By Sara Finegan  

To my way of thinking, there are two kinds of IEP goals:  remedial ones, and compensatory ones.  They are equally good; it is their purposes that differ.  A good IEP may contain some of both.

Remedial goals

A remedial goal is one which is intended to teach a student a skill which he has missed somewhere along the line.  I think of it as filling in a hole in the foundation of a child’s learning:  without this particular skill, progress in on grade-level standards is not achievable.

It’s important when considering remedial goals to choose ones which are reasonable and which are possible.  

I’ve written before about goals related to learning multiplication facts.  After fifth grade, I don’t think that should be a part of IEPs.   Knowing multiplication facts requires memory skills and sequencing.  Many kids really struggle with this – it may be a developmental thing and they’ll catch up later, or they may never get it.  

If parents really want the child to learn the multiplication tables, they can work on it at home.  Memorizing facts should not be an IEP goal.

Reasonable and possible remedial goals are ones which we believe a child can achieve with support and precise interventions.  

For example, we may discover that a sixth grade student doesn’t know what synonyms and antonyms are, and cannot use them in writing or to make meaning in reading.  This is something that has been taught in prior years, and is essential to progress in reading and writing. 

The student hasn’t “gotten it” in the general ed class,  so obviously a more direct and scaffolded approach is necessary.   Small group instruction or even a quick mini-lesson followed by 5-minute daily practice sessions could do the trick.  

Compensatory goals

Compensatory goals are ones which are designed to help a child perform a grade level standard with the necessary supports.  The goal is related to an academic standard, and it, as well as the benchmarks, specifies the types of supports that will be provided. 

Generally, we like to move from more to less.  

Lots of students have writing goals.  If the grade level standard requires that a child produce multi-paragraph essays (introductory paragraph with thesis statement, transition phrases, body paragraphs each with main idea and 3-5 supporting facts as well as a conclusion, and summary concluding paragraph, etc.) then that is the basic goal.  

Does the child need graphic organizers and visual prompts?  Checklists and rubrics?   A writing buddy?   Word banks and spellcheck?  

A goal might look like this:

“Given a topic, checklist of required assignment components, graphic organizer with word bank and rehearsal, Diana will produce a five-paragraph essay (introductory paragraph, 3 body paragraphs, conclusion) using compound sentences, rich vocabulary and proper spelling/punctuation, on 3 occasions with 80% accuracy as measured by checklist or rubric.”

If the child’s deficits are greater than Diana’s, perhaps the goal will read as follows: 

“Given a topic, checklist of required assignment components, and graphic organizer, Sam will use Dragon Speak or similar software to dictate 3 paragraphs, each with a main idea and 3-5 supporting details, on 3 occasions with 80% accuracy as measured by checklist or rubric.”

How about math?  Well, if Josh doesn’t know his multiplication facts in the fifth grade, he’s still going to have to be able to solve big multiplication problems.   As I said, Josh doesn’t need to learn to memorize.  He needs to learn strategies that will bridge the gap between his inability to memorize and fifth grade math problems.  Take a grade level standard and modify it.  How about one of these?

“Given 5 three-digit multiplication problems, a partial products template and a multiplication chart, Josh will show his work for each step in correctly solving them on 4/5 occasions with 80% accuracy.” 

Here, Josh is using compensatory strategies (multiplication chart and a partial products template) to do the same work as his grade-level peers.

Or

“Given 10 two-digit multiplication problems requiring knowledge of 8s facts and 9s facts, Josh will use compensatory strategies such as using the sum of the digits to write down his 9s facts and repeated addition to correctly solve them on 4/5 occasions with 80% accuracy as measured by student work.” 

If Josh can quickly jot down the 9s multiplication facts by writing 1 through 9 down the side of a page and then writing 1 through 9  up in the next space, he doesn’t need to have the nines memorized.  Similarly, if he can count on his fingers and write down the 8s through addition, he’s good to go!
 
Not every IEP needs both kinds of goals. 

Some kids are so close to grade level that they just need minimal supports in order to do the work that is required in their class.  Remedial goals might not be necessary.   Use your best judgment.

What I can say is that…

Only in IEPs for kids who are so severely disabled that the team decides they cannot access general education curriculum at all should you consider you omitting compensatory goals. 

Yes, a non-verbal child with autism who struggles with sensory issues can do some activity to demonstrate a component of a grade-level science standard.  It might be something simple, like correctly labeling the parts of a plant, or something more complex, such as growing a bean and making a chart of daily measurements.  

In a Special Day Class or a general ed class, our kids with IEPs are supposed to be accessing the gen ed curriculum.  They must have compensatory goals.

autism · benchmarks · case manager · compensatory · example · IEP goals · IEPs · math goals · multiplication · non-verbal · possible · reasonable · remedial · severe disability · support · writing goals · writing IEP goals

By Sara Finegan

A really good IEP goal requires some thinking and reviewing of student work.  It also requires that you really know the standards for the subject area and grade level the student is in now, or will be in the coming year.  

