{"id":6751,"date":"2012-03-19T08:00:46","date_gmt":"2012-03-19T12:00:46","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.wrightslaw.com\/blog\/?p=6751"},"modified":"2019-04-18T16:15:27","modified_gmt":"2019-04-18T20:15:27","slug":"are-these-good-annual-goals","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.wrightslaw.com\/blog\/are-these-good-annual-goals\/","title":{"rendered":"Are These Good IEP Goals?"},"content":{"rendered":"<div style=\"padding-bottom:20px; padding-top:10px;\" class=\"hupso-share-buttons\"><!-- Hupso Share Buttons - https:\/\/www.hupso.com\/share\/ --><a class=\"hupso_pop\" href=\"https:\/\/www.hupso.com\/share\/\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/static.hupso.com\/share\/buttons\/gallery\/share-button-gray.png\" style=\"border:0px\" alt=\"Share\" \/><\/a><script type=\"text\/javascript\">var hupso_services=new Array(\"Twitter\",\"Facebook\",\"Google Plus\",\"Pinterest\",\"Linkedin\",\"StumbleUpon\",\"Digg\",\"Reddit\",\"Bebo\",\"Delicious\");var hupso_icon_type = \"labels\";var hupso_background=\"#FFFFFF\";var hupso_border=\"#FFFFFF\";var hupso_image_folder_url = \"\";var hupso_twitter_via=\"wrightslaw\";var hupso_url=\"\";var hupso_title=\"Are%20These%20Good%20IEP%20Goals%3F\";<\/script><script type=\"text\/javascript\" src=\"https:\/\/static.hupso.com\/share\/js\/share.js\"><\/script><!-- Hupso Share Buttons --><\/div><p><em>My child is a freshman in high school. Her IEP includes this goal and objectives.<\/em><\/p>\n<blockquote><p>Judy will improve reading comprehension skills by using graphic organizers to access the curriculum with 70% accuracy per quarter.<\/p>\n<p>The short term objectives are:<\/p>\n<p>1. Judy will summarize or bullet important information in a variety of reading material with 70% accuracy.<\/p>\n<p>2. Judy will recall specific facts, information &amp; details after reading a variety of texts with 70% accuracy.<\/p>\n<p>3. Judy will summarize a passage or story, relating essential components with 70% accuracy.<\/p>\n<p>4. Judy will use vocabulary to identify the characters, setting, events, problems &amp; solution in a story passage with 70% accuracy per quarter.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><em>This goal doesn&#8217;t make sense to me. It seems vague.\u00a0<\/em><em>Shouldn&#8217;t an IEP goal include the child&#8217;s present levels of academic achievement or functional performance?\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n<p><strong><span style=\"color: #000080;\">Writing Measurable Goals<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n<p>You are right. This IEP goal makes no sense. Yes, before you can create any goal, you need to know the child&#8217;s present levels &#8211; that is the starting point?<\/p>\n<p>Your child has problems with reading comprehension. How can teachers work to improve her reading comprehension skills by using &#8220;graphic organizers to access the curriculum with 70% accuracy? &#8221;\u00a0Even this goal was appropriate, how would you and the IEP team know if she &#8220;improved to 70% accuracy&#8221;? What will happen if her improvement in using graphic organizers was 62% or 57%? What do these numbers mean?<\/p>\n<p>Change the facts. Assume that a goal states that the child will type 40 words-per-minute. She currently types at a rate of 38 words-per-minute. While improving typing skills by 2 words-per-minute may be acceptable as a weekly goal or objective, it is completely inappropriate as an annual goal. If a child&#8217;s\u00a0present level of performance in typing is 20 words-per-minute, then an annual goal of 40 words-per-minute <strong>may<\/strong>\u00a0(or may not) be appropriate.<\/p>\n<p>How will a child \u00a0&#8220;summarize with 70% accuracy?&#8221; How will we know that she didn&#8217;t &#8220;summarize with 40% accuracy?&#8221; In addition to being inappropriate, you cannot measure progress with this goal.<\/p>\n<p><strong><span style=\"color: #000080;\">Resources<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Barbara Bateman wrote an excellent book about \u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.wrightslaw.com\/store\/bb.iep.html\"><span style=\"color: #000080;\"><span style=\"color: #0066cc;\">Writing Measurable IEP Goals and Objectives<\/span>.<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n<p>She also wrote <a href=\"https:\/\/www.wrightslaw.com\/advoc\/articles\/iep.success.bateman.htm\"><span style=\"color: #000080;\"><span style=\"color: #0066cc;\">Writing Individualized Education Programs (IEPs) for Success<\/span><\/span><\/a><span style=\"color: #000000;\">.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #0066cc;\"> <a style=\"color: #0066cc;\" href=\"https:\/\/dpi.wi.gov\/sites\/default\/files\/imce\/sped\/pdf\/rda-ccr-iep-measurable-annual-goals-self-check.pdf\">Measurable Annual IEP Goals: Self-Check<\/a> <span style=\"color: #333333;\">may be helpful.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p>You&#8217;ll answers to your questions about present levels of performance and how to write IEP goals \u00a0in <a href=\"https:\/\/www.wrightslaw.com\/store\/aaieps.html\"><span style=\"color: #000000;\"><span style=\"color: #0066cc;\"><em>Wrightslaw: All About IEPs.<\/em><\/span><\/span><\/a><\/p>\n<p><strong><span style=\"color: #000080;\">Your Assignment<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Study the two articles about writing IEP goals and objectives.<\/p>\n<p>1. Print the articles. Review each goal.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>What is the present level of performance for each goal?<\/li>\n<li>Does the goal include a plan to improve the skills up \u00a0to grade level? (or at least more than one year of progress in an academic year)<\/li>\n<li>How is the child&#8217;s progress being measured? What objective measurement shows that the present level of performance improved?<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>2. Print a copy of your state curriculum or academic standards. Your state curriculum tells you and the team what a child in a particular grade should be taught during the year so the child is prepared for the next grade. You will find your state curriculum frameworks or academic standards on your <a href=\"http:\/\/www.yellowpagesforkids.com\/help\/seas.htm\"><span style=\"color: #000080;\"><span style=\"color: #0066cc;\">state Department of Education website.<\/span><\/span><\/a><\/p>\n<p>3. After you revise the IEP goals, you need to review your child&#8217;s most recent evaluations.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Are the concerns noted in the evaluation addressed by goals in the IEP?