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Monday, February 17, 2014

Educator Evaluation for SLPs: Student Learning and Professional Practice Goals

Background for graphics provided by: Cutesy Clickables by Collaboration Cuties
I’ve done a few posts now where I’ve mentioned my student learning goal and professional practice goals for the Educator Evaluation that many districts have adopted. A decent number of people have asked me to share some information regarding my SLG and PPG. Last year was the first year my district used this evaluation method. In effort to stagger plans, some of us were to develop 1-year plans and others developed 2-year plans. I was on the one-year plan. This is good for you because I’ve now had to write TWO plans!

If you’re new to my page, I just want you to be aware that the majority of my caseload consists of preschool students. Because of that, you might not choose to work on the same goals, but they should give you an idea for your own goals!


For the 2012-2013 school year, I had a number of preschool students who had significantly reduced Mean Length of Utterance (MLU).  I decided to select a cohort of students who had an MLU of less than or equal to 2.0 for my SLG.  I'm not sure if other districts have the same type of plan, but we are required to submit our SLG and PLG for approval, then create a plan that includes action steps. This is a basic outline of that plan. The "due dates" of the steps are included in parenthesis.

Student Learning Goal:

By June 2013, 80% of an identified cohort of students with a BOY Mean Length of Utterance in Morphemes (MLU-M) of less than or equal to 2.0 will increase their MLU-M to 3.5 or greater as measured by language sampling.

Action Steps:

1. Obtain language samples and calculate BOY MLU (By 9/30/12). 
     *BOY = Beginning Of Year

2. Identify cohort of students with MLU of less than or equal to 2.0 (By 10/30/12)

3. Implement activities to target the following morphological structures/sentence types:
a. Plural -s (by 12/31/12 )
b. Subject-Verb (by 1/31/13)
c. Subject-Verb-Object  (by 3/31/13)
d.Prepositional Phrases (by 5/31/13)
4. To demonstrate effectiveness, by Progress Reporting Period 2 (March 2013), 80% of students in the cohort should see an increase in MLU to 2.75 or greater. 

5. For each student in the established cohort, I will provide home activities for parents to complete to facilitate carry-over of skills at least 4x/student during the 2012-2013 school year.
*2 activities sent by 2/28/13
*1 activity sent by 4/30/13
*1 activity sent by 6/20/13

Professional Practice Goal:

I will increase my content knowledge of Evidence Based Practice in the area of increasing MLU in preschool students by researching methods and establishing 4 different activities based on those methods by June 2013.

Action Steps:

1. Research evidence-based instructional strategies that target increasing MLU in preschool-aged students. Identify a minimum of two instructional strategies for use in therapy.
*By 12/31/12, search the American Speech-Language Hearing Association’s online database for articles related to preschool MLU.
*By 2/28/13, compile binder of resources for increasing preschool MLU containing at least 5 articles from journals or websites.
2. Develop/create activities to target the following morphological structures/sentence types:
a. Plural -s (by 12/31/12)
b. Subject-Verb (by 1/31/13)
c. Subject-Verb-Object (3/31/13)
d. Prepositional Phrases (5/31/13)
3. Research/trial at least 5 different iPad applications that are designed to (or can be adapted to) target morphology/sentence structure using the FIVES criteria.
*2 apps by 2/28/13
*2 apps by 4/30/13
*1 app by 5/31/13
I did share some of the activities I created for this project in previous posts. You can find them below.


I'm on a 2-year plan now, so my timelines will look a little bit different.  However, my caseload does change every year, so I wanted to reflect that!  For this go-around, I chose a cohort of students on an IEP for language delays/disorders (e.g., NOT articulation).  I also selected students in the 4-year old program that will be going to kindergarten in the next school year.

Student Learning Goal:

By the end of each academic year, 75% of students in an identified cohort (language delayed/disordered students in the 4-year old preschool program) will demonstrate an increase in vocabulary and describing skills (using the Expanding Expression Tool) to be able to state 5 or more attributes/features of 6 pictured objects.

Action Steps:
1. Identify cohort of students. (By 11/27/13) 
*We had a late start getting our plans in this year!

2. Obtain baseline data through the informal assessment (students will name and identify characteristics of 6 familiar objects presented in pictures) (By 11/27/13 )

3. Become familiar with the Expanding Expression Tool by reviewing manual (Ongoing)

4. Implement activities to target the individual beads on the EET strand:
a. Green (by 12/31/13)
b. Blue (by 1/31/14)
c. Eye  (by 3/31/14)
d. Wood (6/20/14)
e. Pink (1/31/15)
f. White (6/20/15)
5. To demonstrate effectiveness, by Progress Reporting Period 3 (June 2014), 75% of students in the cohort should be able to state 3 or more attributes/features of 6 pictured objects.
*Obtain informal assessments 4x/year (BOY, Progress Report 1, Progress Report 2, EOY).

Professional Practice Goal:

I will increase my content knowledge of Evidence Based Practice in the area of vocabulary skills in preschool students by researching developmental norms and the Expanding Expression Tool (EET), as well as creating/finding and implementing 6 different activities related to the beads on the EET strand by June 2015.

Action Steps:

1. Research evidence-based instructional strategies that target vocabulary development in preschool-aged students, including the Expanding Expression Tool.
*By 12/31/13, search the American Speech-Language Hearing Association’s online database for articles related to preschool vocabulary development.
*By 6/19/14, compile binder of resources for increasing preschool vocabulary containing at least 5 articles from journals or websites.
2. Develop/identify activities to target the individual beads on the EET strand:
a. Green (by by 12/31/13)
b. Blue (by 1/31/14)
c. Eye (by 3/31/14)
d. Wood (by 6/20/14)
e. Pink (by 1/31/15)
f. White (by 6/20/15)

Freebie Alert:
The informal assessment sheets I am using to track student performance can be downloaded as a freebie HERE.  My plan is to have students describe 6 different objects 4x in the year...Beginning of the Year (BOY), Progress Report 1 (PR1), Progress Report 2 (PR2), and End of the Year (EOY).  My plan is to repeat the first 6 words at the end of the year to get a good estimate of progress.  My prompt is "Tell me everything you know about a ___" and I give the student the EET strand. The sheets look like this:



For those of you who are new to the evaluation system, I hope this information is helpful!  I think once you have one evaluation cycle "under your belt," it will be easier to write and implement new plans!

I'm curious...Is your district following this evaluation system or are you doing something different? If you are doing a similar evaluation system, what are your SLGs and PPGs?