Goals and Objectives

1. Timeframe
   Identifies the amount of time in the goal period and usually specifies the number of weeks or
   a date for completion.

2. ---

   Conditions
   Specify how progress toward the goal occurs. Conditions describe the specific resources that must be present for a student to reach the goal and should outline or explain what facilitates learning for the student. The condition of the goal should link to the behavior being measured. For example, a goal relating to reading comprehension may require the use of a graphic organizer. The use of the graphic organizer is the condition.

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3. Behavior
   Identifies the performance that is being monitored. It represents an action that can be
   directly observed and measured.

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4. Criterion
   Identifies how much, how often, or to what level the behavior must occur to demonstrate that the goal has been achieved. The goal criterion specifies the amount of growth that is expected within the goal timeframe.

Below, please review an example of an annual measurable goal that includes a clear timeframe, condition, behavior, and criteria.
 

Below, review examples of IEP goals. Note how the noncompliant goal statements lack a specified
timeframe, condition, behavior, and criteria.

Example 1: 

Noncompliant: Becca will improve oral skills.
Compliant: In 36 instructional weeks, when provided a visual schedule of the daily routine
and asked, “What comes next?”, Becca, a four-year-old student, will verbally state the correct
activity in 4 out of 5 daily trials across 3 consecutive days.

Example 2: 

Noncompliant: This school year DeJuan will read with greater accuracy and speed.
Compliant: By the fourth reporting period, when given an unfamiliar third grade leveled text,
DeJuan, a 3rd grade student, will read 75 words correct per minute (wcpm) with 95% or greater
accuracy across three consecutive trials for mastery.

TEA’s Question and Answer Document: IEP Measurable Annual Goals provides considerations the ARD
committee can use to help ensure that IEP goals are measurable (Q 1.3).

A measureable annual goal meets the following requirements: 

• Is observable
• Allows a calculation of how much progress it represents
• Indicates what to do to measure mastery of the goal
• Can be measured without additional information
• Yields the same conclusion if measured by several people

Consider the following goal:
 

This goal has the four components, but is it measurable? Apply the questions derived from the checklist
above to help you decide. Compare your thoughts to the sample responses.

While you may have different thoughts and responses to the questions, hopefully you can see that this goal needs revision to improve clarity and measurability. Assume that the PLAAFP indicates that the student needs to learn to ask for help and that it is currently something they only do with multiple verbal prompts (baseline is zero instances where the teacher has observed the student independently ask for help).

A measurable goal might look something like this:
 

You will notice that the condition lists a visual of the steps for asking for help. When teaching the skill, it is likely that the teacher will still use verbal prompting and direct instruction, but for goal mastery we are looking for the student to only need the visual support. For progress monitoring, trials where the student is prompted would not count towards meeting the mastery criteria. Similarly, trials where the student follows some, but not all steps on the visual would also not count towards the mastery criteria. For example, if the visual says to raise your hand first, but they blurt out that they need help the trial would not be “correct” towards mastery, although it will still inform the teacher about progress towards the goal. Using pre-planned trials where the teacher intentionally stages a situation to ensure that the student needs help, prevents having to infer (subjective) if the student should or should not have asked for help in all the situations students encounter throughout the day. For this goal the teacher might, for example, set up a few trials per week to monitor the skill. They are, however, teaching the skill of asking for help throughout the day and looking for generalization to naturally occurring situations. This is only a sample; how might you improve this goal even further?

The IEP must contain meaningful educational goals. Academic and functional goals are written using the same four required elements: timeframe, condition, behavior, and criterion. The only difference between the two is that functional goals do not require a link to the enrolled grade-level content standards (TEKS, Texas Prekindergarten Guidelines, or the Texas Infant, Toddler, and, Three-Year-Old Early Learning Guidelines and/or district-adopted prekindergarten curriculum).

For students in grades kindergarten through twelfth grade, a goal is either related to a student learning the TEKS (academic goal) or related to the student learning a skill he or she needs to access the TEKS (functional goal).

