Strategies for Writing Meaningful, Measureable IEP Goals Presented to all Davis School District Related Service Providers November 2011 Based on a presentation by Carol Kosnitsky, Special Education Consultant

The Requirements IDEA 2004  A statement of the child’s present levels of academic achievement and functional performance.  A statement of measureable annual goals; academic and functional.  How progress toward meeting goals will be measured.  For children with disabilities who take alternative assessments aligned to alternative achievement standards, a description of benchmarks or short term objectives.

The Shift From 1975:  Access to special education  Primarily separate settings.  Focus on what is taught.  Special education teacher as primary instructor and data collector. To 2011:  Access to general education.  Increasingly general education settings.  Focus on what is learned.  Classroom teachers as primary instructor.

The Challenge The challenge is figuring out how to write meaningful IEPs and monitor progress given dramatic changes in legal, philosophical, and logistical changes in the 21 st century. IEP Must: Connect all the dots for classroom teachers Describe the impact for the disability and provide practical information for teachers. Establish challenging and attainable goals to be attained in a year. Describe a plan for measuring progress that is based on best practice but designed to be doable in your reality.

The Foundation The backbone of every IEP is the accurate description of the student’s present levels of academic achievement and functional performance (PLAAFP). This begins with:  Effective analysis of existing data.  Selective acquisition of additional data.

Sources of Data  Formal/Standardized Assessments  Large-Scale Assessments  Classroom assessment and CBM  Observations  Consultation and interviews  Baselines

The Present Levels  What can the student do?  Include baseline numbers.  What is the student expected to do?  Gap-helps prioritize goals.  What is the impact of disability on academic and functional performance?  Be explicit and clear.  What will be the focus this year in order to narrow/close the gap?

Identify Priorities (IEP Checklist)  What outcomes will have the most impact?  What are the 3-4 most important skills/behaviors you want to see this student learn/do? With too many interventions, you wonder, “how deep is the impact?”  Less is more  What gets student closer to long term goals?  A student will learn many things. What is worth measuring and doable?  What outcomes will allow the student increased independence and opportunity to exercise choice?  What outcomes are most important to the parent?

Select Target Skills & Behaviors Measurable goals are NOT about what you will teach…  Measurable goals ARE about what you will measure to let you know the teaching has been effective.

Select Target Skills & Behaviors Cont…  Ask THIS Essential Question: 1.If the special education I provide is effective, what will I SEE this student do at the end of the IEP cycle?  If we can observe it, we can count it!  If we can count it once, we can come back after a period of time and count it again!

Data Collection  Select a tool or method to collect baseline data  What tools does YOUR department use and have access to?  What works well?  Would any of your tools help others to collect better data?

1. Baseline Goal Statement  Under what conditions? What condition must be present when collecting data?  Who?  Target skill/behavior?  To what degree? What does the current performance look like/how many/how often?  Baseline is the PRESENT TENSE of a goal statement.

2. Measureable Goal  Who  Under what conditions  Will “do” what (target skill/behavior)  Performance criteria  As measured by…

3. Progress Monitoring  What (type of data)  When (frequency)  Who (professional)  Where (in classroom, all unstructured settings, etc.)

Area Of Need BaselineGoalProgress Monitoring Reading When given a 3 rd grade level reading passage, Sally reads 50 correct words with 3 errors Sally will, when given a 3 rd grade level reading passage, read 98 words correct with no more than 2 errors for 3 consecutive weeks as measured by weekly oral reading fluency probes administered by the resource teacher. Compliance Given a teacher direction, Tim takes 8 minutes to begin academic and other tasks. Tim will, when given a teacher direction, begin the task within 1 minute for 4 out of 5 opportunities as measured by weekly latency counts collected by the teacher or classroom paraprofessional. Hand Washing Given an 8 step hand-washing procedure, Anna does not complete any of the steps independently. Anna will, given the 8 step procedure, independently complete all of the steps for 3 consecutive opportunities as measured by teacher observation using a checklist.

Area of Need BaselineGoal Progress Monitoring

Graph The Data  Visual representation of level of performance and rate of progress.  Compares expected growth with actual growth.  Provides understandable information that parents can monitor.

Final Thoughts  When it comes to IEP goals, less may be more!  You won’t fatten a cow by weighing him. Well written goals and ongoing data is not important if high quality instruction is not provided!