Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Twice Exceptional wrightslaw seminar -- the one that surprised me

knute, we've found that our state writing exam doesn't really test the type of writing that students need to be successful in school. The early-mid elementary state tests are mostly about correcting grammar and punctuation, and in our earlier elementary school tests really seemed to resemble more of a reading exam. We were shocked beyond belief after our ds scored *one point* below advanced proficiency on his first state writing test! (writing is the area most impacted by his disability). We had him take the sample version of the test at home where we could score it ourselves, and found that because he knew grammar conventions well he scored highly, in spite of his having been completely unable to produce any kind of written work on the one essay-answer question. This year he's in a private school and had to take the ERBs instead of the state testing - I haven't seen any kind of sample ERB, but from what ds has told us, the writing part of the test didn't include any kind of written essay and the only part of the test he had to do what he considers to be "writing" on was the reading portion of the test. Soooo... trying to advocate for writing help with only state testing to go on can be very tricky. If your school district uses the WJ-III Achievement tests as part of the standard eligibility suite of tests, that is also a bit tricky because they also don't test the types of skills that are used in writing anything more than a very basic sentence one at a time.

This is what we did in advocating for our ds for an IEP in SLD/written expression:

1) We requested the school team include the TOWL (Test of Written Language) as part of ds' eligibility testing. This is a VERY common test that is used all the time in our school district to evaluate written expression - but our school staff *did not* tell us that it was available or that it was a useful tool for this type of evaluation. We knew about it a) because I'd researched it and b) we knew it was available because we asked our advocate and they informed us that it is routinely used in our school district. So - we asked for it and our school said yes. But that's the way everything went with our school - they offered up no knowledge of anything, but when we knew what to ask for and asked for it, they said yes.

2) We kept copies of all of ds' written assignments from class, and we talked to him to get as much detail as we could so that we understood what he felt challenged with. We just kept these in reserve, made sure we knew which areas of writing were causing him trouble, always asked for help with those specific areas, then the school staff would always say "oh no, there isn't a problem, he's right on grade level etc" so we'd *then* pull out copies of his work, show what he had and hadn't been able to produce, and that usually stopped the counter-argument from the school that everything was "just fine" because the classwork couldn't be argued with. If they did try to argue that he was capable of more, we requested that they show us - and they never took us up on that because they knew him well enough to know that we knew what we were talking about.

3) We requested subtest scores for each of the ability and achievement tests that ds was given by the school district, as well as having the same info from the private testing ds had been through. In our area, the school will not provide subtest scores unless you specifically request them.

4) We didn't know to ask for this at the time, but I would have asked if I'd known then what I knew later - follow that? I would have asked for an SLP evaluation. DS eventually had one privately which revealed his expressive language disorder. His #s on the SLP testing aren't low enough to qualify for speech therapy through school, but they could have been used as additional data showing that he had a challenge in expressing his thoughts.

5) We knew (thanks to our advocate) that the school would come to the eligibility meeting with the eligibility draft form already filled out (everything except the "team" decision) and that they would come to the meeting with their own agenda. We knew they would argue that our ds didn't qualify based on a standard formula used by the school district that was based on the ability and achievement standard tests and didn't call in any other evidence (even though the additional testing we'd requested would be reported on the form). We knew that the school would also argue that ds' state testing scores would not be considered "low" and that if he had grades they would be considered "average to high" hence he would be pegged as working at "grade level". We also knew, thanks to our advocate, that the eligibility decision was a team decision and had to take all the data we had into account - so we went into the meeting, sat and listened, asked questions where pertinent, and made sure we pointed out that although the broad averaged categories on ability/achievement testing looked a-ok, that if you looked at the subtest scores there was one huge hole falling below the district cut-off and that area in turn related to a skill which impacted ds' ability to produce written work.
We also specifically requested that ds' performance on the TOWL (and also the PAL, another test of written expression that he was given when he wasn't able to produce enough words on the TOWL to be scored - imagine that!).... be used in considering eligibility. We basically just sat there patiently, listened to the school try to build a case for how well our ds was doing (and I'm pretty sure it was leading up to all the reasons they felt he didn't qualify for an IEP)... and then politely but firmly redirect them to the evidence showing that he did indeed have a significant challenge with written expression. It was a long meeting! But ultimately they couldn't make the data we had disappear and the team agreed.

So that's how we got the IEP - to be honest, it bothers me A TON to think of the kids who might be out there struggling and don't have parents with the resources or motivation to spend the time we had to spend researching and thinking through how to get to that point. I know too well how demoralized our ds was at that point in his school career, and worry so that other children in the same place, without a parental safety net to keep them afloat, might never be able to pull back out and get on the track to success in school. It's so very very frustrating! I hope that once I'm not spending most of my time simply trying to help my own kids grow into their own skins at school that I'll be able to help other families and children who are faced with similar challenges. Not sure how... but that's what I hope to be able to do, in some way.

polarbear