I have to be honest – the concept of IEP progress monitoring was something I was very unprepared for as a first-year resource room teacher. Creating ways to gather data, organizing systems to track data, writing progress monitoring reports, sharing progress with parents – on top of everything else I was already buried with? I was drowning! Maybe you feel the same way and are desperately Googling ‘how you monitor progress in IEP’ or ‘what is the easiest way to progress monitor IEP goals’?
Luckily, over the years, I’ve become a lot more comfortable with the process of monitoring student progress and using that data to make decisions. Now, I think progress monitoring is one of the most important parts of my job!
This blog post is for any special education teacher or interventionist who is looking to understand the basics and purpose of progress monitoring and feel more confident in reporting on student data.
What is Progress Monitoring?
Progress monitoring is exactly what it sounds like – some type of assessment to monitor your students’ progress toward their specific goals. Specifically, special education teachers collect and reflect on data regarding student IEP goals, and typically have to report on student progress two to four times a year. However, all teachers use measures to monitor student progress, so everyone actually progress monitors, even if they don’t realize it!
Why Progress Monitor?
Monitoring student progress can sometimes feel like one more thing on an already never-ending to-do list. However, monitoring student progress is really important because it allows us to see if students are applying learned skills and progressing toward their IEP goals. If students aren’t making progress, we need to switch up our methods of instruction and practice! If students have surpassed their goals, we need to challenge them or perhaps write a new goal. Quality progress monitoring means that we aren’t wasting our time or our students’ time with interventions and activities that won’t actually make a lasting impact in the long run.
When to Progress Monitor
It’s a good habit to monitor goals at least once a month. Store the data in a consistent place, like a Google Sheet data wall, for easy comparison. If you are using quick, consistent measures, this is an easy habit to build!
Since I have students who have IEP goals in math, reading, and writing, I rotate through progress monitoring for one type of goal each week to avoid overwhelming students and myself! This year, the first week of each month is my math progress monitoring week. The second week is writing progress monitoring. I progress monitor reading goals the third week, and save the last week of the rotation for catch-up!
How to Monitor Progress Easily & Efficiently
Progress monitoring should be quick to administer. My favorite method for progress monitoring is using informal, teacher-created assessments, such as exit tickets or screeners. I often keep the screeners to 10 questions or less so that they are quick and easy to use.
Progress monitoring should be a consistent method for easy comparison. For example, I may assess students with an integer operations goal by giving them 10 mixed integer operations problems. I would follow that same setup each time I monitor, just with different numbers, to easily compare the results. In addition, if you allow students to use a reference tool on one progress monitoring probe, such as a multiplication chart, or give a time limit, such as 5 minutes, that should remain consistent across progress monitoring sessions in order to accurately compare the results.
When students are completing the quick assessments, take note of what tools they ask for or gather to utilize. Those may be great tools to add as accommodations. You can also give students one version with tools and one version without to compare their results and compare the difference in ability, which is also a great way to argue for adding a new accommodation or tool to an IEP.
Most importantly, avoid subjective measures, such as general rating scales sent to teachers, because you will not receive accurate data. For example, if a special education teacher or social worker sends out a general rating scale about how often a student does or does not do a certain behavior, a teacher may fill it out based on their gut instinct, but not on concrete data, leading to a wide range of inaccurate results. Inaccurate information is just not helpful for planning next steps! If you are expecting teachers to track certain data points for student IEP goals, send them a framework for doing so consistently and accurately – before they are expected to collect the data!
I hope you feel a little more confident with progress monitoring now! What are your go-to strategies for progress monitoring? What questions do you still have?
