1. Despite regulations that require the presence of measurable Individualized Education Programs, IEPs often end up being unfocused and vague. This makes them difficult to use in guiding instructional planning. This is a situation that many teachers have to face.
2. Some important legal requirements relating to IEP includes the need for having measurable goals while placing a student in the process. There is also need for child assessment before the IEP commences, and after it has been implemented. This helps in ascertaining where the child stands at. There also ought to be accountability from the stakeholders involved in the IEP process. IDEA requires IEP to include provisions for progress monitoring, present levels of performance to serve as the baseline against which progress could be measured and short-term objective in order to outline steps towards goal attainment. IEP teams are also required to consider the recent evaluations of the student when developing an IEP.
3. Assessment is usually required during the IEP planning. This is because it helps in making the decision on whether the child has a disability or not. The assessment evaluates a child in all the areas of suspected disability. The assessment also helps in deciding on the appropriate education program for the relevant child. The placement is dependent on the results of the assessment. The assessment also comes in handy while monitoring the progress of the students. Past and present data are compared in order to understand the direction that the student is taking.
4. A special education teacher can use assessment data to develop the Present Level of Education Performance (PLOP). The assessment data is used to evaluate whether a child has a disability or not. During the assessments, a child is provided with various assignments and tests. The responses to these tests and assignments are compared to what is believed to be the normal range. Assessment data also contains information on various observations made by teachers and parents regarding various performances and skills. These aspects can be regarded as Present Levels of Educational Performance. They can be used as the benchmark to compare with the progress that has been made after the implementation of the IEP.
5. To write measurable IEP goals, the IEP team should consider the level of disability being experienced by the child. There should also be a consideration of the skills, knowledge, and behavior that the child holds at present. This is to say that the goals must meet the needs of the child. Assessment data should be considered in this case since it indicates where the student stands at.

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