Federal guidelines regarding IEP’s do not provide specifics about the exact wording of the elements of an IEP. One of the most important elements in any IEP is the annual goal statements. These statements, according to IDEA, 2004, must be observable and measurable and make the link between student needs and how those needs can be supported to allow them to progress in the least restrictive environment. However, there are definitions that describe the best practices to make annual goals usable and supportive of student learning.
There are 5 critical components that define annual goals, each are defined below and an example is provided.
1. IEP Goal Writing – Conditions:
Each annual goal must contain a description of the general conditions under which the goal behaviors will be performed. The term “condition” means the materials, the teacher or teachers, the locations, or possibly the specific methods used to evaluate student competency on that goal. For example, a well written annual goal might begin with “When presented with a writing prompt…”.
2. IEP Goal Writing – Behavior:
Annuals goals must be measurable; therefore containing a statement that describes the desired behavior is necessary. The inclusion of a desired behavior is not too difficult to accomplish. However, the federal guidelines for writing IEP’s indicate that the desired goal behavior should be something that a teacher can see or hear. In application, this means that a quality annual goal should not include terms such as understand, or know, or feel. An example of a good annual goal with a clear, measurable behavior would be, “When presented with a writing prompt, Davey will write a 5 paragraph essay….”
NOTE: besides the terms understand, feel, or know to be avoided, quality IEP’s will also avoid the phrase “…will be able to”. The reason for this is that the phrase is less precise and less measurable than saying “the student will complete x task”.
3. IEP Goal Writing – Criteria:
Each annual goal must indicate the level to be attained to be considered achieved. Students and teachers need a standard by which a desired behavior is to be measured. An example of a criteria statement within an annual goal might be, “When presented with a writing prompt, Davey will write a 5 paragraph essay in one trial ….” This annual goal implies that the task will not be considered achieved until the desired behavior is done in a single evaluation setting. The student will be asked to respond to the prompt with a complete 5 paragraph essay—not a piece of the 5 paragraph essay today, with more added tomorrow, etc. Criteria statements can be centered around a percentage, number correct, number of permissible errors, rate of accuracy or speed, frequency within a given time, or duration of a desired behavior. The key is to match the criteria measure (frequency, duration, rate, etc) to the behavior. You would not want to measure time on task versus time off task using number correct. It makes little sense. But measuring the duration of time on task would be appropriate.
4. IEP Goal Writing – Generalization:
The desire of any educator is to have students apply what they have been taught to settings beyond the classroom. Every special ed teacher wants to know that the student has generalized the learning in the special ed classroom to other classrooms, or to the community, or to home. The generalization component of a well written annual goal sets up the expectation that skills learned will be generalized to other places. The inclusion of a generalization statement in a goal might look like this, “When presented with a writing prompt, Davey will write a 5 paragraph essay in one trial in both the special and general education settings ….”. Honestly, this element of a quality annual goal is rarely observed. But it is desirable to consider how an annual goal will be applied to life beyond the special ed setting.
5. IEP Goal Writing – Maintenance:
Once taught, a concept needs review to become a routine. Skills like strategies need to be revisited occasionally to keep the learner from forgetting them. That is what Maintenance is all about. A maintenance statement in an annual goal might indicate that revisiting a mastered skill should take place over the course of a grading period or semester to ensure its incorporation as a routine. An example of a maintenance statement in an annual goal might look like this: “When presented with a writing prompt, Davey will write a 5 paragraph essay in one trial for two consecutive grading periods in both the special and general education settings”.
Just having the required elements does not ensure a quality annual goal. They have to address individual student weaknesses as indicated by the priority educational needs in the IEP.
We hope these tips and information on Great IEP Goal Writing have been helpful.