Putting Your Best Foot Forward

When writing a paper for publication, professional presentation may make the difference between acceptance and rejection. Submitting an essay for a college grade that is free from errors and well organized can change a B paper into an A paper. Effectively proofreading, editing, and revising will assist a writer in turning a “good” paper into an “excellent” one. In addition, it can raise the credibility of the author and maintain his or her professionalism in his or her career. This chapter discusses the revising, editing, and proofreading processes and includes checklists to guide a writer in accomplishing his or her writing goals.

Designing Culturally Responsive and Relevant Individualized Educational Programs

Developing culturally responsive and relevant individualized educational programs (IEP) is becoming increasingly more important as the student population becomes more diverse. Current supports available for IEP teams primarily address the technical aspects of the IEP (e.g., writing goals that are measurable) but offer little assistance in designing culturally responsive and relevant IEPs. This article provides a tool and process for integrating culturally responsive and relevant aspects into the IEP document and process. The Culturally Responsive and Relevant IEP Builder (CRRIB) was developed to guide IEP teams through this process and could be used to conduct assessments, evaluate current practices, and guide the development of interventions, strategies, and supports for students. The CRRIB helps maintain the team’s focus on enhancing the student’s cultural competence, incorporating the student’s prior experiences, and valuing the family’s frame of reference. A sample of the CRRIB with student information is included.

Writing Measurable and Academically Relevant IEP Goals With 80% Accuracy Over Three Consecutive Trials

Although one would hope that the magic of goal writing is somehow bestowed upon each speech-language pathologist during their graduate training, or at a minimum upon graduation, pre-service speech-language pathologists, as well as practicing speech-language pathologists, report that goal writing is challenging. This difficulty experienced while writing goals may result in SLPs and other special education providers searching the internet or IEPs of other students with similar needs to find a pre-written goal to use. Unfortunately, an over-reliance on web-based or software-based goal banks is problematic, as these resources still contain poorly written goals that are not measurable and vague and may ultimately decrease the individualization of the goal and treatment to a student's specific needs. Because goals are the “road map” for a student's speech-language intervention, it is not surprising that researchers have hypothesized, and more recently observed, that poorly written IEPs goals are negatively related to growth and progress in the curriculum. The purpose of this article is to remind SLPs of the importance of writing goals that are relevant to the findings of assessments, aligned to state academic standards, contain specific and measurable outcomes, and encourage growth in the skills needed to have academic success.