Many schools have traditionally limited their special education evaluations to brief observations, informal measures, rating forms, and norm-referenced tests. These are tests that compare the student to large groups of students but offer incomplete and superficial glimpses of what the student knows and can successfully do.

For students with mild-to-moderate difficulties, such as struggling learners with learning disabilities, they often dismiss or quickly wink at instructionally-relevant questions that influence academics, communication, and social, emotional and physical functioning. This is a major mistake.

It ignores the facts that schools are about instruction and helping struggling learners succeed in life. To meaningfully help them requires that their teachers and staff know what’s most important for these learners to master, how to effectively remove barriers that block their learning, and how to build bridges that increase their odds for current and future success.

From the perspective of school personnel, winking often makes sense. For many evaluators, the term "learning disabilities" primarily conjures up serious academic and perhaps mild attentional and behavior problems.

Moreover, school personnel must often face strong time and administrative pressures, poor funding, inadequate support, and school norms that silently say “this [quick, boilerplate testing] is how things have always been done and will be done.” Thus, they rarely think they’ve neglected key areas and if they have, they strongly and often accurately believe they had no control over the omissions.

The Background

For some 40 years, I had been a reading and special education consultant to schools, families, and agencies. In these roles, I often evaluated struggling learners and their programs.

To personalize these evaluations so they comprehensively and precisely identified each struggling learner’s strengths, needs, and barriers to success, I usually created highly-personalized, instructionally-relevant questions to guide the evaluations.

Thus, for each struggling learner, many of the questions differed. Though my clinical and consultation practice has ended, the importance of asking questions that guide evaluations has not.

My procedure was straightforward. I typically developed the questions after observing the struggling learner in situations in which he (or she) typically achieved or didn’t achieve success. I then studied his records and individually interviewed the learner and his parents, teachers, aides, IEP Team members, and other involved parties.

This helped me focus the evaluation questions on what was most important for the evaluation to reveal. But why invest so much time and effort?

First, evaluating a struggling learner seeks answers to problems, barriers, and abilities that may well determine the course of his life. Second, without seeking answers to important questions that can identify his strengths, the active causes of his problems, and possible solutions, evaluations quickly become impersonalized boiler plate endeavors that produce little information of instructional value to his IEP or future.

Typically, boilerplate evaluations produce boilerplate IEPs and programs that fail to adequately consider the first word in the IEP’s acronym, Individualized. Finally, answers to critical instructionally-relevant questions add critical direction and emphasis to the struggling learner’s IEP, so the IEP and the learners day-to-day experiences form a cogent, meaningful, and coordinated whole.

An Example

Below is an example of instructionally-relevant questions for a hypothetical student, Jammer. Like all lists, some of Jammer’s questions overlap.

While perusing the list, ask yourself three questions:

1. Would developing an instructionally-relevant list like this for my child’s upcoming evaluation improve her program?

2. Should I ask her teachers and IEP Team members to suggest instructionally-relevant questions?

3. Once I develop the list, what should I do with it?

Conditions

Under what conditions is Jammer most attentive and properly focused? Under what conditions is Jammer least attentive and least properly focused? Under what conditions does Jammer get upset? Under what conditions does Jammer show enthusiasm while behaving appropriately?

What seating arrangements work well for Jammer? What seating arrangements work poorly for Jammer? What competencies does Jammer have in groups? What evokes a negative response from Jammer? What evokes a positive response from Jammer?

Under what conditions does Jammer play well with peers? Under what conditions does Jammer play poorly with peers?

Academics

What subjects hold great interest for Jammer? What subjects hold little interest for Jammer?

When working independently, what difficulties does Jammer have? When working independently, what strengths does Jammer have?

What is Jammer’s instructional level for oral reading (cold reading; 95-98 percent word recognition accuracy; 70-89 reading comprehension; fluent reading)? What is Jammer’s instructional level for silent reading (cold reading; 70-90 reading comprehension)? What is Jammer’s independent level for oral reading (cold reading; 99 percent word recognition accuracy; 90 percent reading comprehension; fluent reading)?

What phonic elements does Jammer apply reliably, correctly, and quickly when decoding unknown words? What phonic elements does Jammer struggle to apply reliably, correctly, and quickly when decoding unknown words? What phonic elements does Jammer need to master in the first marking period to decode unknown words reliably, correctly, and quickly?

What is Jammer’s instructional level for working on math concepts or problems (without help, 85 percent accuracy immediately after initial instruction). What is Jammer’s instructional level for writing sentences that readers can readily understand?

What is Jammer’s instructional level for writing short paragraphs that average readers can readily understand? What is Jammer’s independent level for writing lists that readers can readily understand? What is Jammer’s independent level for writing sentences that readers can readily understand?

