I realized while doing my literature review paper that the
subject of my project may have hit on an untapped market in special education.
It’s kind of exciting, so I wanted to share!
While doing the research for my paper, no matter what search
criteria I put into ERIC, journals, blogs, Google, anywhere, I could not find
many articles on my topic (using online tools for measuring progress for IEP
goals and objectives). Which seems so odd to me since it’s 2015 and technology is
such a huge focus in schools, and in education in general.
Funny thing is that one of the articles I found on ERIC also
mentioned my exact same frustration, and those authors could not find many helpful
articles either (Woodward & Rieth, 1997). Since they were searching 18
years ago, I find it highly ironic (and fairly disturbing) that in 2015 I’m
having the same problem! It’s also pretty awful that this has been a
frustrating part of a special ed teacher’s job for at least that long (although
I’m sure this problem has been around even longer than that). Woodward and
Rieth also frustratedly mention that online tools were not being utilized for
monitoring goals and objectives progress, way back in 1997! And I’m sure that
the tools they had available at that time pale in comparison to the ones we
have at our disposal now. Certainly, in 18 years technology has advanced and a
myriad of other tools are available for this particular use! However, it
doesn’t seem that many people are using them for this purpose. Which, again,
seems ironic.
All of this makes me excited, though! With all of the tumult
and stressors I’ve been dealing with throughout this semester at work, it’s a
nice cap on things to finish out this semester with something positive. Plus, I
like the idea of being a trailblazer! Whether or not I actually am is kind of
irrelevant to me. If schools are practicing a similar purpose to what I’m aiming
to accomplish, there certainly is not much research being conducted along these
lines. Or maybe it’s just not being published (since apparently it takes years
to get something published). Still, it’s exciting to think that I could
actually be doing something that will help thousands of special ed teachers and
hundreds of districts. Let me dream!
Hi Kristen! I'd love to hear more about your project. What are the programs you're trying out? Are you developing your own? Let me know if you need any "guinea pigs" to try out what you come up with!
ReplyDeleteHi Kristen. This is a topic near and dear to me. You are correct in saying that there is not a lot of literature in this area. Collecting data and progress monitoring needs to be a simple tasks, because teachers already feel overwhelmed with paperwork. Some of our teachers use and excel document for monitoring progress of goals and objectives. I am copying a sample for your review; after the data is entered, a graph will appear with details about gains and losses. I wish I could attach the document. I will see if I do a post and attach it that way, so you can see how it actually looks.
ReplyDeleteB Student:
V Teacher:
E Grade:
S Instructions: Enter the date and results for each monitoring session.
Date Data Collec. Trendline
BL 70.00
1 8/28/2014 57.00 70.00
2 9/11/2014 71.00 70.00
3 9/25/2014 85.00 70.00
4 10/9/2014 40.00 70.00
5 10/17/2014 84.00 70.00
6 11/14/2014 25.00 70.00
7 12/11/2014 50.00 70.00
8 1/9/2015 80.00 70.00
9 1/16/2015 60.00 70.00
10 2/20/2015 36.00 70.00