How to Draw a Straight Line from Needs to Goals in an IEP

Hey there, welcome back to Special Education for Beginners!

We’re continuing our October series on writing IEPs that are clear, meaningful, and connected. Last week, on Episode 280, we talked about the PLAAFP and how it serves as the blueprint of the IEP. This week, we’re taking the very next step: turning the needs you identified in the Present Levels into strong, measurable goals.

Too often, IEPs end up with unsupported goals — goals that don’t connect back to the Present Levels. In this episode, I walk you through how to avoid that trap and create goals that are directly linked to the student’s needs, supported by baseline data, and easy for the entire IEP team to understand.

Here’s what you’ll learn in this episode:
 ✅ How to highlight needs in the Present Levels and make them your roadmap
 ✅ Why baselines matter (and why I never start a goal at 0%)
 ✅ How to write goals that are ambitious but realistic, specific but not overcomplicated
 ✅ The importance of sticking to one skill per goal
 ✅ Why you don’t need a goal for every single need — and what to do instead
 ✅ Tips for using parent-friendly language so everyone on the team understands

When your goals are aligned, the whole IEP feels purposeful and connected.

📚 Resource Mentioned:
 👉 Digital Goal Bank... For a limited time, grab it for 25% off to make goal writing easier and more effective: Get the resource here

🎧 Listen now to Episode 281 and start writing goals that are connected, measurable, and meaningful for your students.

Sign up to be notified each time a new episode airs and get access to all the discounts!

Don't forget to leave a review of the show!

Follow Jennifer
Instagram
TPT

Chapters

• 0:00 Welcome & Series Context
• 0:25 From Needs to Measurable Goals
• 1:35 Host Intro & Teacher Pain Points
• 1:59 The Problem: Unsupported Goals
• 3:24 Step 1: Identify Needs in PLAAFP
• 5:04 Step 2: Establish Accurate Baselines
• 7:05 Step 3: Write Measurable, Realistic Goals
• 8:27 Step 4: Check Alignment to Data
• 9:14 Quick Tips for Goal Quality

