Teacher Perspectives on the Impact of Standards and Professional Development on Individualized Education Programs

Students served through special education under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) is to be provided an Individualized Education Program (IEP) that is an articulation of the student's individual program of educational and related services and instructional focus for the school year. In a standards-based educational environment, Individualized Education Program (IEP) teams sometimes struggle with providing meaningful access to the general curriculum and effective individualized education for students with disabilities. Special education teachers' perspectives on how the content of IEPs is affected by challenging academic content standards vary widely and are influenced by local policies and preferences for IEP construction. School leaders can improve processes for--and implementation of--standards-based IEPs through several strategies, including professional development opportunities and increasing communication opportunities among educators. Use of a web-based decision-making tutorial, such as the one created and implemented within the current IEP Quality Project (IEP-Q) study, can help IEP teams prioritize instruction within challenging academic content standards as they prepare IEPs.