I think your son's request for a hard copy of his grades is more than reasonable, and I'd request to reconvene the IEP to put it on his IEP.

I'm no expert in interpreting scores, but I'm certain others more qualified than me will chime in to help you on that. Meanwhile this may help answer some of your questions along with provide you some great info for your battle:

Tests and Measurements for the Parent, Teacher,Advocate & Attorney by Peter W. D. Wright, Esq. and Pamela Darr Wright, M.A., M.S.W.
www.wrightslaw.com/advoc/articles/tests_measurements.html

Passing Grades, IQ Scores & Evaluations of Students with Learning Disabilities: / Letter to Lillie/Felton
wrightslaw.com/info/elig.sld.osep.felton.htm

What every parent/advocate needs to know!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
community.greatschools.net/groups/11554/discussion/284241

I have an IEP meeting today in 5 hours. All the info received has been most helpful and I feel more prepared than before, but, nervous because I don't know what to expect. Anyway...have one question and hope someone can answer - Can I tape the meeting or do I have to have consent by all and if so how many people must consent? Thanks!

Hope this helps!

www.wrightslaw.com/advoc/tips/palmer.meeting.tape.htm


That said, I usually give them a heads up about taping because they generally tape it themselves (and usually have their lawyer present too... so much money they have to waste!)

Thanks! They made a big stink about it. We didn't have in writing. They said if we taped then they would need to tape and they didn't have a recorder. How sad!!! We are planning on reconvening in 8 weeks and we will definitely advise them to have a recorder because we will and if they fail to bring it - we will need to reschedule. Pitiful.

FYI State & Federal Laws pertaining to recording (Audio, Video, other)is it legal or illegal in your state?
(this is an older thread so you may want to verify your state law has not changed)

schwablearningforumarchive.greatschools.net/thread/18845.html

Appreciate sharie001.

Don't reschedule if they can't find a recorder. You gave them notice. If you are feeling generous, you can offer to make them a copy of your tape--but you are not obliged to do so.

Buckaroo is right, if you are taping the IEP, they will likely bring counsel. That may not be a bad thing. . . their lawyer may tell them they need to do more to meet your child's needs.

Hi teachmom: A reassessment must be done ASAP. The assessment is outdated, and to make recommendations on an assessment when your son was 9 or so, amounts to the same thing as a doctor recommending treatment based on blood tests done 5 years ago. Furthermore, to safeguard your child when he enters post-secondary learning, to avail of special services, the child must have at least 3 assessments done during the K to grade 12 school years. Otherwise, the student or the parent will end up footing the bill of an assessment, and certainly will be a delay in post-secondary schooling and special services.
That said, the assessment of 2004 - do you have other tests that were done besides the WISC-IV. Tests such as WIAT-II or the Gray Oral Reading Test. Also within the WISC-IV and the WIAT-II, there is sub-test scores. For the WISC-IV there should be anywhere between 10 to 14 subtests. Can you post these scores for me. The low score for your son, is in perceptual reasoning index (PRI), PRI measures the nonverbal reasoning abilities. It is designed to measure fluid reasoning in the perceptual domain with tasks that assess nonverbal concept formation, visual perception and organization, simultaneous processing, visual-motor coordination, learning and the ability to separate figure and ground in visual stimuli. I know this is a mouthful, but it is important to understand because this is his major weakness, and it is affecting his higher global functions. This is pointed out by you with the barely passing comments.
This leads to the next problem the stated objectives and benchmarks. There is nothing wrong in stating them, but what should be added is how and what methods are going to be used. Is it one to one instruction? Is it a reading program? I think you are getting my drift.
Could you please post all other scores, so it can be determined if you son did receive a full psycho-educational assessment. Post the recommendations of the assessment, and what was determined to be the problem such as a special learning disability, dyslexia, or nonverbal disorder.
By the way, if these objectives were being met, his grades would have improve. I think, as they have done in my child's case basing improvement on grades using the measure of 50%. Since your son is passing, the school can say he is improving by using the 50 % mark. Like my child's school can say the very same thing to me, as it has been done since grade 1. But what is never address in my child's case, is that her weaknesses have never significantly improve based on her assessments, but her grades have significantly improved. My feelings are your son like my child, are using their compensatory skills. They are working around the weak areas, by using their strengths. My child learned to read, by memorizing her sight words but even to this day, lots of difficulty in breaking down the phonemic sound of words that she has never seen. So she uses strategies of memorizing the words. This only works effectively until the reading material becomes difficult, when there is a lot more vocabulary to memorized.
I have often found from what I have read, and observe that schools will always take the easy route by using accommodations and taking advantage of the cognitive strengths of children, who struggle in learning, by ignoring the weaknesses and in so doing avoid the cost and time of remediating the weaknesses.

therose...so sorry I missed your post! I don't have his IEP with me, but the scores I posted are all that is listed on it...should there be more??? It makes sense when you said that older tests results are equivalent to a doctor using lab results from 5 years ago...I hate that it never crossed my mind before this...but as I was reading through his test results which meant nothing to me, I noticed WHEN they were done and realized there has been a lot of time gone by since then...I will see if I have any other results...thanks so much for your knowledgable input...

To jlmw62: Google under, psycho-educational assessment, and you should find everything you wanted to know about what tests are generally part of this type of assessment. The Wrightslaw site also has much info on this matter. Also make contact with a private concern, that does testing. They would let you know, what they do. In your own state, should also be providing this information for parents. I believe that the federal education site, also provides this information. I would be concern, if only a IQ test was done. The school making a conclusion based on only the IQ test, should raise questions by most parents who have children going to the school. It should also raise questions regarding, the amount of valuable time that has been wasted, when your child should have been receiving the help that is needed.
If you find out anything more, let me know.

So sorry your question was just noticed, but I strongly recommend that you have your child assesed every 3 years, it is required by law in most states. I would also highly recommend that if at all possible you have the assessment conducted by a highly reputable, private/independent psychologist with at PHD. Contact your local universities for recommendations, and if finances are an issue ask if they have a sliding scale fee! It is well worth the investment to really diagnose the learning issues and determine exactly what learning style is and the recommended teaching strategies. Public school districts are loothe to tell you much for fear they cannot really provide the best intervention. Good luck

Therose and retta...thanks for the input. I get so confused on what was done and when (since my son is in 8th grade and this all started with an IEP in 4th grade)...but no new testing is on the IEP (except for when I asked for him to be evaluated for dyscaculia and that was in 2006)....thanks again.