Transcript

SPEAKER_00: 0:00

Well, hey there and welcome back to Special Education for Beginners. We are continuing our October series on writing IEPs that are clear, meaningful, and connected. Last week in episode 280, we talked about the present levels of academic achievement and functional performance, the PLF, and how it serves as the blueprint of the IEP. If you missed it, make sure and go back and listen because today's episode builds directly on that foundation. This week we are looking at the very first connection you make once the blueprint is in place. How to take the needs identified in the present levels and turn them into strong, measurable IEP goals. Let's get to it. Hey special educator. Are you overwhelmed by the absurd amount of paperwork on your to-do list? Do you wish you had the skills to build a rock solid team with your staff? Do you find yourself scouring the internet for how to meet the needs of each student on your caseload? Well, hey there, I'm Jennifer Hoffer, an award-winning veteran special education teacher and current instructional coach who has walked in your shoes through each of these challenges. And yes, I have the metaphorical blisters to prove it. I have tried your tears and felt your pain, and now I'm here to support you in the way I wish someone would have been there to support me. Listen in each week as my guests and I dish out practical wisdom to help you handle all the classroom curveballs that are thrown at you and learn how to laugh in spite of the chaos to celebrate those small yet significant victories that only a special educator can understand. So, are you ready? Wipe your tears and put on your superhero cape because together we are going to learn how to survive and thrive in the ever-crazy, completely overwhelming laugh so you don't cry profession of being a special education teacher. So one common mistake I see when reviewing IEPs is what I call unsupported goals. These are goals that show up in the IEP but don't connect back to any documented need in the present levels. Maybe the PLF says a student is struggling with decoding, but then there's a comprehension goal. Or the PLF says there's no math concerns, but suddenly there's a math calculation goal. Going back to last week's analogy of building a house, imagine you are working off of a detailed set of blueprints and halfway through the construction, the homeowner says, Oh, and by the way, can you add an extra room here? You would be frustrated, right? Because there's no foundation for that room, no measurements, no materials ordered. Adding it in now would throw off the entire design. That's exactly what happens when you write an unsupported goal. So how do you prevent unsupported goals and make your contractor or in this case your SPED coach or your director happy? By drawing a line from the present levels to the goals. Here's the process I teach the teachers I coach. Highlight the needs. As you read through the present levels, highlight or list the areas of concern. These needs are the holes or the gaps that require support. Don't just skim and assume. Really analyze the data. What do the scores, the teacher's notes, and the parent input consistently point to? Does the student struggle in reading fluency, written expression, social skills, or attention? Write those down clearly. If you do this correctly and put time into identifying the needs, you will avoid the trap of adding just nice to have goals. If you can't find evidence of the need in the present levels, it doesn't belong in the goal section. Your list of needs should drive the goals you write, plain and simple. Next, you want to find the baseline. For each need you have identified, the next step is to locate the baseline data. Where is the student functioning right now? What is their current performance level? Here's something I always emphasize: a student should have a foundation for the goal you're about to write. I try very hard to never start with 0% on a goal. If a student has absolutely no knowledge of a skill, then the goal might be too big and unattainable. A goal should build on what the student already knows, not start from scratch. Another important piece of gathering baseline data is double checking. Sometimes those formal scores don't tell the full story. Maybe the student bombed on the day of the test. Maybe they were tired, anxious, or just off. But when you give them an informal probe, they actually might be able to demonstrate much stronger skills. And if you hadn't taken the time to dig a little deeper with an informal assessment, you might have written a goal that doesn't reflect their true abilities. This happened to me many times early in my career. I would see what I thought was a gap in their learning, write a goal for it, and then they met that goal within just a few weeks. So it's always good to cross-check with multiple data points. Use formal assessments, informal checks, classroom work, and teacher input. And then when you find those skills that the student really needs a goal for, then it's time to write a measurable goal from that data. A measurable goal is simply the baseline plus growth. If Johnny is reading 40 words per minute with 10 errors, a goal might be to increase fluency to 80 words per minute, but with fewer than three errors. Here are two key points to remember though. The growth should be ambitious yet realistic. If Johnny is at 40 words per minute, jumping to 180 or 200 words by the end of the school year is unrealistic. But setting the bar at just 45 or 50 words per minute doesn't seem ambitious enough. So use your professional judgment, your knowledge of the curriculum, and the student's history of progress to set growth that stretches them while still being achievable. Another key point is the goal should be specific and measurable, but not overcomplicated. Avoid vague wording like we'll improve reading or we'll do better in math. Instead, use clear criteria. How many words, what percent accuracy, under what conditions, and when and how will that progress be measured. But also don't write a goal that is so wordy that it's hard to follow. In other words, keep it clear but simple. If you do this correctly, anyone who reads the goal, the parent, a paraprofessional, an admin, or a next year's teacher can understand exactly what success should look like. And then the fourth is to check for alignment. Once that goal is written, pause and ask yourself, can I clearly trace this back to a documented need in the present levels? If the answer is no, you have an unsupported goal. If a parent or an administrator asks you, why did you choose this goal, you should be able to point directly to data in the present levels that shows that the student needs it. Every goal should have that imaginary line leading back to the plath. When those connections are clear, your IEP will feel meaningful and connected. And then I also want to share with you some quick tips for writing aligned goals. First is stick to one skill. Each goal should focus on a single area of need. Don't combine multiple skills in one goal. If you must do this or you really want to do this, I would set a clear overall accuracy rate. For example, the student will score 90% accuracy on a mixed probe, including single-digit addition, subtraction, and multiplication facts. This way you will get one score that you can report on on their progress report. The next one is to use parent-friendly language. Avoid jargon so parents and paras understand the goal. Instead of writing something like, Johnny will demonstrate phonemic awareness by segmenting phonemes and CBC words with 80% accuracy, you might say, Johnny will break apart the sounds in order to read three-letter CBC words with 95% accuracy. The third one is to tie it back to the standards. Always make sure you can tie your goal back to a state standard. I would assume all IEPs in all states have to tie back to some type of standard, whether that's a grade-level standard, a common core standard, an independent level standard, or an extended standard. You need to show that other students that age are expected to do this skill as well. And then you don't have to write a goal for every single need. Some needs can be addressed with accommodations, modifications, or classroom supports instead of an annual goal. Goals should target the highest priority skills that truly require focused instruction. If you are really struggling with writing goals, I've got you covered. I have created a resource packed with examples and guidance to help you write goals that are clear, measurable, and aligned to student needs. And for a limited time, I'm offering it to you for 25% off because I know how overwhelming goal writing can feel, and I want this to be something that lightens your load and not adds to it. So if goal writing feels overwhelming for you, this resource will make it easier. Head to the show notes and grab it for 25% off for a limited time. So this week, your challenge is to pull up one of your IEPs and do a quick check. Grab a highlighter and literally trace the lines from the needs listed in the present levels to the goals that follow. Use pink for reading, yellow for math, green for written language, blue for speech and language, and purple for social emotional. If you can't make the connections, it's time to rewrite. Next week in episode 282, we will take it a step further and talk about how to make sure your services and supports connect back to both the present levels and the goals. We're going to connect it all together, where the present levels are the blueprint, the goals are the structure, and the services and the supports are the wiring, the plumbing, and the insulation, the things that actually make the house come together. So thanks for joining me today. Don't forget to grab that goal bank. It is linked in the show notes, or you can just search for Digital Gold Bank in the SPED Prep Academy TPT store. See you next week.