January 17, 2024 • 13 mins
Are special education goals leaving our students in a lurch? That’s the burning question I tackle head-on as I dissect the pitfalls of nonsensical goals and the cookie-cutter 80% accuracy benchmark that's often accepted as the norm. Through my experiences at Teaching Struggling Learners, I've witnessed firsthand the transformative power of setting precise, foundational goals. We'll break down why aiming for less than 100% mastery in critical skills can do a disservice to learners, and how committing to complete understanding can revolutionize interventions and streamline progress monitoring.
Next up, I'll lay out the roadmap for articulating student progress in a manner that resonates with parents and provides a solid basis for advocating for additional resources and support. Stay tuned as I share strategies to help educators be the catalyst for their students’ educational success. With these insights, you'll be equipped to forge ahead with confidence, ensuring that every piece of data is not just a number but a stepping stone towards meaningful achievements for your students. So refill that coffee cup and get ready for a session that's set to change the game for you and your scholars.
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Links Mentioned in the Show:
https://teachingstrugglinglearners.com
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:01):
My special ed teachers know the pain.
New student comes in with goalsthat make absolutely no sense.
I mean, honestly, some of thegoals that we have read I mean
all my special ed teacherfriends, you know it, you are
shaking your heads, yes, at this.
Just, some goals come to youand you just you cannot make
(00:24):
rhyme or reason of what theywere trying to say, trying to
get through and also mini rant.
So we put 80% accuracy on justabout every goal, right?
80% accuracy in four out offive trials.
So they only have to know 80%of the stuff, 80% of the time.
(00:46):
I mean, honestly, how muchlogic does that really make?
But I mean, you know, we don't,we don't want to think too hard
about all that.
The reality is, with all this,the goals, the way that we're
writing them right now, the waythat we're writing them right
(01:08):
now, it's just not a solidfoundation for kids who
desperately need a solidfoundation to move on.
So today we're going to talkabout making good special ed
goals.
Hi, I'm Jessica Curtis ofTeaching Struggling Learners.
I'm a boy mom and a veteranteacher.
(01:29):
You're listening to theReaching Struggling Learners
podcast where we talk all abouthelping students succeed
academically, socially andbehaviorally.
Thank you so much for tuning in.
So I've talked about it foryears now that the better your
(02:00):
goals are, the better yourprogress monitoring is going to
be, the easier your progressmonitoring is going to be and
finally, the better results thatmonitoring is going to be and,
finally, the better results thatyou're going to get.
I kind of feel like I'm beatinga dead horse with this, but
it's true, it's absolutely true,and it's even more true if it's
if that's even possible.
It's even more true for specialeducation goals and those IEPs.
(02:20):
When you have good goals, clear, explicit goals that are
literally an idiot could readand understand what you're
trying to go for, it helps youknow exactly what to target and
if the intervention or programor whatever it is that you're
using is working and how fastit's working.
(02:44):
Because the reality is, ifsomething's working but it's
just not working fast enough forour students to be able to make
real progress, we shouldprobably think very seriously
about switching stuff up.
But if we don't have cleargoals, we can't have clear
progress monitoring and we can'ttell yes or no this is working
(03:04):
or not working, or we shouldpitch it or we should keep it.
So we really do have to make awhole lot better goals for our
special education students.
Now one of the things again thatI have been saying for years
and years and years when itcomes to progress monitoring
goals.
(03:25):
I want to scream it from therooftops when it comes to IEPs
and special education goals,please, please, please, if you
want to make the best goalspossible for your students,
always choose the mostfoundational skill.
I know I know I've done itmyself for years before I
(03:48):
switched things up and startedmaking, you know, really big
changes in how I was teachingand writing goals.
But we tend to want to pack somuch into the goal because it's
a year out and you know we wantto make sure that you know this
goal is, you know, rigorousenough and all that stuff.
Guys, the kids are gettingrigor in the gen ed classroom.
(04:12):
Stop it.
Look at the most foundationalskill that that student is
missing and project out.
If you think that thatstudent's going to get that in
six months, then put that in thegoal that six months from now,
the student will be havemastered this goal with 100%
accuracy, and then your next onegoal could be the next step
(04:35):
that you think that they need todo the next six months out, or
however you want to put it likethat.
But the reality is, stoppacking so much into a single
goal.
