June 2007
PROPOSALS TO USE THE IEP FOR ACCOUNTABILITY
ISSUE
One of the recommendations for the reauthorization of No Child
Left Behind made by House members to members of the Education and
Labor Committee is that progress of students with disabilities
towards meeting the law's Adequate Yearly Progress requirements
be measured by their progress toward meeting goals in their individualized
education programs, rather than on the grade-level tests given
to their peers In response to these recommendations, the Advocacy
Institute, Our Kids Count made
the following points:
- The IEP outlines agreed upon services and
supports required to address the individual needs of a student
that enable him or her to participate in the regular education
curriculum aligned to the standards set for all and with
his or her peers without disabilities to the maximum extent appropriate.
- The
IEP serves as a tool for monitoring an individual child's
progress based only on the effectiveness of the individualized
services and supports developed to address the student's disability
related educational needs.
- The IEP is not designed or utilized as a tool
for holding schools accountable for ensuring that students
with disabilities are taught to the academic content and achievement
standards established by the state for all students.
- It is not
possible to aggregate performance data from IEP goals to
use as valid, reliable data in determining accountability at
a school, district or state level.
- There are no consequences attached to
a student's failure to attain individual IEP goals.
- IEP teams
do not make curriculum decisions
LDA is opposed to the use
of the IEP to measure the progress of student with a disability
because, as President Charles Giglio pointed out in his letter
to Committee Chairman George Miller:
"The IEP lists goals - and the services and supports needed
to achieve those goals - that are designed to enable the student
to be involved and make progress in the general education curriculum.
The IEP is not the curriculum for that student, but rather
the means to access the general curriculum. IEP goals do not
have to correlate in any way with state academic content standards,
but, again, are designed to provide supports for students to
participate and learn to those standards. Using the IEP as the
accountability measure would amount to decreasing the rigor and
the high standards that ESEA has established for all students."
Your Congressman and his/her staff may not realize that using
the IEP to measure student progress would eliminate the promise
that students with disabilities would not be left behind. Please
contact him or her, especially if he or she is on the Education
and Labor Committee* and let him/her know of your opposition
to the use of IEP goals to measure proficiency under No Child
Left Behind. You may contact your representative through the
local office (listed in the phone book) or the Washington Office
through the Congressional switchboard (202) 224-3121. Ask for
the legislative aide on education and point out that the IEP
under IDEA describes how students with disabilities are to
be taught. It does not ensure that these students have access
to same curriculum and have their progress measured as their
peers without disabilities.
DEMOCRATS
* George Miller, Chairman (CA-07)
* Dale E. Kildee (MI-05)
* Donald M. Payne (NJ-10)
* Robert E. Andrews (NJ-01)
* Robert C. Scott (VA-03)
* Lynn C. Woolsey (CA-06)
* Ruben Hinojosa (TX-15)
* Carolyn McCarthy (NY-04)
* John F. Tierney (MA-06)
* Dennis J. Kucinich (OH-10)
* David Wu (OR-01)
* Rush D. Holt (NJ-12)
* Susan A. Davis (CA-53)
* Danny K. Davis (IL-07)
* Raul M. Grijalva (AZ-07)
* Timothy H. Bishop (NY-01)
* Linda T. Sanchez (CA-39)
* John Sarbanes (MD-03)
* Joe Sestak (PA-07)
* Dave Loebsack (IA-02)
* Mazie Hirono (HI-02)
* Jason Altmire (PA-04)
* John Yarmuth (KY-03)
* Phil Hare (IL-17)
* Yvette Clarke (NY-11)
* Joe Courtney (CT-02)
* Carol Shea-Porter (NH-01)
REPUBLICANS
* Howard P. "Buck" McKeon, Ranking Member (CA-25)
* Thomas E. Petri (WI-06)
* Peter Hoekstra (MI-02)
* Michael N. Castle (DE-At Large)
* Mark E. Souder (IN-03)
* Vernon J. Ehlers (MI-03) * Judy Biggert (IL-13)
* Todd Russell Platts (PA-19)
* Ric Keller (FL-8)
* Joe Wilson (SC-02)
* John Kline (MN-02)
* Cathy McMorris Rodgers (WA-05)
* Kenny Marchant (TX-24)
* Tom Price (GA-06)
* Luis G. Fortuno (PR)
* Charles W. Boustany, Jr. (LA-07)
* Virginia Foxx (NC-05)
* John R. "Randy" Kuhl, Jr. (NY-29)
* Rob Bishop (UT-01)
* David Davis (TN-01)
* Timothy Walberg (MI-07)
* Dean Heller (NV-02) |
