KPBSD Sped Manual: Goals and Objectives

Goals must address Alaska State Standards which are to be chosen from the database when writing the goal. An appropriate goal must be measurable, observable, and specific, describe what the child (not the adult) will do, and must be written to expect completion within an annual timeline for which the IEP is written. Goals should come directly from the PLAAFP, and address each area of deficit noted in the PLAAFP, unless otherwise documented. For instance, if a student has eight areas of identified need in the ESER and PLAAFP, but the team agrees to focus goals on the top three for this IEP, the PLAAFP should reflect an explanation of that decision. Baseline data is required for all goals.

Goals can be written as SMART goals as SMART goals are easier to report progress for, easier to determine mastery and are legally defensible.  SMART goals are Specific, Measurable, Action words, Relevant, and Time bound.

Remember that any goals that you take into an IEP meeting are only drafts and should be discussed with the team and edited as needed. At the IEP meeting, last year’s goals and objectives should be reviewed, and discussed regarding progress and whether to continue similar goals / objectives for the next year. Last year’s goals might be deleted due to completion or because they are no longer appropriate. Entirely new goals may be written. Continuing goals with NO revision should rarely happen since it indicates that the student was not able to meet the goals, so the tasks should be rewritten, possibly broken into smaller steps. If while progress monitoring, you find that the student is not making progress, you may hold an IEP meeting sooner to revise the goals for student success.

The IEP team is not required to create annual IEP goals for general education curriculum that the child’s disability does not significantly affect. Therefore if a child needs only modifications or accommodations in order to progress in certain areas, no IEP goal is required in that area. The needed modifications and / or accommodations are addressed in the Program Modifications / Support section of the IEP.

Developing appropriate goals:

  1. Review the student’s past achievements
  2. Consider the student’s present levels of academic and functional performance when estimating what can be expected in a year’s time
  3. Identify the category of instruction for each deficit area. These may include:
    1. Social skills
    2. Communication
    3. Leisure / recreation skills
    4. Vocational skills
    5. Personal management
    6. Academics
    7. Perceptual skills
    8. Behavioral skills
    9. Physical skills, etc.
    10. Assess the practicality of the chosen goals in terms of final outcomes, age appropriateness, relevancy, etc.
    11. Consider listing goals in the IEP by their order of priority

Annual goal mini-checklist:

  1. Is the goal clear and understandable?
    1. Not vague?
    2. No educational jargon?
    3. Not too specific?
    4. Is the goal positively stated?
    5. Is there at least one goal for each area of need stated in the PLAAFP?
    6. Can the goal be justified on the basis of the information in the PLAAFP?
    7. Is the goal practical and relevant to the student’s academic, social and vocational needs?
    8. Is the goal practical and relevant to the student’s age and remaining years in school?
    9. Does the goal reflect appropriate growth within the instructional area?
    10. Can the goal be accomplished in one year?
    11. Is baseline data included for each goal?

Please use the following “tests” when writing goals:

  1. The Stranger Test: The Stranger Test refers to goals and objectives for students being written in a fashion that a person unfamiliar with a student could read and understand them. For example, because various persons involved in the implementation of a student’s educational program may interpret “hostility” differently, it is necessary to describe the student behavior in terms that it would pass the Stranger Test. If the goal was to decrease “hostility,” a stranger might interpret it as decreasing hitting, kicking, biting, while the student’s team may have meant decreasing verbal threats or profanity directed towards peers. The stranger might interpret “hostility” as ANY instance of hitting, whether or not provoked, while the team may have meant only unprovoked hits. If the IEP had defined “hostility” as “each instance of unprovoked hitting, where “unprovoked” means that it was not in retaliation for a physical or verbal attack from a peer,” both the teacher and a stranger would be likely to obtain the same results as they would be looking for the same behavior.
  2. The So-What Test: The task is an important skill to learn.
  3. The Dead Man’s Test: The question posed by the Dead Man’s Test is “Can a dead man do it?”  If the answer is “yes”, then it does not pass the dead man’s test and is not a fair goal for a student. If a dead man cannot do it, then it is a fair goal. For example, suppose that you wanted a fair target behavior for “swears at peers.” You come up with “does not swear at peers” as the target behavior for the goal. This does not pass the Dead Man’s test because a dead man could refrain from swearing at peers. “Speaks to peers without swearing” passes the dead man’s test because a dead man cannot speak.

Objectives: Objectives are required for all students. Short term objectives or benchmarks are the steps it will take to reach the annual goal. There should be at least two objectives for each annual goal. If you are unable to draft two objectives, the goal may need to be broadened. Objectives may differ in quantity expected, degree of accuracy, level of independence, specific skill expected, where the skills are demonstrated, etc. Objectives or benchmarks are usually found through a task analysis of the goal behavior.

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