You can’t manage what you can’t measure” – especially if you don’t know what the measurements are measuring.
For years, TMEW and I have had to deal with IEPs – Individual Education Plans. For some kiddos, it is for academic reasons (some of which are beyond their control). Others, it’s because of behavioral issues. For not a small number of these, it is the intersection of the two. For years, we spent no small amount of time in such meetings after reviewing the contents of such documents, asking some questions, but generally going with the flow (and as it turned out, for better or worse – and it was a mixture of the two). The linchpin in all that was this: Trust. We had to trust that the experts knew the causes and the fixes and would faithfully carry them out.
Until they couldn’t handle it either. And that, I have to admit, happened to us 30 years ago (plus or minus)
Sidenote: Parents, ALL kids give you grief and heartache. It comes with the territory but then it can go well past you and into the stratosphere. I am humble enough to say that with BOTH the Eldest and the Youngest (along with a whole raft of other issues), we had to turn to the CHINS (a NH judicial program – Child In Need Of Services) that was supposed to prevent children from going to the next stage: juvenile delinquency. Thankfully, it worked but part of certainly included IEPs. If you get to the end of your rope, it would be worthwhile to look into. While it has changed over the last 30 years since we invoked it (DCYF is now in charge of triggering it instead of Parents), it’s still something that might help.
Anyways, back to the IEPs. For years, we listened, we read, and then we signed. Now skip forward to last week. I refused to sign – my right because of my concern of how it was constructed and my inability:
- to review it and pick out both the interim and final goals over a task line
- be able to traverse what is happening (or not) at ground level (day to day instruction and homework) to #1
- relate that back to the interim milestones (otherwise known as Report Cards – which is another disaster and to which I have complained)
- understand the Edu-babble used in the IEP that states which test/examination is being used to to evaluate this cognitive ability (or that one, or this other thing) and what each of the numerical ranges actually meant the Grandson.
And having spent years dealing with this, I hit a trigger point and said “you shall not pass” that actually caused this to happen. I asked a question and got “I don’t understand”. Without rehashing the whole bit, I had to ask the same questions several times until I used the phrase “present as” which was then accepted (I think you can guess the rest of question if you’ve been reading the ‘Grok for a while).
Really? I had to phrase the question in a selectively desired manner to elicit a answer? My response was (paraphrased):
I thought I had phrased my question like a normal person would have. Now you’re telling me that I have to use a specific construction that a NORMAL parent who isn’t immersed in this nonsense would know??? Are you serious?
So I took it and reversed it – an IEP MUST be phrase in a way that a normal person could understand:
- What are the tests being used?
- What do they test, exactly?
- What are the measurement ranges and how do they relate to the Grandson (instead of a generic term)?
- And most importantly, knowing that he has processing issues/stoppages (versus raw horsepower):
- how is this test relevant?
- what is it telling you?
- what are the insights that will be used to tailor the classroom tactics to address it?
Again, as I said during the meeting: “You can’t manage what you can’t measure” and in this case, if you don’t know what the stated measurements are testing, you still can’t manage it. Or in this case, mitigate his processing stoppages.
The goal is that TMEW and I will know, at any time in time, what should he be able to do in a given subject, what IS he able to do, and how much is left by the end of the school year? And that is necessary so that WE know what to be doing at home to make that happen.
As I said, we have proven over the years, that we are above the average “involved parents” and if we are to continue that, in, as the Superintendent just said in an email on my outstanding Right to Know’s:
…in their constitutional supported right to educate their offspring
So, Parents, you have that right to know what is needed in language you can understand. I just hit that point whereby I was no longer going to “assume stuff” anymore.
I will say that during the meeting, it seems like my points were received and the IEP is going to be updated so that a regular Parent, unfamiliar with the “inside baseball” language but really WANT to know the details. I’m no longer that person but if I had issues, I’m betting others are as well.
