Case Study 1 Winter, 2008
EDT 575
Jerry is a 3rd grade student who has been identified as having a learning disability in literacy skills. More specifically, Jerry has had the following goals included on his IEP:
Given a sight word list, Jerry will read independently 100 new words by the end of 3rd grade.
Given nonsense words, Jerry will read 90% of the words correctly for 5 consecutive assessments.
Given writing prompts, Jerry will independently construct 3 sentences of 3-5 words that include noun-verb agreement and correct ending punctuation for 5 consecutive assessments.
Jerry’s IEP team met to review his annual progress in January, the anniversary of his initial IEP. The intervention specialist, who was assigned to Jerry in August, gave her report. She noted that Jerry had scored at 1.1 grade level on a standardized, norm-referenced test of reading prior to his previous initial IEP. She had recently retested him as a follow up and reported his reading level had improved to 2.1 grade level indicating over 1 year’s progress in reading. The I.S. noted he still needed to improve but clearly was “catching up.” Jerry’s mother seemed quite pleased with his progress as did the assistant principal who was presiding over the meeting. Jerry’s 3rd grade teacher reported she too had seen progress, but seemed a little unsure about the whole meeting and the IS report. The team went on to draft a new goal in literacy which read as follows:
Jerry will increase his grade level reading score by at least 1 year as measured by the Woodcock-Johnson Reading Mastery Tests.
What might have been the concern of the general education teacher?
If you were Jerry’s parent, are there any questions you might have asked?
Are there any suggestions you would make to the I.S. if you were discussing Jerry’s case?