How does learning differ between children with and without IEPs?
As part of the strategic planning process, Sun Valley Head Start (SV Head Start) conducted an internal review of their school-readiness data. As a result, they identified a significant gap between the typically developing children and the children with special education needs in their program. The data set used to determine the achievement gap was the difference in growth percentages of typically developing children and those with special education needs receiving their services at SV Head Start, utilizing the Teaching Strategies GOLD Growth (Birth Through Third Grade) Report.
To ensure the right data set was isolated from the other school-readiness goals data, the SV Head Start Director worked with the Education Coordinator to garner two sets of growth data from their digital ongoing progress monitoring tool: at the program level and at the site level. To generate the report, you need two checkpoint periods, so the review team used data from the previous program year. In addition to the Grantee Director and Education Coordinator, the review team included the Disabilities Manager, the ERSEA Coordinator, the Mental Health Coordinator, and the Families Outreach Specialist.
ANALYSIS
SV Head Start generated a report on all learning domains for all children at all sites. They created an Excel chart to show the growth in learning across their entire program over three years according to data in the Teaching Strategies GOLD Growth (Birth Through Third Grade) Report.
Then, they broke this down to look at just one site, Desert Mesa. In particular, the review team looked for similarities and differences between two sub-groups of children: those with IEPs (Fig 1) and those without (Fig 2).
Figure 1
Figure 2
They also created a graph to show the difference in growth percentages of typically developing children and those with special education needs receiving their services at the Desert Mesa site.
RESULT
Based on their analysis, the SV Head Start data review team had three conclusions:
This site-level analysis should be completed at all other sites so there can be a comprehensive view of the program.
The achievement gap between children with special education needs and their typically developing peers is decreasing in all but two learning domains. The two domains where there was an increase in the gap are Mathematics and Social-Emotional.
The data needs to be explored further to understand the cause of the variation and to best meet the needs of children with IEPs.
ADDITIONAL DETAILS
AUDIENCE: Leadership, management, direct staff, board/policy council
LEVEL OF ANALYSIS: Grantee, center, sub-group
DIFFICULTY: Moderate
CONTENT AREA: Child development, children with disabilities
DATA SOURCES: ChildPlus, Microsoft Excel
ALTERNATE AUDIENCE GUIDANCE: Head Start State Collaboration Office, State Head Start Association, IDEA Part C Early Intervention Lead Agency, IDEA Part B, Section 619 Lead Agency
TECHNICAL APPENDIX
Step 1. Review of program level data.
The review team generated a report on all learning domains for all children at all sites. A bar chart was created in Excel to show the growth percentage for each site as determined by the “Average/Actual Amount of Growth” data in the Teaching Strategies GOLD Growth (Birth Through Third Grade) Report.
Step 2. Review of site level data.
At the site level, the review team generated a report on all learning domains for all children in all classrooms. The review team looked for similarities and differences between two sub-groups of children: those with IEPs (Fig 1) and those without (Fig 2).
Step 3. Determine the difference in growth percentages.
The review team generated a line chart of the difference in growth percentages between children with special needs and typically-developing children at the Desert Mesa site.
CONTACT
Nicol Russell - Nicol.r@teachingstrategies.com