Why a Standards-Based IEP Matters — and How to Do It Right

What about alternate curriculum?

Dr. Fannon says, “If it is not standards based, then it's usually an entirely different curriculum. It deprives students of that access and that rich, meaningful dialog and skill development. It can be different everywhere, but [alternate curriculum is] repetitive, low-level skills and often takes on a more of a life skills type focus. It's limited exposure to academic language and to critical skill development or analytical reasoning. That's really what we want our kids to learn. That's sort of the building blocks, right? In kindergarten — even without disabilities — we don't start out asking them to reason, right? That's a skill that we develop, and we see it as you move up through the grade levels. But if a student is not getting grade-level curriculum or standards-based curriculum, then they may never be asked to do that. So there's a real disparity between those two types of curriculum.”

In this clip, Dr. Fannon explains what kids risk when they miss out on years of a standards-based education:

So how should you as a parent respond if the school tells you that the standards don’t apply to your child? Dr. Fannon recommends asking your team a few key questions:

• What supports have been tried?
• What has been done to allow my child access to this curriculum?
• What data are you using?

Dr. Fannon says, “How can we increase support rather than remove access? The questioning is usually the best tactic, I find, because it usually — not always — keeps the temperature down a little bit.”

If the school tries to tell you about a policy or practice they have where the standards don’t apply to students with IEPs, ask to see it. Keep in mind that special education law is written to include kids with disabilities with their peers as much as possible. Dr. Fannon says, “There are a number of court decisions or legal precedents that are out there. There's Rachel H, which has four different factors about including a child with disabilities, and being at grade level is not one of them.” (See our article A Case for Inclusion for more information.)

So how do we make sure our kids have access to the grade-level standards? It starts with writing IEP goals for them to access those standards.

1. Identify the core skill of the standard

The Common Core State Standards can be a bit hard to decipher when you first take a look, but when you’re working with your IEP team to develop goals for your child, the standards can help you identify the core skills you want your child to work on alongside their peers.

One useful resource to help you identify core skills is Core Content Connectors (CCCs). Dr. Fannon explains, “They are sort of reduced complexity versions, but then they also have reduced elements of each of the standards. So they basically take the most important parts of each of the standards to make sure that students with extensive support needs still can master those essential elements of each standard, and so they maintain alignment to the grade level content. It's really important for parents because it can help you understand and help you remind your school, ever so gently, what grade-level content can look like.”

When you’re looking at a standard and trying to identify the core skill that it’s trying to teach, Dr. Fannon says, “You don't have to sit there and labor over these standards and think, ‘What does that mean? What are we trying to figure out here? What is my child going to learn? What would they be doing if they were in that class?’ Those Connectors can help do some of that work for you.”

By the way, if your state doesn’t use CCCs, they might use something similar called Dynamic Learning Maps. Learn more and how to use them in our article here.

2. Adapt the standard with support

If your child is below grade level, the standards still apply, but it will likely involve providing individualized supports to help your child access the standard. For example, for a student in sixth grade who is reading at a first-grade level, audio or visuals could be provided to help them access the text. One of the sixth grade reading standards is to analyze the text and identify the central idea, so maybe the student has an IEP goal to access the adapted/supported text and then practice analyzing it by choosing the central idea from among three or four choices. “It’s the same skill with a different entry point,” Dr. Fannon says.

Adapting the standards in this way helps include students in general education because they’re able to access the same subject at the same time as the rest of their class. They might have a reduced or simplified assignment, in addition to support from technology or a 1:1 aide, but they’re able to access the same topics as their peers. Dr. Fannon says it’s all about providing support to overcome barriers.

3. Focus on areas of need

Just because you’re developing a standards-based IEP doesn’t mean your child should have an IEP goal for every single standard. That would mean dozens and dozens! Instead, focus goal writing on areas of most need, which can be guided by your child’s IEP assessments.

Another thing to keep in mind is to write goals for skills that can generalize across many areas. “What are the skills you want to target that are going to then cover a majority of those standards?” Dr. Fannon says.

Thank you to Dr. Diana Fannon for sharing insights and answering parent questions during our live event! Check out the full recording (with transcript available) here in our resource library.

We have more live Q&As coming up soon, including Getting Ready for Summer with Regional Center and the Self-Determination Program for California families as well as an event with Aaron Carruthers about how California’s May budget revision could affect people with disabilities. To stay updated on upcoming events and other helpful resources, join our free weekly newsletter list!