Katherine:
Students in special education are required to have a re-evaluation every
3 years. The IEP team can decide that an informal re-evaluation is
appropriate, which is hopefully why she has not had a formal
re-evaluation in 5 years. You can request an evaluation at any time, as
one of your rights as a parent of a student in SPED. I would make the
request in writing and include your concerns about your daughter’s lack
of progress. It is best practice for elementary students to have a
second formal evaluation to monitor all of the academic and cognitive
processes listed previously.
 
on her last IQ assessment, when she was six, my daughter scored below
average.  
 
More than ½ of students with a speech/language disability also have a
reading disability. Her IQ score might be depressed due to her
speech/language deficit. Most IQ tests load heavily on verbal skills.
Ask for a test that yields a nonverbal intelligence score (UNIT,
Wechsler Nonverbal, KABC-II, etc.) in addition to the cognitive
processing information. 
 
Over the summer, my daughter attended summer school and received
additional instructional hours when summer school ended.  Yet, she is
still scoring 2nd grade in fluency, 3rd in comprehension. 
 
Don’t sweat the fluency score so much. At this point the most important
thing is to greatly increase her word reading accuracy and
comprehension. Fluency is very difficult to remediate in older students.
I like the Test of Word Reading Efficiency (TOWRE), as it yields a
standard score for how many words a student can read in 45 seconds. What
it measures, in my opinion, is how many words your daughter can
recognize automatically on sight without effortful decoding. Functional
reading requires a certain size body of words that are recognized
automatically, and they only become automatic words after having been
correctly decoded many times (in a relatively close time period). 
 
Both the LD and regular ed teachers work with her on breaking words
apart to increase fluency, but she just doesn't seem to get it.  For
example, last night, when she was working on her word study, she was
trying to sound out the word "gaze."  She kept putting an "l" in the
word. I tried covering the first part of the word, having her just say
"aze", having her spell the word for me...she just kept saying "glaze."
This is just one example, of course.  She just can't seem to decode.
 
She should have different goals for the different aspects of her
reading. She needs decoding/phonics goals (When presented with a list of
CVC words, student can decode 50 CVC words correctly in 1 minute, with
90% accuracy). She also needs vocabulary goals, comprehension goals,
writing goals, and spelling goals. Different instructional activities
support these different goals. Most of all the goals need to be clearly
measurable – so that at the end of the year you are not left to deduce
whether or not she is making adequate progress. Clearly written academic
goals should be like athletic goals. Today I ran a mile in 10 minutes,
at the end of the year I want to be able to run that mile in 7 minutes.
When I run at the end of the year it is completely transparent if I met
my goal or not. Most academic goals are written in a way that makes this
type of direct observation of progress difficult. Ask for better goals.
At the end of the year she should be closer to her peers, not further
away.
 
My daughter receives 300 minutes per week of pull-out language arts
instruction. 
 
This is not enough time. That is 60 minutes per day, 5 days per week. Is
this in addition to other instruction? She needs a minimum of 90
minutes/day language arts instruction. Dyslexic students need much more
instruction and practice than other students. 
 
For example, last night, when she was working on her word study, she was
trying to sound out the word "gaze."  She kept putting an "l" in the
word. I tried covering the first part of the word, having her just say
"aze", having her spell the word for me...she just kept saying "glaze." 
 
At home you should be working with leveled materials that are at her
instructional level. That means she can read 90% correctly without
assistance. Ensure that the materials you are working with are properly
leveled. Repeated reading is an instructional activity that is better
suited to home implementation. Download this fluency manual from UT
Austin. It is great.
http://www.meadowscenter.org/vgc/materials/primary_fluency.asp
Also download this manual, as it has exactly the information you need
http://www.meadowscenter.org/vgc/materials/primary_dyslexia.asp
You can’t help your daughter unless you self-educate yourself.
 
Are you knowledgeable about the structure of English (open and closed
syllables and the such?) If not, you need to get up to speed on that. Go
to American Educator Magazine and read this entire issue (really)
Spring/summer 1998
http://www.aft.org/pubs-reports/american_educator/issues/spring-summer98
/index.htm 
Especially read the article by Louisa Moats about teaching decoding.
http://www.aft.org/pubs-reports/american_educator/spring_sum98/moats.pdf
 
Thanks- and you must try extremely hard right now if you want to get
ahead of this. If you pull out all the stops now, you will get your
daughter to a level that will enable her to succeed at school. The
schools will likely never be able to supply the intensity needed, so it
is up to you.
 
 
Brant Hayenga
Educational Diagnostician 
Stapleton Elementary/Rio Rancho Middle School
(505) 896-0667 ext. 226 (District Office)
(505) 891-8473 ext. 519 (Stapleton Elementary)
bhayenga at rrps.net
 
 
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