Special Education for Beginners | Managing Paraprofessionals, Special Education Strategies, First Year Sped Teachers, Special Ed Overwhelm, Paperwork for Special Education Teachers

Administer Achievement Tests with Success: Part 3-Sharing Results with Confidence

• Episode 190

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In the final part of our three-part series on administering achievement tests, we’re focusing on how to present results confidently in IEP meetings. Sharing test results can feel intimidating, but with the right strategies, you can turn these meetings into meaningful, collaborative discussions.

In this episode, you’ll learn:

  • How to present your report as a conversation rather than simply reading the data.
  • The importance of using parent-friendly language and providing clear, actionable explanations.
  • How to engage parents and team members by inviting collaboration and answering questions effectively.
  • Strategies to stay calm and professional, even in high-pressure or emotional meetings.

Plus, I’ll introduce you to a free tool that will make explaining percentiles a breeze for parents and help you feel more confident during the discussion.

Key Takeaways:

  • Confidence is calming for parents and helps build trust and collaboration within the IEP team.
  • Approach the meeting with preparation, clarity, and a focus on the student’s success.
  • Use visuals like the Understanding Percentiles Chart to make scores easy for parents to understand.
  • Always frame results as a conversation, inviting input and feedback from parents and the team.

Free Resource:
Make your IEP meetings smoother with a Free Copy of Understanding Percentiles Chart—a visual tool designed to help parents grasp percentile ranks and scores easily. Download your copy at www.spedprepacademy.com/percentilechart.

Next Steps:
If you enjoyed this series, don’t forget to share it with a colleague and leave a review to help others discover the show. Thank you for being part of this journey, and I’ll see you next time as we continue to support, learn, and grow together!

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Speaker 1:

Hey everyone, welcome back to Special Education for Beginners. I am so glad you are here as we wrap up this three-part series on administering achievement tests. Today we are tackling what many say is the most nerve-wracking step presenting the test results in IEP meetings. If you've been following along, we started this series by focusing on how to set up and administer achievement tests professionally, ensuring reliability and validity. Then last week, we covered how to write comprehensive professional reports that summarize the data clearly and effectively. If you missed either of those episodes, I strongly encourage you to go back and catch up. They set the foundation for everything we are going to cover today.

Speaker 1:

Today's episode is taking all of the work you've done from testing, analyzing and writing and sharing those results with the IEP team in a way that creates understanding, builds trust and fosters meaningful collaboration. I will be sharing strategies to help you present your report with confidence, even in high-pressure meetings, answer parent questions in a way that is clear and reassuring, and how to explain scores and data in plain, parent-friendly language that everyone at the table can understand. Plus, I will introduce you to a visual resource that will make explaining percentiles a breeze and will be a hit with the parents, whether you are a brand new special education teacher or a seasoned teacher looking to refine your approach, this episode is packed with actionable tips to help you shine in your next IEP meeting. Let's dive in. Hey, special educator, are you overwhelmed by the absurd amount of paperwork on your to-do list? Do you wish you had the skills to build a rock-solid team with your staff? Do you find yourself scouring the internet for how to meet the needs of each student on your caseload? Well, hey, there.

Speaker 1:

I'm Jennifer Hopperberg, an award-winning veteran special education teacher and current instructional coach, who has walked in your shoes through each of these challenges and, yes, I have the metaphorical blisters to prove it. I have cried your tears and felt your pain, and now I'm here to support you in the way I wish someone would have been there to support me. Listen in each week as my guests and I dish out practical wisdom to help you handle all the classroom curveballs that are thrown at you and learn how to laugh in spite of the chaos, to celebrate those small yet significant victories that only a special educator can understand. So are you ready? Wipe your tears and put on your superhero cape, because together we are going to learn how to survive and thrive in the ever crazy, completely overwhelming laugh, so you don't cry profession of being a special education teacher.

Speaker 1:

Okay, so we've tested the student, we've written a dang good report and now it's time for the nerve-wracking part sharing all of that information with the team without sounding like you have no idea what you're doing. I mean, come on, we have most all likely been there at some point and maybe it's happened to you personally, or maybe you've been in a meeting where it's happened to someone else. But you know what I'm talking about. You lose your place on the page. You're reading directly from the report like a robot, or worse, you start rambling and word vomiting all over the place because you're nervous, or it could be the awkward silence when someone asks a question and you're scrambling to find the answer or process the question to give a professionally sounding answer. Well, the good news is it doesn't have to be that way. With the right preparation and strategies, you can walk into that meeting with confidence, share your findings clearly and come across as the expert you are.

