Whenever I receive an IEP for a new student the first thing I do is look at the IEP goals. There are so many times in my career that I have inherited goals that rely solely I don’t love. They are wordy or written in a way that doesn’t make sense to an unfamiliar reader. IEP goals need to be written so that they are attainable and measurable. IEP goals are not the place to have extremely lofty expectations for students. High standards–yes but lofty and unattainable–definitely not. That’s a conversation for another day.
Measurable goals
First things first, I make sure that the goal can actually be measured. When I’m writing the IEP goal, I always think about how I am going to measure it. When I inherit an IEP, I try to envision how the previous case manager may have been taking the data. This allows me to think through exactly what I am looking for the students to be doing in order to meet that goal.
For example, if a goal says: Given visual cues and an array of letter choices, T will be able to identify the beginning sound in a CVC word. This tells me that I need to take data on if T is verbally or non-verbally choose the beginning sound of a word within a set of choices. I would create a data sheet that is able to track just that. A goal that says T will use his words. Yes that tells us something but not enough to measure to see if he will meet this goal.
Attainable goals
The main point in writing attainable IEP goals is to make sure that you are actually working at the level the student is at. This ensures that you are pushing students at their instructional level and using their strengths to write the goals. I wouldn’t expect a student to make 3 years of progress in one school year so I wouldn’t write the IEP goal that way. Doing so creates unnecessary stress on you and the student.
What makes IEP goals functional?
These are the main 2 components I use to determine if an IEP goal can be called functional. There are other things needed when you actually write the IEP goals but these are my top 2. I find it super helpful to start with just a couple of things when I am just trying to make sense of IEP goals. Functional IEP goals allow for students and teachers to get the most out of their work together. I think it makes the most sense to write goals that you can measure and ones that feel attainable for students and teachers.
When I focus on just these 2 things when thinking about writing IEP goals, everything else falls into place naturally.
