Standards-Based
Individualized Education Programs
An IEP is a written statement for a child with a disability that is developed, reviewed, and revised during a meeting between all stakeholders—teachers, guardians, and students—in accordance with the requirements of laws and regulations. The requirements of the IEP process are discussed in this section.
According to federal law 20 USC § 1414(d)(1)(A), two general purposes of the IEP are:
• To establish measurable annual goals, including benchmarks/short-term objectives, for the child with disabilities who takes alternate assessments aligned to alternate achievement standards
• For children with disabilities who take alternate assessments aligned to alternate achievement standards, a description of benchmarks or short-term objectives.
Under the IDEA, a child's IEP must include:
• A statement of the student's present levels of academic achievement and functional behaviors, including how the student’s disability affects involvement and progress in the general education curriculum (i.e., the same curriculum as for non-disabled children). This may include information concerning the academic achievement, social adaptation, and behavior that impedes learning, vocational skills, sensory and motor skills, self-help skills, language and communication needs, and speech and language skills
• A statement of measurable annual goals, including benchmarks (i.e., major milestones) or short-term objectives (i.e., individual intermediate steps that are taken to meet the annual goals) for those students who take alternate assessments aligned to alternate achievement standards. These goals and objectives relate to:
• Meeting the student's needs, which result from the disability, to enable involvement and progress in the general education curriculum
• Meeting each of the student’s other educational needs, which result from the disability
Why Develop Standards-Based IEPs?
Developing standards-based IEPs for students with disabilities provides many rewards for students, teachers, and administrators. By incorporating standards, the IEP connects student needs to state standards and facilitates access and progress in the general education curriculum. This allows general educators and special educators to communicate through a common language. It provides direction for goals and interventions and improves consistency across the classroom, school, and district. In this way, the general education curriculum requirements of IDEA are efficiently and effectively satisfied. Targeted instruction and improved learning are some of the greatest benefits gained by aligning IEP goals and objectives/benchmarks to state or district content standards.
What is a Standard?
The No Child Left Behind Act requires that every state develop academic content standards that can be assessed.
“Standards are a bold initiative. With the adoption of these content standards…, California is going beyond reform. We are redefining the state's role in public education. For the first time, we are stating—explicitly—the content that students need to acquire at each grade level through grade 8[, ...] in grades 9 and 10[, and in] grades 11 and 12. These standards are rigorous. With student mastery of this content, California schools will be on a par with those in the best educational systems in other states and nations. The content is attainable by all students, given sufficient time. Even those with severe disabilities can access California Content Standards via those standards on which the California Alternate Performance Assessment (CAPA) is based.”
—from http://www.cde.ca.gov/be/st/ss/engmessage.asp
A standard describes what students are expected to perform in each subject area and at each grade level. The standards movement began in California in 1992. Since that time, California legislation and the federal requirements of NCLB and IDEA have focused on establishing standards, designing assessments aligned to standards, and developing goals aligned to standards for students with disabilities.
Each teacher must have access to a well-established process that allows them to:
1. Be acquainted with standards
2. Assess students
3. Develop standards-based IEPs
4. Prepare for mastery teaching and learning
This access is a significant factor affecting the quality of standards-based instruction for students with disabilities.
In an effort to improve student achievement, the California State Legislature passed AB 265 (Alpert, chaptered in 1995), which requires all students in the state to meet standards and pass assessments.
What do Standards Look Like?
• Are the criteria used to define accountability?
• Are they focused of educational reform?
• Are they used as a framework for teaching?
• Are they a point of focus to guide instructional planning?
• Do they provide an educational sequence to learning?
• Do they apply to all students?
• Do they inform what to teach, not how to teach?
• Do they develop a method of assessing the level of student achievement and a way to communicate with the public regarding student performance.
• Do they describe what students are expected to perform in each subject area and grade level?
• Are they referenced in “present levels of performance” goals or objectives/benchmarks?
• Do they access the general education curriculum (students with disabilities meet standards at an individualized rate)?
—adapted from the ACSA handbook on Goals and Objectives, 2004
Selected standards for students with disabilities identify specific content critical to the student’s successful progress through the California Content Standards. Selecting standards for students with disabilities at each grade level provides staff with a road map through the California Content Standards. IEPs are aligned to these standards.
The goals and objectives for selected standards in the IEP should reflect not only the needs of a student with disabilities, but should also reference "Blueprints for the STAR (State Testing and Reporting)" and California Standards Tests (CSTs). For more information, go to http://www.cde.ca.gov/ta/tg/sr/blueprints.asp.
Structure of the California Content Standards
The standards for English/language arts are categorized by: domain, reading, writing, written and oral English-language conventions, and listening and speaking. Within each domain, strands and sub-strands are used to categorize the standards.
English/language arts content standards are delineated by:• Grade level
• Domain
• Strand
• Sub-Strand
• Standard
—from Reading Language Arts
Frameworks for California Schools,
developed by the Curriculum Development and
Supplemental Materials Commission, 1999
| Grade | Domain | Strand | Sub-Strand | Standard |
| Kindergarten | Reading | 1.0 Word analysis, fluency, and systematic vocabulary development |
Concepts about print | 1.1 Match oral words to printed words. 1.2 Identify the title and author of a reading selection. 1.3 Identify letters, words, and sentences. |