Do You Make These 3 Time-Wasting IEP Data Collection Mistakes?

Inside: Three of the most common data-collection mistakes and how to save time and have solid data to bring to your next meeting.

How often in your day working with students do you stop to think about data collection?

Likely, it isn’t nearly often enough.  

Now, I’m not saying you should ignore the many other important things in your day.  Such as teaching, lesson planning, and supporting the social and emotional needs of your students (among many other things). 

However, often we get wrapped up in the day-to-day practice of teaching and forget to take the time to evaluate the data we are collecting and how we are collecting it.

If you work with students identified as needing an Individualized Education Plan (IEP), you likely pay a bit more attention to data collection since you need to document progress toward IEP goals at least quarterly. 

But it still is easy to get caught up in the “I think” or “I feel” judgment towards progress.

Why is data so important?

In the educational system, we make decisions at a moment’s notice that will affect a student’s learning.

Not to put more pressure on you, but that is incredibly important.

It is our responsibility as educators to make sure these decisions are in the best interests of every student we come into contact with. We must ensure our lessons provide the content students need at a level they are ready to process.

If we plan lessons without data on where our students are functioning, we are likely missing many students and not providing them with instruction that matches their learning styles and ability.

From a social and emotional standpoint, we know every student comes to us from a different place. Perhaps more now than ever, students are coming into our classrooms from a wide variety of family and social backgrounds.

• Some of our students have never known what it is like to be hungry.

• Many have missed breakfast that very morning.

• A few may not have eaten at home in days.

And this is just one of the ways their experiences may be different.

If we have not collected data of some form regarding when these students perform the best academically, or if they struggle socially, we are missing key information and we could be setting these students up to be more overwhelmed with the school environment.

An overwhelmed student is unprepared to learn and will not retain what you are attempting to teach them.

And while teaching is the first thing on each of our minds, we also have responsibilities to be clear with parents and families when we talk about what we are teaching and how their students are performing.

When you are asked to share why you are teaching what you are teaching in your classroom, are you prepared to back it up?

Are you prepared to explain to your administration or the general public why you teach your content the way you do?

This is where data can make your day easier.

IEP Data Collection Mistake #1:

NOT Collecting Data

Before you start listing the many reasons you do not have time in your day to collect data- or you don’t even have time to run to the bathroom, let’s talk for a few minutes about how collecting data can save you time.  

Yes- SAVE you time!

Deciding What To Teach

When you are deciding what to teach in your classroom, there are likely many students who have a good grasp of what you are teaching.  And some are going to need extra support.  

Odds are these are not the same students needing the same support every lesson.  Some struggle with writing, some with reading, and some with long-term projects.  

When you collect data on where each student is functioning in regard to executive function, reading, and writing, you can anticipate where students are going to struggle and have support ready to go.  

Instead of spending time trying to remediate and re-teach lessons to students days and weeks later.  Time saved. 

Parent Conferences

When you are heading into parent-teaching conferences, and a parent asks how their child is doing with reading long text in your classroom because they seem to struggle with it at home, you have data ready to go showing how often the student is reading longer texts in class and how they are performing with this task.

This saves the time of trying to explain to the parent why you agree or disagree with their statement and have solid data to back it up.  This helps you and the parent work on a common direction for student progress.

IEP Meetings

And possibly the most time-saving of all… When you walk into an IEP meeting or a planning meeting with the administration and have data- you are ready to move forward.  

There is a famous quote by Jim Barksdale, former CEO of Netscape, that says “If we have data, let’s look at the data.  If all we have are opinions, let’s go with mine.”

If you are sitting in a meeting with other professionals discussing the best way to provide services, there are likely many opinions in the room.  When no one comes with concrete data, it becomes a long meeting with everyone’s opinions contradicting and vying for the opportunity to be ‘right.’  

When you walk into such a meeting with data, you eliminate most of that discussion because you have a way to back up why you feel the way you do.

If we have data, lets look at the data. If all we have are opinions, let’s go with mine. - Jim Barksdale

IEP Data Collection Mistake #2:

Collecting the WRONG Data

After reading everything above, you may think your day is set to become a never-ending hamster wheel of excel spreadsheets and tables.  

Never-fear! Data collection can be much simpler than you think.  

And it is important to focus on choosing which data is important to collect.

What Types of Data Should I Be Collecting?

Let’s take, for example, a student that blurts out in class. 

You are putting into place a new incentive program for the student that if they decrease blurts; they get extra recess time.  

Without data, this becomes a Let’s take, for example, a student that blurts out in class.  You are putting into place a new incentive program for the student that if they decrease blurts; they get extra recess time.  

Without data, this becomes a judgment of the teacher.  Depending on the teacher’s tolerance level that day, the student’s blurting may seem drastically increased or decreased without changing at all!  

Think about it.  If you come into your classroom after a stressful morning where you ran late, you likely have less tolerance for blurting than you would on a ‘normal’ day.  

In this instance, a simple way to collect data is to start the class with a large handful of paper clips in one pocket.  

Every time the student blurts, simply move one to the other pocket. At the end of the period, count the number you moved.  

Repeat this process every day, every other day, or even weekly to track if the student is making progress toward this goal. 

Other simple ways to collect data include

• tally marks on a sticky note

• moving sticky notes on your desk

• a counting app that allows you to tap each time something happens

• moving rubber bands from one wrist to the other.

More complex data may require additional tracking.  

This is where options like Google Forms can come in handy.  Creating a simple form allows you to simply click checkboxes to submit the information that is compiled into pretty graphs ready for you to take with you to your next meeting!