IEP meeting data checklist
One page, printed, on top of the folder. The point is not to look prepared. It is to have already answered the questions you would rather not be answering off the top of your head.
This is written for the teacher bringing the data. It is not advocacy material and it is not a dispute template. If you are a parent looking for that, this is the wrong page and we would rather say so than keep you here.
In the room, on paper
| Have with you | |
|---|---|
| The goal as currently written, and the previous version if it changed this year | |
| The headline number, with its denominator, for each goal | |
| The graph, or the table, showing the dates rather than session numbers | |
| Which summary method you used, written down, not remembered | |
| The session count and the weeks covered | |
| Reasons for any gap longer than two weeks | |
| Any sessions excluded, and the rule that excluded them | |
| Who collected, if more than one person did | |
| One or two examples of what a session actually looked like |
The four questions
Answer these the day before, in writing. They come up in most meetings and they are much harder to answer well while everyone is looking at you.
| “Where did that percentage come from?” | |
| “Why is there nothing for November?” | |
| “Is that better or worse than last time?” Including whether the two are even the same measurement. | |
| “What do you think is going on?” Your read, said as a read rather than as a finding. |
Saying the number
| Instead of | Say |
|---|---|
| “She’s at about 60%.” | “Sixty percent: fifteen of twenty-five opportunities, across four sessions in March.” |
| “He’s improving.” | “The last three sessions are higher than the first three. That is six sessions, so I would call it a direction rather than a trend.” |
| “We didn’t get much data.” | “Four sessions across nine weeks. Three of those weeks the group did not run. I would not draw a conclusion from this yet.” |
| “We changed how we measure it.” | “The criterion changed in January, so the autumn data and the spring data are not the same measurement. Here is each one separately.” |
The pattern is the same each time: the number with its denominator, the sample size, and the limit stated by you before anybody has to ask for it. A number offered with its own limits is more persuasive than one defended after the fact.
When the data is thin
It happens. A term with three sessions is a term with three sessions, and no presentation of it turns that into evidence.
- Say the count first, before the percentage. “Three sessions” frames what follows.
- Say why, specifically. A staffing gap and a student’s absence lead to different decisions.
- Do not fill it with impressions dressed as data. Say what you observed and label it as observation.
- Bring a plan for the next period. Thin data with a collection plan is a professional position; thin data with a confident conclusion is not.