IEP Data Collection and Goal Writing

Find annual goals you want your student to reach. These goals should be measurable.

After you have come up with these measurable annual goals, you create short-term objectives and benchmarks to reach these set goals.

These are written not only for helping the student, but so themselves along with their educators and parents can track their progress. By completing objectives and benchmarks, they are that much closer to reaching their annual goal.

Short-term objectives and benchmarks make up the annual goals and are considered to be "the heart" of the IEP.

Clear and precise goals and objectives provide a clear focus on instruction for the student which will in turn promote positive outcomes.

Four Components of Goals and Objectives

• The conditions under which the student will perform the behavior
• The name of the student
• Clearly defined and observable behaviors
• Performance criteria

Two Strategies To Keep In Mind

• Arrange skills in a heirarchy
• Target important skills in the domain

As said previously, goals and short-term objectives are considered the heart of an IEP. As special education teachers, we are who writes the IEP's. Having clear goals for teachers to focus instruction on makes for a better learning opportunity for that student. Having the skill set and background knowledge to help you write clear and measurable annual goals is an extremely important part of our future jobs.