March 24 Summary of Performance
Summary of Performance
It is hard to believe but we are at that time of the year again. We are preparing for our seniors to graduate and move on to the next phase of their lives. One of the last things we need to do for those seniors with a disability is their Summary of Performance (SOP). Sometimes we may forget about this task but remember it is a required component of transition planning. As you will the Operating Standards, on page 117 (5c), provide some details about what should be included for those students who are exiting by graduation and not by the determination of an evaluation. More than being a requirement, the summary of performance is a great way to allow the students to showcase the self-determination skills they built over time.
Ohio Optional Form - This form may look a little different than the one that is in Samegoal but it is Ohio's optional form for the Summary of Performance. Since it is an optional form, you can use any different form as long as it follows the format. As you can see the first 3 questions are us, the professionals, discussing the students' academic and transition goals along with the progress they made. We also can provide some input as to recommendations for the student to use in the future. The last question is maybe the most impactful. It captures the students' voices. You can see it asks them about the impact of their disability, what accommodations were most successful, what they need to reach their goals after high school, and if they have connected with any adult services. This last question is the goal of our transition plans; did we build these self-determination skills in our students so that they can answer these questions honestly? The resources below will help build these skills in our students so the summary performance becomes more than just a sheet of paper but a skill set the students can take with them.
- One of the strategies we can use to build up the self-determination skills we mentioned earlier is for the student to lead their IEP meeting or at least a portion of it. There are many resources to help with student-led IEP's, this one comes from the Zarrow Center at the University of Oklahoma. This is a PowerPoint presentation on changing our IEPs from educator-directed to student-directed. Slide 4 gives us 7 quick things we can do to have students take more control over their IEP meeting. Slide 13 is very cool as it shows out of all the participants in an IEP meeting, the student knew the reason for the meeting the least. One more slide to call out is slide 30 which could be a checklist for us to make sure students take leadership at different parts of the meeting.
Zarrow Center- Putting it All Together- The Summary of Performance
- Below are 2 more resources from the Zarrow Center. The first is a presentation from one of their many lessons. This one focuses on student-directed transition planning with a specific focus on the summary of performance. The whole presentation is a great way to teach the students about the summary of performance and what is expected of them during this meeting. It will guide them to write a script that they can follow at their meeting. While this is focused on the summary of performance, this script can be something that is used at all of the student's IEP meetings. The second resource is simply a Word document template of the script mentioned in the presentation. This can be filled in by the student for them to follow during their meeting.