One goal needs to be attachedto one foundational skill, the
most foundational skill thatthat student has a gap in.
(04:56):
And also, let's be honest,we're just going to.
I'm going to put all my cardsout on the table again.
I'm getting into a habit ofdoing that here.
But kids should know 100% oftheir letter sounds.
They should be able to read100% of the short A CVC words or
(05:17):
be able to read 100% of theshort vowel SH or CH or TH words
.
If you're putting it in a goal,let's be honest.
The kids haven't reallymastered it.
If they can only do it 80% ofthe time, guys, that means that
(05:37):
20% they don't know.
If we put in there that they'regoing to be able to identify
80% of the sounds, four out offive times.
So 80% of the time they onlyhave to know 80% of the sounds.
Sometimes that's not masteringa goal.
That's not mastering a goal.
(05:57):
And let's be honest, for ourstudents with special needs we
know we've been there theyeither get it or they don't.
Let's be honest.
They either have the soundsdown and they really have them
down, they really have the sightwords down, they really have it
or they don't.
And of course, we're thinkingabout this over multiple weeks,
(06:20):
you know.
Yes, obviously students willremember from day to day.
They slowly catch up and youknow they get more sounds on a
day but they forgot two or threeof them from yesterday.
We get that, but overall,consistency-wise, those students
either they get the sight wordsthat are presented or they
(06:41):
haven't learned them yet.
There really isn't this 80%that we keep putting in.
If we're honest with ourselvesand we're actually tracking our
data, we know, then, this whole80%.
If the kids are only getting80%, four out of five times,
(07:02):
they haven't mastered it.
That skill is still somethingthat they need to work on.
So let's make sure that whenwe're talking about very finite
things, which we should betalking about right, when we're
talking about foundationalskills for our students, they
should, more likely than not,have it 100% or pretty darn
(07:25):
close to it, right.
And so, finally, if they mastera goal, yay, wonderful,
fantastic, celebrate it, that iswonderful.
We can advance the skill oncethey've mastered it, right.
If the kids and this kind ofgoes to what I was saying
(07:45):
earlier about making sure thatwe are choosing foundational
skills that are small enough,that are pinpointed enough that
we can actually progress,monitor them, will have mastered
100% of their letter sounds andthey do it in three months.
(08:07):
Oh, my goodness, pat yourself onthe back.
You are a fantastic and amazingteacher.
You have hit the jackpot andyou should probably make a
million dollars.
I mean, you're a teacher, soyou should make a million
dollars anyway, but that'sbeside the point.
Celebrate it and then build onit.
It's okay.
It's okay to have a couplegoals in there that say, hey,
(08:29):
one is for letter sounds, thenext one is CVCs.
That's wonderful.
You don't have to put them allin the same goal, because you're
stealing from your students andyou're stealing from yourself
the ability to sit there and say, wow, look at this sweetie, you
just mastered that big goal andyou did it so quickly because
(08:50):
of all your hard work and all myhard work as a teacher, and now
we're going to move on to thiseven better goal and it's going
to help you do all these otherthings.
That's amazing.
Don't steal the joy from that,because, goodness knows, in
special education, those joysare that they are few and far
(09:12):
between.
At this point we got to startsetting ourselves and our
students up for success.
We have to start reallycelebrating the wins because,
let's be honest, we don't getthat many.
So don't steal them fromyourself and don't steal them
from your students by jamming awhole bunch of stuff into one
(09:34):
goal because we want to makesure it's rigorous enough.
Let's let's do this forourselves, let's do that for our
students, and this is somethingelse.
And this kind of goes back towhat I was just saying about
pinpointing the exactfoundational skill.
If you want to make really goodspecial ed goals, be so
(09:57):
specific that even your admin inyour classroom or in your
school building, youradministrators no, no, your
grandpa could pick up that IEPand would know what you're
trying to accomplish.
Leave absolutely nothing toquestion and don't be afraid to
(10:17):
put an example in there.
Don't be afraid.
I put in several times thatstudents.
I didn't want my students theywere practicing sight words and
they had to, you know, get allthese sight words.
I didn't want them to belooking at a list of a hundred
sight words.
I wanted them to have theirsight words on the cards and
that they would be able toidentify.
