In this episode of Stress-Free IEP, host Frances Shefter digs into one of the most important (and most misunderstood) parts of special education: data collection—what it should look like, why it often falls apart in real life, and how families can protect themselves when “making sufficient progress” shows up on paper without proof.

Her guest is Joanna Kidder, founder of Kidder Educational Consulting, a longtime educator who has worked across general education, self-contained settings, and special education case management—and now supports families through tutoring and special education consulting.

Why IEP Data Is Always Mentioned… and Still So Often Missing

Frances starts by naming what a lot of parents eventually realize the hard way: schools love to talk about data in IEP meetings, but when it’s time to produce it—checklists, trial sheets, raw logs, spreadsheets—things get vague.

Joanna agrees and explains the problem isn’t usually that no one cares. It’s that teams often write goals with technical measurement language (percentages, trials, “three consecutive data collections,” etc.) without defining the real-life process:

What exactly counts as a “trial”?
Who is collecting it?
Where is it stored?
What does the teacher do in the moment—during instruction—so data actually gets captured?

That missing “what it looks like in practice” is where IEP progress reporting gets shaky.

“Sufficient Progress” Without Receipts Isn’t Progress

Frances shares a familiar scenario: parents ask, “Where are the progress reports? Where’s the data?” And schools point back to the IEP itself—sometimes even in litigation—without showing the underlying proof.

Joanna pushes the point further: progress reports can become a labeling exercise instead of an evidence-based update. If a teacher uses one test or one assignment to claim progress, that’s not the standard teams say they’re using.

And Frances adds the uncomfortable truth: it can feel like numbers were “made up.” Not because teachers are out to deceive families—but because many are overloaded, collecting data inconsistently, and forced to generate quarterly summaries anyway.

The Best IEP Teams Do This One Thing: Build the Data Plan at the Table

Joanna lays out what successful teams do differently: they don’t just debate goal wording—they build a shared, usable system.

What that collaboration sounds like

Instead of fighting over the goal language alone, the team discusses:

What will happen in the classroom to measure the goal
How data will be tracked (format + frequency)
Where it will live (binder, clipboard, spreadsheet, folder)
When parents can request it and how quickly it will be provided

This matters because it eliminates “gotcha” dynamics later. If everyone agrees on the method up front, families aren’t stuck trying to reverse-engineer how the school arrived at a progress statement.

General Ed vs Special Ed: The Middle School Problem Nobody Talks About

Joanna highlights a major issue that shows up more in older grades: the people responsible for reporting progress often aren’t the people delivering instruction in that skill area.

In middle school especially:

A special education case manager may never step into the math classroom
General education teachers may report “no progress” because IEP goals don’t match grade-level curriculum
Data becomes inconsistent because it’s collected by multiple adults with different expectations

The result? Progress reporting becomes messy and sometimes meaningless—unless the team defines the process clearly and consistently.

Parents: You’re Allowed to Collect Your Own Data

Frances offers a practical strategy she regularly recommends: keep your own records, especially for behavior.

She suggests something simple and defensible:

date/time
who contacted you
what happened
what the school said the response was

If the IEP says behavior is improving, but the parent’s log shows increasing calls home, that’s real-world data that can challenge a rosy narrative.

Data Collection Doesn’t Have to Be Fancy to Be Valid

One of the most useful takeaways from Joanna is that teachers often avoid data collection because they think it requires technology, perfect forms, or a complicated system.

Her favorite example is as low-tech as it gets: a masking tape “bracelet”.

The bracelet method

She describes using thick masking tape on her wrist, writing time intervals around it, and making quick tally marks during instruction—without stopping teaching. Later, that tally can be transferred into a spreadsheet.

Her message is blunt: data doesn’t need to be beautiful at the start. It needs to be captured consistently.

This is the kind of practical approach teams should be discussing when they write data-heavy goals.

Progress Isn’t Linear—So Stop Judging It Like It Is

Joanna also explains why quarterly progress snapshots can be misleading. Kids (and classrooms) have rhythms:

beginning-of-year “honeymoon” (or chaos)
holiday disruptions
winter slump
seasonal regression patterns tied to stress, trauma history, or environment

If no one tracks data consistently across time, the team ends up making judgments based on what’s freshest—often the last week or two.

And that creates the classic problem: a progress report that reflects memory, not measurement.

If You Can’t Explain the Data… You Don’t Have a Good Goal

This part of the conversation is a quiet gut-punch for anyone who has seen “word salad” goals.

Joanna shares an example where a goal required performance across “three consecutive days”… in a five-day school week… with weekends breaking the “consecutive” requirement. The team realized the goal sounded technical but wasn’t operational.

Their fix wasn’t just rewriting words. It was redefining what the team meant, like:

“three consecutive data collection opportunities” instead of “three consecutive days”

That shift turns a messy goal into something teachable and trackable.

Tutoring: Parents Need a Goal Before They Hire Anyone

Later, Frances shifts the conversation into tutoring—because families ask her for tutor referrals constantly.

Joanna’s advice is clear: before you hire a tutor, decide what tutoring is for.

Two very different tutoring goals

Homework help / reducing home stress
This can be totally valid—especially if the parent-child dynamic around homework is wrecking evenings.
Closing skill gaps / remediation
This requires a tutor who uses evidence-based methods, knows how to assess starting points, and tracks progress with real data.

Joanna warns that many tutors default to “pull homework out and get it done,” which might keep grades afloat but won’t remediate underlying deficits.

What parents should ask tutors

She recommends questions like:

How do you determine where to start?
What data do you collect and how often?
How do you communicate progress to parents?
How do you know when it’s time to move on?

And Frances adds a reality-check: if someone claims they can tutor everything, that’s usually not the right person—especially when a child has significant needs.

Joanna’s practice, for example, emphasizes evidence-based literacy support (including Orton-Gillingham approaches), and she builds her team around qualified educators for those needs.

The Fit Matters—And Parents Should Re-Evaluate Fast

Both Frances and Joanna agree that tutoring should be reviewed early:

check in after a month
listen to the child
be willing to switch providers

Joanna points out something many parents forget: a tutor can be “great” and still not be the right match for this child, at this time.

And Frances adds an important flip-side: if tutoring is too fun and never uncomfortable, it’s worth asking whether the child is being meaningfully challenged. Growth usually includes some struggle.

Where to Learn More

Joanna Kidder can be found at Kidder Educational Consulting.

https://www.kiddereducation.com/

And for more episodes and resources from Frances Shefter and Shefter Law, you can start at the Stress-Free IEP hub.

Stress-Free IEP®

The Bottom Line

This episode lands on a simple truth: IEP services live or die by data—not the kind that sounds official in a meeting, but the kind that can be shown, explained, and understood.

If a school says a child is making progress, families deserve to know:

what was measured
how it was measured
where it was recorded
and what the trend shows over time

Because when data collection is transparent and realistic, everybody wins—especially the child. If you need our help, click here and book a Free Case Analysis.

EP 133 | What Schools Should Be Measuring: IEP Data, Tutoring, and Support with Joanna Kidder