Michael Herring
Dr. Kimsey
November 2, 2011
DAR Paper
Douglas’s IEP Assessment Douglas is a thirteen year old student that is sitting in on his IEP Assessment to see if he qualifies for special services to assist in his learning. Douglas is having problems with his speech development along with visual and auditory struggles. The IEP Assessment took place in one of school’s classrooms with Douglas being present during it. While he is struggling in these areas the teachers seem to point out his great attitude in learning and how respectful he is towards the teachers. The major thing that stood out the most is that Douglas is thirteen years old and is having his first IEP Assessment. Reason being is I find it odd that his teachers prior should have noticed his grades slipping and him falling behind in the lessons and class work.
One factor that could have caused Douglas to get this far in school without his struggles being noticed is his great behavior. I feel that this could have hurt him and allowed him to slide under the radar. One statistic that I discovered while researching online is that a study showed that as the students age increased their level or reading growth decreased which means we as future educators need to catch these problems sooner rather than later (http://search.proquest.com.ezproxy.maconstate.edu/docview/887546637/abstract?source=fedsrch&accountid=12203). Teachers usually only point out behavior problem students for additional assistance and since Douglas has not had any behavior problems the teachers may have just passed him along to the next grade because of his good behavior. This is a problem because this could mean that teachers are not really assessing their students levels appropriately and instead are getting the problem students out of the classrooms so they do not have to deal with them. Taking the correct steps to assessing each student’s progressions throughout the year could prevent a student from being thirteen or even older and struggling. By assessing the student’s problems correctly it will allow the student to get additional help in whatever he or she needs which will in turn help the student’s overall learning. “Many early intervention curricular manuals recommend teaching auditory-visual conditional discriminations (i.e., receptive labeling) using the simple-conditional method in which component simple discriminations are taught in isolation and in the presence of a distracter stimulus before the learner is required to respond conditionally. Some have argued that this procedure might be susceptible to faulty stimulus control such as stimulus over selectivity” (http://search.proquest.com.ezproxy.maconstate.edu/docview/896736010/abstract?source=fedsrch&accountid=12203). In researching online and watching this video one thing I learned is that a student’s classroom behavior does not reflect his comprehension of the material. Also, it is tremendously important for me as a future educator to pay close attention to my students and make sure that my assessments are correct so if a student is having problems I can get them additional help. I plain on applying what I have learned to my future