How-To Guide

Frequently Asked Questions

IEP Insight has an automatic set up function. This will create all of the necessary tabs, and will include sample data for placeholder students like Alex and Bella to show you exactly how to format your goals. The setup will run autonomously after IEP Insight has been installed in your sheet. You can run the setup feature any time afterward if you lose or accidentally delete a tab or heading. The data in the tab will be retained through manual setup, except if you delete a tab. 

Before you can run the setup, you will need to purchase a license key from Gumroad. Follow the link in the popup, or click here: IEP Insight on Gumroad. The license key will be saved in your Settings tab and used to confirm that you have a current subscription. Do not delete or lose your license key. 

** See Adding Users and License Keys Section Below **

Setting Up Your Class

Tab: Students

This is your roster. Enter your students' names in column A and the relevant dates in columns B and C. Status is set to "Active" for all students. Currently, IEP Start Date, Next Review Date, and Status are not used by IEP Insight, but are placeholders for future updates. They can serve you for your own records. The Name column is used by the script for data validation, comparing it against the Student columns in the IEPGoals and IEPProgress sheets, so you must add your roster here.

Tab: IEPGoals

The most important thing to understand is that every Benchmark gets its own row.

Look at Alex.

He has one main reading goal: Goal 1. But it has three different benchmarks for the first, second, and third quarters. Notice how we repeat the Goal ID (G1) and the Goal Descriptions on every line? This tells the system that these three benchmarks all belong to the same main goal.

IDs and Descriptions

First, give your goal a Goal ID (Follow this naming convention: G1, G2, G3, etc…) and a Short Description in columns B and C. The Short Description is what you will see in the Logbook dropdown menu when you are entering data, so keep it short, like “Decoding” or “Reading Comprehension.” The complete goal description is not necessary for the Logbook.

Next, paste the full, legal text of the goal in the Long Description column. This is what will appear in the Report window final printed report.

Do the same for your Benchmarks: follow the same naming convention as the Goal ID (B1, B2, B3, etc…), then add the specific benchmark text in Column F.

Measurement Types

IEP Insight knows how to measure success, but you have to tell it what success looks like.

You have two options in Column G: “Percentage” and “Numerical”. These two data types cover any goal or benchmark that could be written.

Choose Percentage if you are tracking accuracy, like Alex answering questions with 80% accuracy.

Select Numerical for everything else. This is perfect for goals like Words Correct Per Minute, duration, or frequency counts, like Bella’s goal here, where we are tracking the number of minutes she stays on task. The target value is what you will enter in Logbook as your Measurement.

Setting Mastery Criteria

Set the rules for mastery so the app can calculate progress for you.

Target Value: This is the magic number the student is trying to hit. For Alex, he needs 80 percent accuracy, so we enter 80 as a plain number. Do not format this column as a percent..

Mastery Trials: IEP goals usually require consistency, and truthfully, this is the core mastery criteria. If Alex needs to hit that target in 3 out of 4 trials, you enter 3 in the Required column and 4 in the Total column.

The system will now automatically look at his last 4 data points and tell you if he has met the goal!

And that’s it! Once your goals are entered here, they will instantly appear in your Logbook, ready for data entry. You can delete the sample data whenever you are ready to add your own students.

Entering Data

When you want to enter data into the log, you have two options: use the Logbook, or enter directly into the sheet. Benefits of using the logbook are auto-formatting of the data (namely the timestamp), as well as eliminating human error in entering the correct goal and benchmark IDs. Entering an incorrect goal or benchmark ID (or even student name) will create inaccurate reports, and potentially throw errors in the script.

Creating a Report

The script parses the data you’ve entered and generates beautiful, easy-to-read progress reports. Navigate each goal with the Goals pane on the left side of the window. The full goal description you’ve entered in the IEPGoals sheet will populate at the top for easy reference. Each benchmark gets its own section, with a summary table showing the criteria necessary for mastery as well as the status of the benchmark (“In Progress” or “Met”). The doughnut chart is an aggregate average of all scores that have been entered for the specified benchmark. Do not use this to determine if the benchmark has been met. Most IEP goals’ standard for mastery is a level of performance over a number of trials (i.e. consistency). This is what the column chart indicates. It is reiterated in the line chart below, but this also shows progress over time. Utilize all charts to provide a complete picture of your students’ performance.

You can print this report directly with the “Print Current Goal” button.

Adding Users and License Keys

Ensure that you share the spreadsheet with any collaborators. They must be editors of the sheet in order to use the script. 

License keys are verified against Gumroad, which sends the purchaser's email and key back to the script and an internal check is conducted to verify the user, so use the same email address to purchase your key that you use to access the sheet where IEP Insight is installed.

When you activate your key through our portal, it is sent to Gumroad for verification, added to our database along with the unique spreadsheet ID (your email is never collected by us), and this is used only to verify access. Your key is added to the Settings sheet. DO NOT DELETE it. IEP Insight will deny access if it is not present here.

You can add new users, provided they purchase a unique key for themselves. Just add their email and key to the Settings tab, and the same verification process will be repeated.