GOAL!!!

It helps to identify what the baseline is for the student and to state it explicitly with as  much precision as possible.   

• Does Betsy write a paragraph that has a topic sentence and supporting details but no conclusion? 
• Does Joe write short, choppy sentences without detail?  How often?   70% of the time?   6/10 times?  
• Does Abby successfully solve three-step math problems using a “how-to” chart 60% of the time?  
• Can you say that Bobby correctly answers comprehension questions with 65% accuracy after reading a second grade text?

Looking at that baseline and comparing it to the grade-level standard will show you exactly what to write in  the goal.  

 If the grade-level standard states that a student will use both compound and simple sentences in written work, and Josh uses simple sentences 90% of the time in independent writing, or will write compound sentences 60% of the time with maximum prompts, then the goal will be that Josh write using a combination of some sort (be specific) on 4/5 occasions, with 85% accuracy. 

Once you have the baseline and the goal, you need to start backwards planning.  What specific things does the student need to be able to do, with what kinds of support, on the way to achieve what goal?  If Josh needs maximum prompts to write compound sentences, what benchmarks are appropriate?  Here are a few:

1. How about starting out by having him combine simple sentences using prepositions and conjunctions?   A benchmark might be  “Given 10 simple sentences, a rehearsal and prompts as needed, Amy will use prepositions and/or conjunctions to make 5 compound sentences, on 4/5 occasions with 80% accuracy as measured by student work.”
2. Can Josh already combine sentences but only with maximum support?  Reduce the number of prompts.  Maybe “Given a student-written text, a rehearsal and no more than 2 prompts, Josh will revise two paragraphs by combining simple sentences into compound ones, on 4/5 occasions with 80% accuracy.”
3. Perhaps a later benchmark might read “Given a topic, graphic organizer and word bank, rehearsal and a visual prompt, Josh will write 3 compound sentences containing appositive or prepositional phrases, on 4/5 occasions with 80% accuracy as measured by student work.”

I like to have at least three measurable, data-based benchmarks for each goal.  Sometimes I write as many  as five–it just depends on the complexity of the goal.   As for the spacing intervals, the norm is to schedule them around the end of marking periods.  This is ok most of the time, but there are times when you need to set dates closer together.  

Recently, a colleague asked me not to write so many benchmarks, because it creates too much work; we have to write progress reports for each benchmark interval.     I replied that perhaps it creates more work for me, since I’m the one who will have to write the progress notes, but that’s not likely. 

A really good case manager is constantly collecting data, reviewing it and planning from it.  It takes me 3-4 minutes to write a progress note for a benchmark, because I have a notebook or folder with the data I need right at hand. 

I’m not afraid of hard work or more work; I’m afraid of what will happen if I start cutting corners on IEPs because I don’t want to work as hard as I do.

(Photo by popofatticus, Creative Commons Attribution 2.0)

backwards planning · baseline · benchmarks · collecting data · customized goals · generic goals · grade-level standards · IEP goals · IEPs · individualized · measurable · Sara Finegan · specific · standards-based · tips · writing IEP goals

By Sara Finegan

One of the coolest things about writing IEPs is that you get to create customized goals for the student.  

Once you know and understand a student’s learning style and deficits, you pinpoint the specific needs of the student and design measurable goals with objectives or benchmarks spaced at reasonable intervals throughout the year.    

This creates a roadmap for all of the support providers and teachers who are working with the student.

One of the most awful things I’ve discovered in  my consultations with parents and districts from around the country is how generic and inappropriate many goals are.    

• They aren’t measurable.   What the hell does “will improve in-class attitude by 50% ” mean?
• They aren’t standards-based.   There is no reason why a 14-year old should have a goal to learn the multiplication facts.   If he doesn’t know them by heart yet, he needs to use other strategies.   Any math goals should be related to the standards for his grade level, not third grade.
• They aren’t specific.    If I never again see a goal like “given a topic Danny will write a 5-paragraph essay that fulfils 70% of the requirements for the assignment” , I will be a happy woman.   Really?   Which 70%?   What can he already do, and what does he need to learn how to do?
• They aren’t customized to student needs and learning styles.   Many districts have an IEP system online, and in many cases there’s a drop-down menu of goals available.  The thing that most teachers don’t know is that these goals were never intended to be used as-is and the district administrators assumed we’d use them only in a pinch.   Generic goals have to be revised to match the student.  

We special ed teachers and case managers simply cannot allow ourselves to take shortcuts and use drop-down menus on this part of an IEP.  

There is absolutely no excuse for generic, mushy goals.   None.    

There’s a reason that special ed teachers have a smaller class or caseload size than general ed teachers:   we have more complicated work to do to create and fulfill individual education plans.   Not “group” education plans.

customized goals · generic goals · IEP goals · IEPs · individualized · measurable · specific · standards-based