Co-Principal Investigators: John Trach (University of Illinois) and Martha Thurlow (University of Minnesota)

Purpose: Students with disabilities who receive special education services through the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act have an Individualized Education Program (IEP). Schools are turning toward the new Common Core Standards and using them as the basis for developing IEPs and providing instruction for students with disabilities. In this project, the research team will further develop a tutorial program, IEPQ-Core, to assist IEP teams in writing measurable annual goals linked to these new standards.

Project activities: The research team will develop and refine the IEPQ-Core to be used by IEP teams in writing quality IEPs. The study will include the construction and testing of four intervention components: (1) integration of the Common Core Standards, (2) content modules for social/emotional/behavioral goals and related services needs, (3) content modules for formative assessment by teachers of high priority IEP annual goals, and (4) online training videos and user guidance for the IEPQ-Core Tutorial website.

Products: The products of this study include a fully developed IEPQ-Core, IEPQ-Core Tutorial, training modules and manuals, publications, and presentations.

Structured Abstract

Setting: The setting includes public elementary and middle schools in Illinois.

Sample: Sixty teachers and 420 students with disabilities, ages 8 to13, are to be be included in the study. Students with disabilities must meet the following requirements: 1) have at least one annual goal for reading and 2) take the general state assessment with accommodations.

Intervention: The IEPQ-C is a tool to assist teachers and IEP teams in writing quality IEP goals that are aligned to Common Core Standards. The program will be accessible to teachers through a web-based program that will provide guidance on writing IEP annual goals in social/emotional/behavioral, related services, and academic content areas. Teachers will also have the opportunity to view modules on how to develop and/or use formative assessments for measuring student progress on their IEP annual goals.

Research Design and Methods: For the pilot study, 60 teachers of students with disabilities, 8 to 13 years old, will be randomly selected from five districts or cooperatives across Illinois. Teachers will identify seven students with disabilities who meet the following criteria: 1) have at least one annual goal for reading and 2) take the general state assessment with accommodations. In year 1 of the study, half of the teachers will be randomly assigned to the intervention or control group; intervention teachers will receive the complete Tutorial in that year. Teachers in the intervention condition will write the new IEPs after receiving the IEPQ-C Tutorial. In year 2, students will receive instruction based on the new IEPs. Teachers in the control group will operate under business-as-usual conditions. Students in the classrooms of the control teachers will receive instruction based on their new IEPs written without the assistance of the IEPQ-C Tutorial. Teachers in the control group will be provided the complete Tutorial in year 3. Results from the pilot study will provide a between-group comparison on students' growth in reading based on measurements in year 1 and the difference in student growth in year 2. In years 2 and 3, the research team will refine the program based on previous results. The intervention and control groups will receive the updated IEPQ-C Tutorial in year 3.

Control Condition: Teachers in the control group will operate under business-as-usual conditions and will receive the full intervention at the end of year 2.

Key Measures: Student outcome measures will include the Basic Achievement Skills Inventory (BASI), state assessment results, and a 9-week goal progress report completed by the teacher. Intervention fidelity measures will include Google Analytics and individual user logs to report levels of use, and a Tutorial perception checklist. Finally, the researchers will evaluate the IEPQ-Core by creating a classroom impact survey and using the IEP Quality Improvement Scales.

Data Analytic Strategy: Multivariate regression will be used to evaluate the IEPQ-C measures. Student outcome measures will be analyzed using trend analysis, multivariate analysis of variance, and multivariate regression.

Related IES Projects: IEP Quality Improvement: Research and Development of Web-based Decision Support (R324J060002)

Products and Publications

Book chapter

Yell, M.L. Crockett, J., Shriner, J., and Rozalski, M. (in press). Free Appropriate Public Education. In J.M. Kauffman., D.P. Hallahan., and B. Pullen (Eds.), Handbook of Special Education. Philadelphia, PA: Taylor & Francis/Routledge.

Journal article, monograph, or newsletter

Shriner, J.G., Carty, S.J., Rose, C.A., Shogren, K.A., Kim, M., and Trach, J.S. (2013). Effects of Using a Web-Based IEP Decision Making Tutorial. Journal of Special Education, 47(3): 175–185. doi:10.1177/0022466912453940