Writing Proper, Measurable Goals for Your IEP Progress Report

Writing IEP goals or “Measures of Progress” that let you know for certain if your child is progressing. Measurable goals will help you determine if your child is catching up to peers or regressing and falling further behind when you receive your child’s IEP progress report.

Characteristics of a Readable IEP progress report

Your child’s academic skill mastery should be able to be presented as graphical data. It doesn’t have to be, but being presentable as a graph leans towards characteristics of measurable data. If the data can be presented in a graph, then you can easily SEE if your child is making adequate yearly progress in the IEP progress report.

When your school admins say your child is making progress, you can ask, “What data do you base your opinion upon?” There should be actual data, like standardized test scores, that can answer questions. Almost any data that you can plot on a graph can be considered “measurable”.

In order to make a graph of progress, your child’s IEP needs measurable goals. To be sure the data can be viewed for progress at any point you can write goals using data points. For example:

– For the reading fluency goal: Y.C. Will improve from 60 words per minute in reading speed to 100 words per minute when reading a typical classroom literature selection he has not read previously.

When writing your child’s measurable IEP goals, ask these questions about the measurement:

– Is the desired outcome something that can be measured by me or someone else?

– Is the measurement based upon quantifiable data that can be plotted on a graph?

– Can the measurement criteria be understood by anyone, at any time?

– Will anyone be able to easily determine if progress is being made in an IEP progress report?

IDEA 300.347 also says parents should be notified of …(B) “The extent to which that progress is sufficient to enable the child to achieve the goals by the end of the year.” You should get an IEP progress report that lets you KNOW whether your child is on track to meet his goals by the end of the year. If your child’s goals are measurable, then you’ll be able to track your child’s progress.

Continue FORWARD in this IEP training to learn more about HOW to write measurable goals.