The purpose of this article is to discuss major substantive errors that school personnel may make when developing students' Individualized Education Programs (IEPs). School IEP team members need to understand the importance of the procedural and substantive requirements of the IEP, have an awareness of the five serious substantive errors that IEP…

Individual plans for people with intellectual disabilities were evaluated for quality and effectiveness in improving quality of life. Quality was assessed by rating whether goals were relevant, observable, age appropriate, necessary, timetabled, developmental, measurable, realistic, assigned to staff and improving at least one of O'Brien's five…

This study compared two methods for evaluating ecological and developmental factors in Individualized Family Service Plans for families of young children with disabilities. The two methods were (1) goals and objectives written from a curriculum-based assessment, and (2) a computerized list of goals and objectives based on professional judgment.…

This paper presents an alternative approach to evuating Individually Guided Education (IGE) which should be prerequisite to the conduct of output evaluation. To this end, it introduces a specially designed instrument, the "IGE Implementation Survey," which is capable of systematically collecting information on the degree to which schools…

In recent years the many efforts to individualized instruction have been hampered by a lack of communication among professionals. The Descriptor for Individualized Instruction was developed to facilitate communication. It functions in several ways: 1) as a summary of a single program, 2) as a means of comparison between programs, 3) as a tool to…

This case study demonstrates the effective use of functional assessment, with a 13-year-old student with autism functioning at a level of severe retardation. The process involved identifying and defining target behaviors (clothes touching and tearing), gathering information, forming and verifying the hypothesis, and implementing an intervention.…

Intended for direct service special education personnel, the paper traces the origin of the Education for All Handicapped Children Act (P.L. 94-142); examines the legislation and litigation which preceded its enactment; discusses its funding mechanism; reviews its relationship to Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973; and looks at several…

This compilation of four annual newsletter issues on services for children with emotional disturbances presents reports of activities, meetings, services, and programs around the country as well as various feature articles. Activities funded under the Child and Adolescent Service System Program are highlighted. In the Winter 1988-89 issue, an…

This report provides a description of the conceptualization and methods required to perform a cost effectiveness analysis in the field of instructional technology. The case study discussed involves a cost effectiveness comparison of four alternative systems for delivering continuing education instruction in management to several geographically…

A model for evaluating the extent to which instruction is individualized is described. The model is based on a conceptualization of individualization which focuses on observable teacher behavior resulting in the manipulation of classroom environmental and instructional variables to meet the needs of individual learners. For evaluation purposes…

Designed to assist state and local educational agencies and intermeidate educational units in developing administrative policies for the vocational education of handicapped students, the manual address present policy areas and administrative concerns. Guidelines are presented for policy development in the following nine areas (examples of…

This paper is one of a group that describes the research methodology for an evaluation of individually guided education (IGE) in American elementary schools. The paper covers the first phase activities from solicitation of participants (April 1977) through preparation of final data tapes for the structural equations analysis (September 1978).…

The practicum was designed to develop, implement, monitor, and evaluate a management system for developing and monitoring individual education plans (IEPs) for handicapped children as mandated by P.L. 94-142, the Education for All Handicapped Children Act. The products included an expectancy formula for educable mentally retarded (EMR) and…

Guidelines for the implementation of individualized education programs (IEPs) for handicapped children are provided. An introductory section details the mandates of Public Law 94-142 (the Education for All Handicapped Children Act) and defines the components of the IEP and a list of eight exceptionalities (with characteristics of each). Section 2…