEP meeting coming up, you might forget to do that, right? So it really is best to actually go back and fix the document and make sure that it’s good to go, right? And that you have everything documented. So the best way to fix it for good is to advocate for better goals.
Samson Q2U Microphone: Or, like with this example of measuring to certain things, if you have an OT that’s like, uh, I’m really not supposed to write goals anyway, we can talk about that if you want to in the Facebook group, um, but if you have somebody who’s like, Oh, I really don’t want 50, 000 goals that I have to keep track of.
Samson Q2U Microphone: And that’s not like their main goal that they have. So they feel like it’s kind of a minor goal. Then you can advocate for objectives underneath. And really, some people have misconceptions about objectives. But it doesn’t have to be somebody with an intellectual disability or in that cognitive category that gets objectives.
Samson Q2U Microphone: Anybody can have them. And so you can ask for more specific information in those objectives so that when the progress reports come back, it’s like, You can break that apart. [00:12:00] So that’s actually what I ended up doing for some of them over the years, is I would write this as the overarching goal, and then I would have objectives underneath that said, okay, 80 percent for correct spacing, 80 percent for placement online, and 80 percent legibility, right?
Samson Q2U Microphone: Those numbers can change. I know 80 percent is the default. We can probably talk about that at a different time, but whatever percentage or whatever goal is that number that they’re tracking, that can be measured in objectives and kind of broken down, or they can make separate goals for that too, and it’s just a simple drop down, and then they might not even need to give you more data.
Samson Q2U Microphone: I don’t know. It all depends on what you’re asking for
Samson Q2U Microphone: and then the last thing that I’m going to leave you with is one overarching theme that I talk about so often is to be specific. So when you’re looking at those goals, be specific on what they can do. and what they’re struggling with. What are those challenges and why? So many times we have people come in [00:13:00] and say, what accommodations or what should I ask for as far as handwriting?
Samson Q2U Microphone: And I’m like, okay, well, what part of handwriting are you talking about? Are you talking about the thinking of something to write? Are you talking about holding that into memory? Are you talking about formulating the right sentences with like the right grammar intact? Are you talking about the actual physical part of writing or the visual motor part of writing?
Samson Q2U Microphone: There’s so many different ways and writing is just a perfect example of that, right? Because most people can understand that there’s multiple different things involved in writing because it’s pretty difficult actually. But this can happen for any type of skill that you’re trying to have your kid do.
Samson Q2U Microphone: What part of math is hard? Well, one part might be fine and another part might be really hard for them because of their specific profile and what their challenges are. The better that you can define what the actual problem is and your evaluation should be a huge key in this too. So look back at your past evaluation and see what it says, if you can put things together, but the more specific we can be with those challenges and the strengths to, to leverage, to, to [00:14:00] address those challenges
Samson Q2U Microphone: the better your goals are going to be. So if you need more help on goals, progress reports, feel free to hop into the free Facebook group. That link is below this podcast in the description of your podcast player. And of course you can always jump into the Parent Advocacy Club. This allows us a little bit more time for me to get to know you, really get your child’s profile, get the whole picture so that I can actually help you be effective in your advocacy. But we are talking about challenges of implementation of IEPs and 504s this month, but really you can ask any questions that you would like to get support in that parent advocacy club. And so the links for both of those resources are under this podcast in the description of your podcast player.
Samson Q2U Microphone: So thank you so much for joining me this week and I’ll see you same time, same place next week. Thanks so much.