Because of the developmental nature of young children, many of the standards in the Texas Prekindergarten Guidelines and/or the Texas Infant, Toddler, and Three-Year-Old Early Learning Guidelines may seem to be both academic and functional in nature. While it is possible for a goal to be both academic and functional for students of this age, it is likely that the goal is one or the other. If the behavior being measured is within the adopted curriculum, it would be considered an academic goal. For example, in the Texas Prekindergarten Guidelines, there is a standard in the Physical Development Domain that addresses good habits of personal health and hygiene. While hygiene skills may seem to be functional in nature, for a prekindergarten student this would be an academic goal aligned with the curriculum.

While all students must have measurable annual goals, some students may have both academic and functional goals, and some students may have only academic or functional goals to enable them to have access to the general curriculum. For example, a student’s PLAAFP may indicate that a student has the academic skills to progress in the general curriculum, but engagement in challenging behavior is impeding his or her access to the general curriculum. In this case, the ARD committee may determine the student only needs functional goal(s) for learning appropriate replacement behavior. However, if the student’s behavioral needs require him or her to be removed from the general education setting for any portion of the day, then he or she would also need a goal- specific to the course/curriculum from which he or she is removed, regardless of whether or not the content is modified.

Benchmarks or short-term objectives are the intermediate steps of progress toward mastering the annual goal. They provide a means to monitor a student’s progress toward reaching the related annual goal.

IDEA requires that benchmarks or short-term objectives be part of the annual goal for any student who takes an alternate assessment based on alternate academic achievement standards 34 CFR § 300.320(a)(2). Therefore, all students who take the State of Texas Assessments of Academic Readiness (STAAR) Alternate 2 must have benchmarks or short-term objectives as part of all measurable annual goals. It does not matter if the goal is academic or functional or if the area is tested on the alternate state assessment. For a student who takes STAAR, the ARD committee may choose to include benchmarks or short-term objectives as part of the annual goals to assist in monitoring the student’s progress toward mastery of IEP goals. Please refer to question 1.16 in the TEA document Question and Answer Document: IEP Measurable Annual Goals for more information.

Below review two examples of IEP goals and related benchmarks. The first example is an academic goal
with associated benchmarks, and the second is a functional goal with associated benchmarks.

Academic goal: 
 

Functional goal: 
 

*Please note, the student’s enrolled grade level should be documented within the IEP but does not have to be included or repeated within the annual goal(s) or objectives. It is included in these examples as information for the reader.

Resources: 

• IEP Quality and Rigor Rubric
• The Progress Center IEP Tip Sheet: Measurable Annual Goals
• Iris Center: Challenging, Ambitious, Measurable Annual Goals
• Strategies for Setting Data-Driven Behavioral IEP Goals
• Frequently Asked Questions STAAR Alternate 2 Participation Requirements 

How Progress Will Be Measured

The student’s IEP must describe the method used to measure a student’s progress toward goal mastery. Some examples of how progress toward meeting the annual goal(s) may be measured include, but are not limited to, the following:

• Checklists
• Curriculum-based assessments (i.e., progress monitoring probes)
• Inventories
• Recorded observations
• Performance assessments
• Rubrics
• Portfolios
• Unit or chapter tests
• Work samples

Frequency for Reporting the Student's Progress to Parents

The IEP must include a description of how progress towards annual goals will be measured and WHEN progress reports will be provided to parents. At a minimum, progress reports are provided to parents concurrent with the issuance of report cards. The ARD committee may determine if more frequent progress reporting is necessary.

At least once each grading period, and more often if provided for in an IEP, a school district must provide the parent of a student receiving DYSLEXIA INSTRUCTION with information regarding the student's progress as a result of the student receiving that dyslexia instruction.

The reporting of progress is distinct and different than issuing grades for the courses the student is enrolled in. If a student fails to make the expected progress towards his or her IEP goals, the ARD committee must meet and/or consider REVISING THE STUDENT’S IEP.

Resources: 

• IRIS Center: Monitoring and Reporting Student Progress