In examining hundreds of IEP goals, we have noticed that too many just describe hoped-for outcomes and not measurable results. These goals tend to be vague statements of what the IEP Team would like the student to be rather than define a path toward a specific accomplishment. We call these “feel good” goals because they describe achievements that we all want for our children, but they don’t provide guidance as to how the child is going to get there.
Vague Goals vs. Specific Goals
Vague goals, like “[Student] will increase his homework production,” “demonstrate appropriate behavior in the classroom,” or “increase her study skill techniques,” don’t indicate how the goal will be measured (if it can be measured at all), who will assist the student in achieving the goal, or how anyone will even know if the goal has been reached.
Even though these goals may sound good, at the end of the year there will be no concrete evidence to indicate if they have been accomplished. There may even be the temptation to think that the goal has been partially or even fully met, when in fact the opposite might be true.
Goals Gone Wrong
The following are actual goals we have found in IEPs. Only the student’s name has been removed, replaced by [student], and in a few cases bad grammar has been corrected. Otherwise, they are verbatim.
[Student] will become more consistent in completing his required academic work.
[Student] will continue to maintain her independence in the high school setting.
[Student] will demonstrate skills in relaxing to reduce body and mental tension. (One of the benchmarks says that the student will “use sensory diet techniques for achieving body and thought relaxation.”)
[Student] will consistently exhibit responsible behavior in the areas of classroom participation and assignment completion.
[Student] will work to improve the thoroughness of his daily preparation.
While it is easy to see unintended humor in many of these goals, it is worth noting that in just about every case these statements describe what parents and students want from their special education experience. Instead of being goals, however, these statements only project the results of successfully achieving a goal. We have seen these kind of feel good statements appear in far too many IEPs masquerading as goals.
Unmeasurable “Progress”
Without providing any direction, it is almost impossible to determine when, or even if, these feel good goals can ever be achieved in a realistic fashion. The result is that they sometimes end up repeating year after year without any end in sight. This can lead to a lack of motivation, both on the part of the student, who doesn’t have any identifiable path to follow, and school personnel, who don’t have any way to measure progress.
One of our son’s goals for written language repeated word for word in every IEP from 3rd through 7th grades. We routinely got reports that he was making “tremendous progress,” “excellent progress,” or “outstanding progress” toward achieving this goal (these phrases seemed to appear in rotation), yet we never questioned the goal. In hindsight, we now see that this goal was too vague and unmeasurable to be achieved. In short, it was nothing but a feel good goal.
What Makes a Goal Measurable?
The opposite of a feel good goal is one that has the following characteristics:
It contains a method for measuring whether the goal has been achieved.
The criteria for measuring progress are clearly defined in the goal and do not require any information other than what is contained in the description of the goal.
The measurement can be validated by multiple observers. For example, if two different observers measure the progress of a goal using the criteria described in the goal, they would independently come to the same conclusion.
It is possible to determine how much progress a student has made toward attaining the goal at any time, such as in a quarterly report.
Many of the IEP goals we have seen provide little of this information. Most are impossibly vague, contain no standards by which anyone could determine if the goal was ever achieved, and perversely, often place the responsibility for achieving the goal completely on the student.
What You Can Do
Remember that the IEP is created by a Team that includes you, the parent. Your voice is an important part in any discussion about your child’s goals. Use your voice by assisting the Team in developing goals that are measurable, time-limited, and specific about who is responsible for seeing that the goals are met.
Make sure that the current performance level for each goal accurately describes what your child is capable of doing. It should include the most recent testing data (including independent evaluation results) in that skill area, especially the grade level equivalent for your child’s current performance.
Have each goal specify valid ways of measuring your child’s progress. Include details for teachers and other service providers to notice and record in their observations.
Make sure that all goals are appropriately coordinated with the service delivery grid. The grid should allow ample time for every service. Also notice what type of professional will provide the service. If no one or just “sped staff” is listed, ask for more detail about that person’s role and qualifications. Pay attention to the location, start, and end dates of the service.
Have the information in the service delivery grid written into the description of the goal. The grid often appears pages after the goal in the IEP where it can be overlooked by both you and the service providers. The duplication serves to remind everyone that the most important part of a goal is achieving it.
Your participation in the IEP process is critical to ensure that all your child’s goals are realistic, measurable, and come with adequate services to achieve them. This is your child’s right in getting the appropriate education that the law guarantees.
Judith Canty Graves and Carson Graves