Writing good IEP goals can be difficult… especially when you don’t know where to start! The good news is that once you learn about the 7 essential components of an IEP goal, you will be an expert on writing quality goals for all of your students! This article describes each of the 7 components that you should include in every IEP goal in addition to some other helpful tips.
What are IEP goals?
Individual Education Plan (IEP) goals are annual goals included in a student’s IEP. They need to be appropriate, observable, measurable, and meaningful to the student. An IEP goal is appropriate if its contents are derived from assessments of the student’s abilities; observable if you can objectively see the student engage in the target skill; measurable if you can record and evaluate data to determine whether or not the goal was met; and meaningful if it touches on the majority of the elements below, which are noted in the article “Writing an IEP”:
Writing IEP Goals – Objective of an IEP Goal
- Addresses the general curriculum or a functional objective
- Functional: the skills can be used in student’s everyday life
- Generative: helps them learn other useful skills/concepts (a prerequisite skill)
- Important to the student and their family
- Age-appropriate (their chronological age, not their developmental age)
- Contributes to friendships/membership in society/their community
- Contributes to self-determination
- For goals addressing behavior: Competes with inappropriate responses
Target skills for an IEP goal (the skill or task you want the student to be able to do), are chosen based on the areas of need/deficits described in the student’s present levels of performance in their IEP. To learn more about writing an IEP, click here. Additionally, IEP goals should have separate goals, known as benchmarks or objectives, that serve as mini goals to achieve throughout the year as the student progresses towards the annual IEP goal. To learn about writing benchmarks/objectives for IEP goals, click here.
Writing IEP Goals – The 7 Components of an IEP Goal
These are 7 the seven key components you should consider any time you are writing IEP goals:
- Date
- Condition
- Functional Performance Indicator
- Observable Behavior
- Criteria
- Mastery
- Measurement
IEP Goal Component #1: Date
This component is pretty self-explanatory. It’s a best practice to have the IEP goal date be one day before the exact year mark of when the IEP meeting is being held. For example, if the IEP meeting is on January 22nd 2022, I would start each goal with “By 1/21/2023…”.
IEP Goal Component #2: Condition
The condition component of an IEP goal outlines the specific circumstances under which the student is expected to perform the target skill. This means that the condition could include a variety of information depending on what skill the goal is targeting. This component could include:
- Environment
- Materials
- Supports
- Specific Situations
- Situational Context
Common ways to frame the condition component are “when given _____” or “with access to _____” or “during _____”. Here are a few examples of what that might look like (with the condition component in bold):
“By 1/21/2023, when presented with a variety of simple job applications….”
“By 1/21/2023, during unstructured social time…”
“By 1/21/2023, with access to a calculator…”
“By 1/21/2023, when given a predetermined budget for purchasing items in simulated classroom scenarios…”
By 1/21/2023, during naturally occurring opportunities…”
“By 1/21/2023, when asked a personal question by a teacher, staff member or peer, and with access to a field of 3 answer choices…”
The condition component is important because it tells you when you should be taking data. For example, if the IEP goal said “By 1/21/2023, with access to a calculator, Jane will calculate the correct change…” you would know that you should only be taking data on this goal when Jane is using a calculator. If she were to calculate change without a calculator, data on her performance should not be recorded as data for that specific IEP goal because the condition was not met.
IEP Goal Component #3 Functional Performance Indicator
The functional performance indicator is the task you want the student to be able to do. In other words, it’s the target skill of the IEP goal. I always phrase this part as “student will…” Here are some examples with the functional performance indicators marked in bold:
“By 1/21/2023, when presented with a variety of simple job applications, Joe will demonstrate knowledge of his personal and professional information (such as name, address, age, work experience)…”
“By 1/21/2023, during unstructured social time, Joe will use his AAC device for expressive communication…”
“By 1/21/2023, with access to a calculator and budget template based on the income of a preferred job or job she is hired for, Jane will demonstrate her knowledge of budgeting and ability to perform basic financial calculations…”
By 1/21/2023, when feeling stressed or anxious by non-preferred people or activities, Jane will appropriately and successfully navigate the situation…”
Don’t worry too much about explaining how the student accomplishes the task in the functional performance indicator. This component is just for stating what the target skill is.
IEP Goal Component #4: Observable Behavior
This component is deeply connected to the functional performance indicator. In the functional performance indicator you describe what you want the student to be able to do, while in the observable behavior component you describe how you know the student is doing the functional performance indicator (target skill/task). I typically include the observable behavior component directly after the functional performance indicator, and begin the component with “by…”. Below are some examples of the functional performance indicator followed with the observable behavior in bold so that you can see how they are connected.
“… Jane will successfully prepare for her learner’s permit exam by passing a practice learner’s permit test…”
“… Joe will demonstrate his ability to appropriately transition from one task or activity to the next by initiating the transition within 15 seconds of the initial request and successfully following through on the transition…”
“… Jane will appropriately and successfully navigate the situation by advocating for herself (i.e. requesting a break, asking for help or support, expressing her emotions to an adult), and/or engaging in self-regulation (i.e. deep breathing, accessing a fidget item, utilizing a coping strategy)…”
The observable behavior component of the IEP goal plays a central role because it describes what you should be seeing the student doing.
