A quick little disclaimer: The following information is what I have personally learned through 8 years of teaching special education in Michigan. It should be used for inspirational and entertainment purposes only. Check with the special education department leaders in your school district with specific questions regarding your students’ IEPs and special education needs.
Over the years, I have inherited many IEPs that have goals that make absolutely no sense. It’s frustrating since they are difficult to understand, implement, and make progress towards! Poorly written goals are especially tough – hard to work towards and are even more difficult to monitor and report on. You may be left wondering what the goal is even trying to measure or how you are supposed to intervene or provide instruction. They are a headache! Unfortunately, this is such a common occurrence that most special education teachers everywhere can relate!
No one wants to be that person, so here’s a quick tips and tricks guide to writing great IEP goals!
What’s the difference between IEP goals and IEP objectives?
IEP goals are the overarching target. What do we want students to be able to do independently in a year’s time? They should be written about an essential standard or skill that will make the student more successful with the general education curriculum. For example, in 7th grade math, integers and equations are great topics for math goals, since they are truly essential for future grades. However, finding the circumference or area of a circle isn’t a great goal area, since it is very specific and not that applicable to future levels of math.
IEP objectives are the smaller steps we will take to get a student to reach their goal. Think baby steps! They should be written about the smaller skills that will help students achieve the larger target. In our integers and equations example, the overall goal could be to solve two-step equations, with smaller objectives of solving integer operation problems and solving one-step equations. Those objectives directly support student success with the overarching goal. Make sense?
Common issues with IEP Goals
- TOO BIG! Some goals include too many unrelated parts and pieces that they really feel like 3 or 4 goals in one. Goals and objectives should be closely tied together – the objectives should directly support the goal.
- TOO SMALL! Some goals focus on such a small topic or skill that they are easily mastered within a few weeks or are no longer applicable after that specific unit of study.
- TOO VAGUE! Some goals are too vague to measure, or even too vague to understand. We need goals to be specific so they are clear to measure.
- TOO OUT OF OUR CONTROL! Some goals are impossible for us to work towards because they are written to measure outcomes that are out of our control. For example, a goal about increasing student attendance is difficult for teachers to support, as we ultimately can’t control if they show up or not, but a goal about managing anxiety is something we can work towards and could decrease student absences in the long run.
- TOO SPECIFIC – IEP goals should be written so that they can be implemented if a student moves to a different district. Writing specific programs or assessment names in an IEP goal is a red flag since it will be tough for that to be continued in a district that doesn’t use the same assessments. For example, “Julia will increase her score on STAR Reading by 300 points” isn’t a great goal for a few reasons, but what happens if she moves to a district that doesn’t use STAR Reading?
the anatomy of a well-written IEP goal
- Date – Generally, this is the date of the end of the IEP cycle. For objectives, the dates can be more frequent to break the goal down into manageable pieces, or they can have the same date as the overall goal.
- Specific Skill – This is where it gets sticky. A specific skill is something that can be measured and is important for the student to be able to do on their own in their setting. Adding integers is a skill that can be measured and is important for future math topics, for example. Scoring higher on a standardized test is not really a skill that can be measured. Writing a well-structured paragraph that includes a topic sentence, two details, and a conclusion sentence is a skill that can be measured and is important for future essays. Turning in their homework on time is not a skill that can be measured, but rather a daily choice made by the student.
- Specific Rate – Many times, we use percentages, such as 80% accuracy, or the number of trials, such as 4 out of 5 trials, but think about what makes sense for the goal and your student. Perhaps you may use 60%, 75%, or 90% instead! With math goals, the accuracy percentage is pretty easy to calculate. With writing goals, you may opt for a number of trials instead. For example, maybe over the course of 5 writing prompts, the student uses a topic sentence in 3 of them. That would be 3 out of 5 trials and makes more sense for that goal than 80% accuracy would.
- Measurement – We should measure progress towards goals in the same way each time we progress monitor students. It’s tough to compare apples to oranges, and comparing across different types of assessments can be even worse. As part of my IEP process, I give students the same screeners that I will give them each month or so to track their progress in order to establish a baseline that I can compare to. In my IEP goals, I say they will be measured by teacher-created assessment. For some goals, I’ll also include samples of class work, so I can use data from their ELA or Math classes for skills like integer operations or writing conventions.
Example IEP Goal for Math
Goal: By May 26, 2024, STUDENT will use inverse operations to solve two-step equations with 75% accuracy as measured by samples of class work or informal assessments.
Objective 1: By May 26, 2024, STUDENT will add, subtract, multiply, and divide integers with 80% accuracy when given a multiplication or reference chart as measured by samples of classwork or informal assessments.
Objective 2: By May 26, 2024, STUDENT will use inverse operations to solve one-step equations with integers with 75% accuracy as measured by samples of classwork or informal assessments.
What are your tips for writing great IEP goals? Let me know in the comments!
