Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Twice Exceptional Challenge use of timed tests for grade w IEP?

DD10 has an IEP for the first time based on ADD. She also has dyspraxia. Her grades for "math facts" (basic arithmetic) came back low this semester. I asked the teacher for the reason. The teacher responded that the questions DD completes are 100% accurate, but that she does not complete the timed quizzes. The teacher does not allow extra time on the timed quizzes since in her view they are meant to determine fluency. We are new to the IEP world, but this seems wrong since the IEP allows extended time on all exams. I thought that this was just the kind of thing the IEP was meant to avoid, but this is new to me. WWYD?

My son has an IEP for hearing loss. Frequently we have found that teachers forget about his IEP and don't follow it.
Maybe you could meet with the teacher and explain what the IEP is for and why, how she gets extended time on tests. I agree, she should get extended time on the tests (or maybe you can see how she does without it but it wouldn't count for the grade).
Possibly the teacher doesn't realize your daughter has an IEp or what it says. We have found that with our son.

Extended time means extended time. Perhaps it is time for an addendum to the IEP that gives oral response as an accomodation, as well. There is absolutely no excuse for penalizing a child with a disability affecting fluency because they can't pass a fluency test. It's like penalizing a blind child for not being able to copy from the board.

Ditto to aculady's response. My ds12 has dyspraxia, and has an accommodation on his IEP that specifically states he has the option for oral response on fluency tests.

In our ds' case, the school preferred oral response over extended time for fluency tests; he also has extended time accommodation on other types of testing.

polarbear

ps - if the teacher is disagreeing with an accommodation or has a different interpretation of what is meant by it than you do, you can call an IEP team meeting to clarify (we were sometimes able to do this type of "IEP meeting" over the phone if all parties agreed to what was going to be amended in the IEP). In this case, I think it might be beneficial to request an accommodation specifically for fluency tests.

Thanks for the thoughts. Based on your feedback we drew the IEP to to the teacher's attention and rather than responding directly (even if to say that she was referring the question elsewhere) she referred it directly to the social worker who appears to coordinate the IEP paperwork. I asked just to resolve this by phone or email, but they seem to want to have a meeting, so we have one on the calendar. The oral response idea is a good one and not just for this situation, but others where writing challenges and slow retreival speed create problems.

As a follow-up we had the IEP meeting and got the school to agree to include in the IEP that timed fluency-type tests are not to be considered for report card grades. Rather than the "c" equivalent for "knows math facts" (which DD does, while everyone acknowledges that she is slow to produce those facts) we were willing to accept an N/A.