Speaker 1:

So the first thing I want to talk about is confidence. Why does confidence matter so much? Well, parents and team members look to you as an expert, and when you present results clearly and confidently, it reassures them that the team is on the right track. For parents, confidence is calming, it puts them at ease and it helps them feel that their child is in good hands, even if those results are difficult to hear. Your ability to present those results thoughtfully and clearly shows that you're committed to the child's success. Having a sense of confidence means you are prepared, you're organized and you're thoughtful in your delivery. When you approach the meeting with a sense of clarity and professionalism, you set a positive tone that encourages collaboration and trust. Remember, your confidence can help transform a potentially stressful conversation into a constructive and reassuring discussion, stressful conversation into a constructive and reassuring discussion. So what can you do to increase your confidence Other than just repetition of having hundreds of meetings over the years? Well, first you need to be prepared.

Speaker 1:

Preparation is key to a confident presentation. So before the meeting, I want you to know your data inside and out. Review that report, familiarize yourself with the scores and make sure you understand how the data connects to the student's strengths and their needs. I want you to anticipate some of the questions that parents might ask you. Think through potential questions and responses such as what does this score mean, or how does this impact the child's daily school experience, or what can we do to support my child in this area at home? And then I want you to decide which results are the most important to share and how you're going to explain them in plain language and we'll discuss plain language a little later on. And then another way to become more confident is to practice out loud. Preparation is important, but practicing how you'll actually deliver the information is just as crucial. Talking through key points of your report out loud can help you find the best way to explain scores and concepts in a natural conversational tone. I would even go as far as recording yourself presenting your key points and listening back. This allows you to evaluate your tone, your pacing and your clarity, and then you can adjust as needed so that you sound confident and professional. Okay, so let's talk about actually giving the testing report to the parents and to the team.

Speaker 1:

One of the biggest mistakes I see teachers make when presenting achievement test results is simply reading straight from the report, and I get it. You've worked hard to write a thorough, professional report and you want to make sure everything you are writing is communicated clearly, or you are nervous and you would feel more confident just reading the report clearly. Or you are nervous and you would feel more confident just reading the report. But here's the thing Reading word for word can feel robotic and impersonal, and it often leaves parents feeling disconnected or overwhelmed or kind of causes them to zone out, which is not good. So instead think of presenting the results as a conversation, not a monologue. Your role is to guide the discussion, help the team understand what the data means and create a space where parents feel comfortable asking questions and sharing insights about their child. Another mistake I see is using too many technical terms without explaining them in a way that parents can easily understand. As educators, we are so used to words like percentile ranks and standard deviations or composite scores, standard scores. Sometimes we forget that they aren't a part of most parents' everyday vocabulary. So throwing out too much jargon can make parents feel uneducated or lost or excluded from the conversation, and that's the last thing that we want. So instead, use parent-friendly language to break down complex terms into something relatable. All right, so we've talked about what you shouldn't do. Now I want to talk about what you should do.

Speaker 1:

Here are the steps to sharing the actual report with parents and the team. Step one is to start with the purpose of the testing and a summary of the text testing context that you wrote in your report. Begin by briefly explaining why the testing was conducted and what test was given. Was it a part of a three-year evaluation, an initial evaluation, a parent request? And then briefly share the testing conditions to give the team a snapshot of the environment and the students' engagement during the assessment. Include details like how cooperative they were, whether they wore their glasses, any funny things that they said during the testing, their activity level, etc. All of that information that you wrote into your report. You're now going to give it as a summary. So here's an example.

Speaker 1:

Sarah was given the Woodcock Johnson test of basic achievement as a part of her three year reevaluation. She was very cooperative through the testing session. She wore her glasses. She shared with me that PE and recess were her favorite subjects, but that reading was hard for her. Sarah appeared focused and then put in really good effort on each task. There were a few moments where she seemed distracted so we took a short break to help her refocus. Overall, I believe the results provide an accurate picture of her current skills. So you see, I just summarized the report. I didn't read it word for word. I try to make as much eye contact with the parent as I can during this time and sidebar here, even if the parent speaks a different language than you, direct your conversation to them and not to the interpreter. That's just something that I've been instructed to do over the years and that has helped me make better family connections.

