What is meant by the requirement to include goals based on grade level in the IEP of students in order for them to participate in the modified assessment coming in Spring of 2010?
• Most of us have a keen sense of the profile of the students that we think are caught in the assessment gap. These are the students who are too cognitively able to be eligible for participating in ISTAR as a student with significant cognitive disabilities. At the same time, the academic abilities of these students are not at the level of proficiency measured by the ISTEP+ given at their grade level. • So when the federal government released regulatory language requiring that “the student has an IEP that includes goals based on academic content standards for the grade in which the student is enrolled” in order for the student to qualify for the modified assessment, it was incredibly disappointing at first. We have all been fairly diligent about writing goals only for those areas that needed special education services. Typically, grade level activities are handled in general education and special educators write goals for skills that are not at grade level. • So how can this be reconcil
