Determining IEP Goal Objectives and Benchmarks

Over my years as a special education teacher who has taught in multiple states, I’ve realized that the district or school you work for probably wants you to write IEP goals differently than your neighboring county or state.

While this isn’t necessarily a “bad thing”, it definitely makes it more difficult to know what a good IEP goal objective or benchmark pair should look like.

And this is one of the most common questions I receive when it comes to The Intentional IEP membership: “Does The Vault have IEP goals AND benchmarks?

So today we’re going to work through that. I’ll pull a couple of IEP goals from The Vault (TII’s IEP Goal Bank – grab a free Goal Bank here) and show you how to write accompanying IEP goal benchmarks. But before I show you what to do, I want to show you what not to do – but also give you an explanation of why you shouldn’t do this.

What to Do When Writing IEP Goal Objectives:

Let’s say you have a student in your class who is in second grade, but is working on a kindergarten level in math. This student needs to know how to add and subtract within 50 to be on grade level, but you’re still working on number identification.

Here is a goal from The Intentional IEP’s Goal Bank. This would be the student’s annual IEP goal:

By the end of quarter 4, when given addition and subtraction problems within 50, student will draw a picture to help her complete the problems, in 3 out of 4 trials with 70% accuracy.

In this example, you might see the IEP goal objectives look something like this:

By the end of quarter 1, when presented with the name of a number between 1 and 20 in verbal or written format, student will point to identify the correct number in number format in written form with 50% accuracy in 3 of 4 trials.
By the end of quarter 2, given visual, verbal, and tactile cues, student will use one-to-one correspondence to count objects up to 20 independently in 3 out of 4 trials with 50% accuracy.
By the end of quarter 3, given visual supports and manipulatives, student will use manipulatives to perform single digit addition and subtraction with 50% accuracy in 2 of 4 trials.

The IEP goal objectives are stacked, meaning the skill is built upon each marking period.

While this may work for some students, it’s unrealistic in terms of skill mastery. Not only is the IEP team expecting the student to go from number identification and 1:1 correspondence of numbers to 20, to then adding and subtracting numbers within 50 in one school year, it’s essentially 4 different IEP goals in one.

What to Do When Writing IEP Goal Benchmarks:

Let’s say you have a student who is unable to independently write a letter of the alphabet without a model. If you verbally ask the child to write the letter A, the child is unable to perform the task without a written model to trace or physical prompting.

Here is another IEP goal from The Intentional IEP’s Goal Bank:

With minimal physical prompting, student will trace and then print 26 lowercase letters of the alphabet with 75% accuracy in 3 of 4 trials.

Your IEP goal benchmarks might then look something like this:

With hand over hand assistance, student will trace and then print 13 lowercase letters of the alphabet with 75% accuracy in 3 of 4 trials.
With hand over hand assistance, student will trace and then print 26 letters of the alphabet with 75% accuracy in 2 of 4 trials.
With minimal physical prompting, student will trace and then print 13 letters of the alphabet, with 75% accuracy in 3 of 4 trials.

The IEP goal benchmarks are still stacked, meaning the skill is being built upon each marking period – but the child has more realistic and achievable benchmarks to meet each marking period. While the skill itself does not change, the level of prompting, the level of accuracy and trials, and the number of letters the student is expected to trace and then print does change.

How will this quick lesson change the way you are writing IEP goals and benchmarks for the students and families that you service?

Remember – no way is wrong or right… what matters is that your goals are SMART and individualized to the student’s needs.

Here are a few more blog posts on writing IEP goals:

Writing effective IEPs is so much easier when you have the right tools in your toolbox! Inside The Intentional IEP, you’ll get access to expert-led trainings, a searchable IEP goal bank with IEP Screeners, and ready-to-use resources that take the guesswork out of IEP writing and implementation. With the right tools at your fingertips, you’ll save time, reduce stress, and feel confident in creating IEPs that truly support your students. Join today and fill your IEP toolbox with everything you need!