(10:38):
You know, one card, one word ona card at a time so that they
wouldn't get overwhelmed, andblah, blah, blah.
But I put that in there andI'll tell you what.
When my administrator went andread, read over that goal, she,
she was able to say, oh, oh, doyou have those cards?
Yeah, I have the cards, ofcourse, I have the cards, duh,
(11:01):
but that's how specific you wantyour goals to be, so that
anyone can pick up your IEP andgo, oh, I know what they're
working on.
And, because you're going tohave your data to back it up, I
know how I can continue withthis data.
Or I know how I can help thisstudent progress even faster in
(11:23):
reaching this goal, because Imean that would be awesome,
right, getting a little bitextra help with that.
No one is ever going to say noto that, right.
So I know that you have beenthrough if you're a special
education teacher, you have beenthrough goal making, training
and all that, and they focus onthe wordage that the student
(11:45):
will be able to.
And then they want to put allthis grandiose blast stuff in
there and you have to have apercent of accuracy and then you
have to have a number of trialsor opportunities and
shenanigans like that.
If you got to put that in there, then you got to put that in
there.
I get it.
But at the same time, if youdon't just make your goals
(12:10):
specific, make them measurable.
I know it sounds like smartgoals, but I'm not actually
going to go all the way withthis.
They need to be specific enoughthat an administrator you know,
the one that doesn't, you knowdoesn't really show their face
in the hallways that often thatone could pick this up and go,
oh okay, I know what she'strying to do with this student.
(12:31):
And that they're measurable,that it's something that you can
actually put a number to,because those two things right
there will make your goalsamazing.
You're going to make themunderstandable and you're going
to make them something that youcan actually show data on, and
(12:53):
in a couple weeks we're going totalk them something that you
can actually show data on.
And in a couple of weeks we'regoing to talk about this Use
that data to advocate for yourown students, which I mean,
let's be honest, we're alltrying to do that at this point.
So, anyway, I'll get off mysoapbox until next week, and
next week, we're going to talkabout communicating that data,
because you have those reallygood goals that you just made,
right, I mean that we justtalked about.
(13:13):
We're going to talk aboutcommunicating that data because
you have those really good goalsthat you just made, right, I
mean that we just talked about,and you're going to be able to
now collect that beautiful dataand communicate it with parents
in a way that they canunderstand, and then, after that
, we're going to talk about howto use that data that same data
from those really good goals toadvocate for your students so
that they can get the servicesand the supports that they
(13:36):
really need.
Until next time, may yourcoffee be strong, your students
calm and, as always, yourstudents progressing.
Bye.
My special ed teachers know the pain.
New student comes in with goalsthat make absolutely no sense.
I mean, honestly, some of thegoals that we have read I mean
all my special ed teacherfriends, you know it, you are
shaking your heads, yes, at this.
Just, some goals come to youand you just you cannot make
(00:24):
rhyme or reason of what theywere trying to say, trying to
get through and also mini rant.
So we put 80% accuracy on justabout every goal, right?
80% accuracy in four out offive trials.
So they only have to know 80%of the stuff, 80% of the time.
(00:46):
I mean, honestly, how muchlogic does that really make?
But I mean, you know, we don't,we don't want to think too hard
about all that.
The reality is, with all this,the goals, the way that we're
writing them right now, the waythat we're writing them right
(01:08):
now, it's just not a solidfoundation for kids who
desperately need a solidfoundation to move on.
So today we're going to talkabout making good special ed
goals.
Hi, I'm Jessica Curtis ofTeaching Struggling Learners.
I'm a boy mom and a veteranteacher.
(01:29):
You're listening to theReaching Struggling Learners
podcast where we talk all abouthelping students succeed
academically, socially andbehaviorally.
Thank you so much for tuning in.
So I've talked about it foryears now that the better your
(02:00):
goals are, the better yourprogress monitoring is going to
be, the easier your progressmonitoring is going to be and
finally, the better results thatmonitoring is going to be and,
finally, the better results thatyou're going to get.
I kind of feel like I'm beatinga dead horse with this, but
it's true, it's absolutely true,and it's even more true if it's
if that's even possible.
It's even more true for specialeducation goals and those IEPs.
(02:20):
When you have good goals, clear, explicit goals that are
literally an idiot could readand understand what you're
trying to go for, it helps youknow exactly what to target and
if the intervention or programor whatever it is that you're
using is working and how fastit's working.
