A presentation on standards based IEPs, a Dear Colleague letter from OSERS, and the standards based instruction model.

1. Standards Aligned IEPs:
Process and Practice of Aligning IEPs
with State-Approved Standards

2. Big Ideas in OSERS Memo
• Ensuring that all children, including children with disabilities, are held to
rigorous academic standards and high expectations is a shared
responsibility for all of us.
• …we write to clarify that an individualized education program (IEP) for an
eligible child with a disability under the Individuals with Disabilities
Education Act (IDEA) must be aligned with the State’s academic content
standards for the grade in which the child is enrolled
• Research has demonstrated that children with disabilities who struggle in
reading and mathematics can successfully learn grade-level content
• low expectations can lead to children with disabilities receiving less
challenging instruction that reflects below grade-level content standards,
and thereby not learning what they need to succeed

4. Big Ideas in OSERS Memo
• The Department interprets “the same curriculum as for nondisabled
children” to be the curriculum that is based on a State’s academic content
standards for the grade in which a child is enrolled.
• the IEP Team must consider how a child’s specific disability impacts his or
her ability to advance appropriately
• EP Team may consider the special education instruction that has been provided to
the child, the child’s previous rate of academic growth, and whether the child is
on track to achieve grade-level proficiency within the year.

5. Required Elements:
OSERS IEP Memo
• Share responsibility for all educators serving SWDs
• IEPs must be aligned with state-approved, grade level
standards
• “the same curriculum” means the curriculum that is
based on a State’s academic content standards for the
grade in which a child is enrolled
• The IEP team must consider HOW the disability
impacts the student’s ability to advance
• IEP team must document the child’s previous rate of
growth, estimate the rate necessary to attain state
approved-grade level standards and provide SDI to
support that rate.

6. Standards-based
Instruction Model
6
Florida Department of Education Bureau of Curriculum and Instruction (www.fldoe.org/bii)
Standard or Benchmark
Aligned to Course Description
• Guides the development of the
lesson beginning with the desired
outcome
Learning Goals
• Describes what students should
know and be able to do
• Includes essential questions and
• Rubrics to define levels of knowledge
acquisition
Engaging Lesson
• Includes appropriate and meaningful
activities that engage students in the
learning process, address common
misconceptions, and incorporate
higher-order thinking skills
Formative, Interim, and/or
Summative Assessments
• Provides multiple sources of student
data to guide decisions about
adjusting instruction and/or
providing interventions

7. Implications
• New information is required for the IEP process.
• Likely process:
– 1. Identify the standard to be attained (the one that the
child is struggling with)
– 2. Unpack the standard(s)—KUD
– 3. Identify specific access skills necessary for the KUD
– 4. Identify the access skills that the student lacks for the
KUD
– 5. Prioritize those skills on the IEP
– 6. Identify strategies/resources (e.g., UDL) necessary to
enable the student to access the content/knowledge in the
standard by accommodating forthe skill deficits-equity in
access
– 7. Identify Academic Behaviors/Student Engagement Skills
– 8. Identify appropriate data to measure progress toward
the standard, not just the skills.