Speaker 1:

All right, step two is where you're going to break down the results by domain. In your report. You wrote all of this out, but here is where you're going to transition into the core of the report by discussing results by key areas, such as reading, math and written language for the Woodcock-Johnson, for example. So for each area, it's important to share the students' strengths, first highlighting what they excel at, and then move into the areas of need, framing them in a way that focuses on opportunities for growth, and then always tie that data back to how it impacts the student's day-to-day performance in the classroom. This is also where I bring in visual aids, specifically the Understanding Percentiles chart, to help parents better grasp percentiles and scores. The percentile chart is the perfect addition to any meeting room because it provides a clear visual explanation of what the numbers mean in comparison to other students, and it does so in a very colorful, kind of easy way to understand for parents, and using visuals like this ensures that parents feel included in the conversation, even if they aren't familiar with testing terminology. It demystifies the data and helps the entire team stay on the same page Again, fostering that trust and understanding.

Speaker 1:

So here's an example of what I would say for the reading section specifically. I would say okay. So on reading, sarah had an overall reading score of a 70, which falls at the fourth percentile. As you can see on the chart, she falls in this yellow range and an average score would fall in these three green ranges. But Sarah did have a strength in the area of word attack, which means she knows the sounds of her letters and she's able to blend them together to create words. That score was an 85, and it falls in this first green area. So that was definitely a strength for her and something that we can build on. Her reading comprehension and her oral reading or her reading out loud were the subtests that brought her overall score down, which indicates she will need support in these areas and we can address those needs through targeted interventions and accommodations later on.

Speaker 1:

And then you're going to do the same thing for math and you're going to do the same thing for written language. If you're giving a test other than the Woodcock, like the YCAT or the Bracken or the Wyatt, there will be different domains, but the process is going to be the same. And then the last step is the conclusion. You're going to conclude your testing summary by providing an overall test score or a general summary of the child's performance. You will frame this as a big picture overview that ties together the details you've shared. So, for example, so when you put all of the test scores together, you get what we call a composite score or an overall score, and, based on test results and a comparison to other students the same age as Sarah, her overall broad achievement score was a 74, which falls at the fourth percentile, which means that she scored higher than 4% of students her age. Nationally, sarah demonstrated significant weaknesses in reading, comprehension and oral reading. She had average scores in math and she had very limited scores in written language.

Speaker 1:

Sarah will benefit from support in reading and written language, and accommodations for reading should be made in all areas of the curriculum, even math, in order for her to be successful in the general education classroom, then you're going to open the floor for questions and collaboration. This is a great time to engage parents and other team members, making them feel like they are active participants in the conversation. Ask open-ended questions to invite their input and encourage a collaborative discussion, for example. So I'd love to hear your thoughts. Do these results align with what you've been seeing at home from Sarah? Or you could ask are there any specific areas you would like us to prioritize as we create her plan? Is there anything in particular you would like us to prioritize as we create her plan? Is there anything in particular you would like us to discuss or clarify? And be an active listener during this time? Take notes on any feedback parents provide and if there's a question you can't immediately answer, reassure them that you'll follow up with that information later. So that's basically it.

Speaker 1:

Presenting testing information to parents and the team doesn't have to be hard or scary or stressful. By focusing on preparation, using parent-friendly language and treating the report as a conversation, you can create a positive and collaborative meeting environment. So let's recap Be confident, prepare and practice ahead of time. Present the report as a conversation, summarizing key findings, engaging with parents and asking open-ended questions. Make sure you are not reading the report word for word and that you are using parent-friendly language. Use visuals like the understanding percentiles chart, and invite collaboration. Create a space where parents feel heard and part of the decision-making process.

Speaker 1:

When you approach the report as a conversation, you are doing more than presenting data. You are building trust, relationships and a shared understanding that leads to meaningful support for the students. Remember, this isn't about impressing anyone with how much data you know. It's about helping everyone at the table see how the results can guide the student's success. So don't forget to grab the free Understanding Percentiles chart. You can get it at wwwspedprepacademycom slash percentile chart. That's spedprepacademycom slash percentile chart. All one word it's a simple yet powerful tool to make your IEP meetings smoother and more collaborative. Thank you so much for tuning into this series. If you found it helpful, I'd love for you to share it with a colleague or leave a review. It helps more people find the podcast and grow in their own practice. Until next time, I'll see you in a week.