<\/li>\n<li>Does the IEP include accommodations that should be IEP goals? Example: Assume that your child&#8217;s reading comprehension skills are deficient. Does the IEP include a plan to improve these skills? Or, does the IEP provide accommodations that do not address her deficient reading skills?<\/li>\n<li>If your child masters all the goals in her IEP, will she be at grade level in these areas?<\/li>\n<li>How will you know if she is making progress?<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>By law, an IEP is required to address all the child&#8217;s needs that result from the disability. Does your child have needs that are <strong>not<\/strong> addressed in her IEP? \u00a0If the IEP does not address all her needs that result from the disability, ask that these needs be included in her IEP. Better yet &#8211; write a short letter to the IEP team to request that these needs be included in her IEP.<\/p>\n<p><strong><span style=\"color: #000080;\">Looking Forward to Graduation<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Since your child is in high school, she may need an extended day or extended year program so she can get the specialized instruction she requires without missing classes she needs to earn credits toward graduation. If your child plans to attend college, make sure you know what classes the college expects applicants to have, so she has time to meet these expectations before graduating from high school.<\/p>\n<p>At age 16, a child&#8217;s IEP is driven by the transition plan. Make sure the transition plan is comprehensive and complete. Barbara Bateman&#8217;s article addresses transition. You will find answers to questions about transition plans and transition assessments in <a href=\"https:\/\/www.wrightslaw.com\/store\/aaieps.html\"><span style=\"color: #000080;\"><em><span style=\"color: #0066cc;\">Wrightslaw: All About IEPs.<\/span><\/em><\/span><\/a><\/p>\n<p>The New Hampshire Department of Education publishes a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.education.nh.gov\/career\/vocational\/trans_manual.htm\"><span style=\"color: #000080;\"><span style=\"color: #0066cc;\">Transition Manual<\/span><\/span><\/a> that includes a checklist and a good worksheet that you can use to review transition issues.\u00a0Note: This document is from NH where the age for transition planning is 14. You need to check your state special education regulations to find the transition age requirements in your state.<\/p>\n<p><strong><span style=\"color: #000080;\">Comprehensive Evaluation<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Has your child had a comprehensive psycho-educational evaluation recently?<\/p>\n<p>When you review her \u00a0recent evaluations, you may see that the &#8220;comprehension goals&#8221; in her IEP should really focus on weaknesses in decoding, oral language, or phonological awareness.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Do the most recent evaluations confirm that reading comprehension is the primary problem, and that your child&#8217;s decoding, phonological awareness and oral language are not problem areas?<\/li>\n<li>Do the most recent evaluations indicate that your child has problems in spelling and written expression?<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>When you \u00a0re-read the evaluations, you must <span style=\"color: #000080;\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.wrightslaw.com\/advoc\/articles\/tests_measurements.html\"><span style=\"color: #000080;\"><span style=\"color: #0066cc;\">understand the test results.<\/span><\/span><\/a>\u00a0<\/span>If you have not had a private sector evaluation on your child recently, I recommend that you arrange to have an evaluation completed.<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #0066cc;\"><a style=\"color: #0066cc;\" href=\"https:\/\/www.wrightslaw.com\/webex\/test.scores.index.htm\">The Wrightslaw Multimedia Training Download &#8211;\u00a0Understanding Your Child&#8217;s Test Scores<\/a><\/span>\u00a0&#8211;\u00a0will help you understand the bell curve, mean, and standard deviations on tests. You will also learn about standard scores, percentile ranks, subtest scores, composite or cluster scores, and subtest scatter.\u00a0You will learn how to draw the \u00a0bell curve and how to use your child&#8217;s test scores to create powerful progress (or lack of progress) graphs.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.wrightslaw.com\/heath\/goals.annual.htm\"><span style=\"color: #000080;\"><span style=\"color: #0066cc;\">Appropriate Annual Goals<\/span><\/span><\/a><span style=\"color: #000000;\"> by Sue Whitney<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>My child is a freshman in high school. Her IEP includes this goal and objectives. Judy will improve reading comprehension skills by using graphic organizers to access the curriculum with <a class=\"more-link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.wrightslaw.com\/blog\/are-these-good-annual-goals\/\">Continue Reading \u2192<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":24,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[905,290,400,763,1313],"class_list":["post-6751","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-ieps","tag-annual-goals","tag-evalutions","tag-measurable-goals","tag-tests-and-measurements","tag-transition"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wrightslaw.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6751","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wrightslaw.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wrightslaw.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wrightslaw.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/24"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wrightslaw.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6751"}],"version-history":[{"count":17,"href":"https:\/\/www.wrightslaw.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6751\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":24281,"href":"https:\/\/www.wrightslaw.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6751\/revisions\/24281"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wrightslaw.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6751"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wrightslaw.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6751"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wrightslaw.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6751"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}