What instructional strategies or methods have accelerated Jammer’s progress in reading, writing, and math? What instructional strategies or methods have tenuously accelerated Jammer’s progress in reading, writing, and math? What instructional strategies or methods have not accelerated Jammer’s progress in reading, writing, and math?

What are the five most important abilities for Jammer to master during the first marking period? What supports are needed to ensure that Jammer makes accelerated progress during the next three months of school?

Social

How well does Jammer play with his peers? What strengths does Jammer bring to playing with peers? What weaknesses does Jammer bring to playing with peers?

How well does Jammer establish and maintain friendships? What are Jammer’s strongest social abilities? What are Jammer’s weakest social abilities? How well does Jammer function in academic groups, such as cooperative learning groups? What difficulties does Jammer have in academic groups, such as cooperative learning groups?

Emotional and Interpersonal

What disturbs Jammer? If Jammer gets upset, what calms him? What stresses or frustrates Jammer? What makes him feel comfortable?

Motivation

Independent of subject, what types of activities does Jammer eagerly and appropriately engage in? Independent of subject, what types of activities does Jammer obviously dislike? Independent of subject, what types of activities does Jammer just endure?

What does Jammer find reinforcing? In other words, what motivates him? What kind of feedback (e.g., effort, persistence, correct use of learning strategy) does Jammer respond well to? What kind of feedback (e.g., effort, persistence, correct use of learning strategy) does Jammer respond poorly to?

What motivational strategies have worked exceptionally well with Jammer? What motivational strategies have worked marginally well with Jammer? What motivational strategies have worked poorly with Jammer?

Attention, Focus, and Willpower

How many minutes can Jammer focus on academics before he loses focus, interest, or both? Does the number of minutes Jammer can attend to academics vary with subject and activity? If so, please describe. How many minutes can Jammer sit before learning, behavior, or both start to wane?

What time of the day does Jammer attend, focus, and persevere best? What typically precedes this time and what typically occurs during this time? What time of the day does Jammer’s attention, focus, and perseverance wane? What typically precedes this time and what typically occurs during this time?

Daily, when does Jammer have an opportunity to eat in class? Daily, when does Jammer have an opportunity to engage in gross motor activities in class?

Skills of Daily Living

What skills does Jammer need to develop to succeed inside and outside of school, such as telling time on analog clock, digital watch, and smartphone?

How well does Jammer independently make phone calls? How well does Jammer use digital devices that are becoming central to life, such as calculators, smart phones, Siri, and Alexia (Amazon Echo)?

Missing, But Important

What have you learned about Jammer that’s important for developing an effective Free Appropriate Public Education (FAPE) for him, but is not covered in his records or in this questionnaire?

The Three Questions

Now that you’ve reviewed the list, here are my answers to the three questions.

1. Would developing an instructionally-relevant list like this for my child’s upcoming evaluation improve her program?

My answer: You know your child, so you need to answer question 1; I can’t. But I can quickly answer question 2.

2. Should I ask her teachers and IEP Team members to suggest instructionally-relevant questions?

My answer: Yes. One way to do this is to ask. Here’s a start. “What do you think it’s most important for Ellen to learn? … What barriers stand in her way? … In what situations is she most successful? … Least successful? … How might some aspects of her learning environment be changed to improve her learning? … Does she work best by herself, in pairs, in small groups? … Does she work best before or after snacks? … At what time of the day is she most attentive? …. Least attentive? … What schedule of subjects might improve Ellen’s energy, attention, self-discipline, motivation, and willpower?”

You can get or create additional questions by copying or revising some questions from my list, asking knowledgeable friends and family members, or reading books and articles in your areas of concern.

3. Once I develop the list, what should I do with it?

My answer: Dr. Gary Brannigan and I recommend a very simple procedure. Tell your case manager that you’re going to send her a set of questions that you want your child’s evaluation(s) to answer. After she gets them, you’d like to meet with her and the evaluators to discuss the questions.

Then, mail and email the questions to her, with a cover letter that includes a version of this: "“I formally request that my daughter’s (Ellen Bronchick) upcoming evaluation answer each of the enclosed or attached questions. Before my daughter is evaluated, I request a meeting to discuss the questions with the evaluators.”

The Odds

If you prepare and use a list of instructionally-relevant evaluation questions, will your child’s IEP and program substantially accelerate his progress?

The odds are very good, especially when such evaluations tend to offer strong justification for the placement, curriculum, resources, and services that struggling learners need to thrive in school.

Keep in mind that your child’s evaluation is but one part of an ongoing process. His odds of success again increase if his teachers, aides, and other involved staff get the resources, training, consultation, and administrative support they need to effectively plan and implement your child’s program.

Good luck.