IEP Goal Component #5: Criteria
The criteria of an IEP goal either quantifies the target skill or explicitly states the standard to which the skill needs to be performed. The most common language of the criteria component include:
- “Independently”
- “With ___% accuracy”
- “With ____ prompts”
Here are a few examples of the criteria in bold:
“By 1/21/2023, during unstructured social time, Joe will use his AAC device for expressive communication by initiating a greeting to a peer, independently…”
“By 1/21/2023, when provided with verbally-delivered directions, Joe will demonstrate his ability to complete 2-step tasks by following the provided directions to completion, with no more than 3 verbal prompts…”
“By 1/21/2023, when provided with 10 calculation problems and with access to a calculator, Jane will demonstrate her ability to solve calculations and navigate a calculator by successfully using it to yield the correct answer to the problems on the worksheet with at least 80% accuracy…’
Fun fact: the functional performance indicator, observable behavior, and criteria do not always need to be in order. In fact, I sometimes put the criteria of “independently” before I describe the functional performance indicator and observable behavior to help the writing of the IEP goal flow more.
It’s important to note that when you write “independently” for the criteria, that means that the student will perform the target skill with no prompting after the initial request. So for this goal: “By 1/21/2023, during unstructured social time, Joe will use his AAC device for expressive communication by initiating a greeting to a peer, independently…” that means he cannot receive a verbal reminder, gesture, or any form of prompting by a staff member in order for him to initiate the greeting. If he requires any form of prompting to complete this skill, then the IEP goal is not met.
Only include the term “independently” if you want the student to perform the skill or task without prompting. Additionally, if a student is expected to require prompting, you should indicate how many prompts and what kinds of prompts will be used. Click here for an article about different types of prompting.
IEP Goal Component #6: Mastery
This component is extremely important because it will indicate whether or not the student has mastered the target skill of the goal. We want students to remember what we teach them, so it’s important for them to generalize and master the skill rather than just completing it once! The mastery component measures the ability to perform the skill over time. Common language used in this component:
- In __ out of __ opportunities
- In __ out of __ trials
- On __ out of __ school days
- For __ consecutive weeks
It’s best practice to leave a little wiggle room (i.e. 4 out of 5 school days rather than all 5 school days), because there are so many environmental factors we cannot control that might influence a student’s performance every once in a while. If we are writing that the student will perform the skill on 3 out of 4 opportunities, that takes into account the possibility that they might have an off day. Below are a couple examples of the first 6 components with the mastery component in bold:
“By 1/21/2023, during unstructured social time, Joe will use his AAC device for expressive communication by initiating a greeting to a peer, independently, in 4 out of 5 opportunities…”
“By 1/21/2023, when provided with verbally-delivered directions, Joe will demonstrate his ability to complete 2-step tasks by following the provided directions to completion, with no more than 3 verbal prompts, in 3 out of 4 trials…”
“By 1/21/2023, with access to a calculator and budget template based on the income of a preferred job or job she is hired for, Jane will demonstrate her knowledge of budgeting and ability to perform basic financial calculations by spending/saving money according to the budget, accurately filling in the budget, and correctly completing the required calculations, independently, for 4 consecutive weeks…”
IEP Goal Component #7: Measurement
The final component of the IEP goal describes how data will be collected on the IEP goal to determine whether or not the IEP goal was met. I always begin this component with “as measured by…”. The most common measurements are:
- Permanent products
- Observations
- Recorded data
When deciding how to measure the goal, it’s important to really think about what the most logical way to collect data would be. For goals where students are writing or typing, it might be a good idea to choose “permanent products” so that you can use the documents they’ve filled out as data. When writing IEP goals where you’re watching a student do something, such as communication goals, it would make sense to measure the goal with “observations”.
Writing IEP Goals – All 7 Components
“By 1/21/2023, with access to an online California driver’s education course and additional modified materials, Jane will successfully prepare for her learner’s permit exam by passing a practice learner’s permit test, independently, with at least 83% accuracy in 3 out of 4 opportunities, as measured by permanent products.”
- Date
By 1/21/2023 - Condition
with access to an online California driver’s education course and additional modified materials - Functional Performance Indicator
Jane will successfully prepare for her learner’s permit exam - Observable Behavior
by passing a practice learner’s permit test - Criteria
Independently, with at least 83% accuracy - Mastery
in 3 out of 4 opportunities - Measurement
as measured by permanent products
“By 1/21/2023, with access to a calculator and budget template based on the income of a preferred job or job she is hired for, Jane will demonstrate her knowledge of budgeting and ability to perform basic financial calculations by spending/saving money according to the budget, accurately filling in the budget, and correctly completing the required calculations, independently, for 4 consecutive weeks, as measured by permanent products and teacher/staff-recorded data.”
- Date
By 1/21/2023 - Condition
with access to a calculator and budget template based on the income of a preferred job or job she is hired for - Functional Performance Indicator
Jane will demonstrate her knowledge of budgeting and ability to perform basic financial calculations - Observable Behavior
by spending/saving money according to the budget, accurately filling in the budget, and correctly completing the required calculations - Criteria
Independently - Mastery
for 4 consecutive weeks - Measurement
as measured by permanent products and teacher/staff-recorded data
“By 1/21/2023, when provided with verbally-delivered directions, Joe will demonstrate his ability to complete 2-step tasks by following the provided directions to completion, with no more than 3 verbal prompts, in 4 out of 5 opportunities, as measured by teacher observation.”
- Date
By 1/21/2023 - Condition
when provided with verbally-delivered directions - Functional Performance Indicator
Joe will demonstrate his ability to complete 2-step tasks - Observable Behavior
by following the provided directions to completion - Criteria
with no more than 3 verbal prompts - Mastery
in 4 out of 5 opportunities - Measurement
as measured by teacher observation
For more examples of complete IEP goal examples, click here (coming soon).