(02:44):
Because the reality is, ifsomething's working but it's
just not working fast enough forour students to be able to make
real progress, we shouldprobably think very seriously
about switching stuff up.
But if we don't have cleargoals, we can't have clear
progress monitoring and we can'ttell yes or no this is working
(03:04):
or not working, or we shouldpitch it or we should keep it.
So we really do have to make awhole lot better goals for our
special education students.
Now one of the things again thatI have been saying for years
and years and years when itcomes to progress monitoring
goals.
(03:25):
I want to scream it from therooftops when it comes to IEPs
and special education goals,please, please, please, if you
want to make the best goalspossible for your students,
always choose the mostfoundational skill.
I know I know I've done itmyself for years before I
(03:48):
switched things up and startedmaking, you know, really big
changes in how I was teachingand writing goals.
But we tend to want to pack somuch into the goal because it's
a year out and you know we wantto make sure that you know this
goal is, you know, rigorousenough and all that stuff.
Guys, the kids are gettingrigor in the gen ed classroom.
(04:12):
Stop it.
Look at the most foundationalskill that that student is
missing and project out.
If you think that thatstudent's going to get that in
six months, then put that in thegoal that six months from now,
the student will be havemastered this goal with 100%
accuracy, and then your next onegoal could be the next step
(04:35):
that you think that they need todo the next six months out, or
however you want to put it likethat.
But the reality is, stoppacking so much into a single
goal.
One goal needs to be attachedto one foundational skill, the
most foundational skill thatthat student has a gap in.
(04:56):
And also, let's be honest,we're just going to.
I'm going to put all my cardsout on the table again.
I'm getting into a habit ofdoing that here.
But kids should know 100% oftheir letter sounds.
They should be able to read100% of the short A CVC words or
(05:17):
be able to read 100% of theshort vowel SH or CH or TH words
.
If you're putting it in a goal,let's be honest.
The kids haven't reallymastered it.
If they can only do it 80% ofthe time, guys, that means that
(05:37):
20% they don't know.
If we put in there that they'regoing to be able to identify
80% of the sounds, four out offive times.
So 80% of the time they onlyhave to know 80% of the sounds.
Sometimes that's not masteringa goal.
That's not mastering a goal.
(05:57):
And let's be honest, for ourstudents with special needs we
know we've been there theyeither get it or they don't.
Let's be honest.
They either have the soundsdown and they really have them
down, they really have the sightwords down, they really have it
or they don't.
And of course, we're thinkingabout this over multiple weeks,
(06:20):
you know.
Yes, obviously students willremember from day to day.
They slowly catch up and youknow they get more sounds on a
day but they forgot two or threeof them from yesterday.
We get that, but overall,consistency-wise, those students
either they get the sight wordsthat are presented or they
(06:41):
haven't learned them yet.
There really isn't this 80%that we keep putting in.
If we're honest with ourselvesand we're actually tracking our
data, we know, then, this whole80%.
If the kids are only getting80%, four out of five times,
(07:02):
they haven't mastered it.
That skill is still somethingthat they need to work on.
So let's make sure that whenwe're talking about very finite
things, which we should betalking about right, when we're
talking about foundationalskills for our students, they
should, more likely than not,have it 100% or pretty darn
(07:25):
close to it, right.
And so, finally, if they mastera goal, yay, wonderful,
fantastic, celebrate it, that iswonderful.
We can advance the skill oncethey've mastered it, right.
If the kids and this kind ofgoes to what I was saying
(07:45):
earlier about making sure thatwe are choosing foundational
skills that are small enough,that are pinpointed enough that
we can actually progress,monitor them, will have mastered
100% of their letter sounds andthey do it in three months.
(08:07):
Oh, my goodness, pat yourself onthe back.
You are a fantastic and amazingteacher.
You have hit the jackpot andyou should probably make a
million dollars.
I mean, you're a teacher, soyou should make a million
dollars anyway, but that'sbeside the point.
Celebrate it and then build onit.
It's okay.
It's okay to have a couplegoals in there that say, hey,
(08:29):
one is for letter sounds, thenext one is CVCs.
That's wonderful.
You don't have to put them allin the same goal, because you're
stealing from your students andyou're stealing from yourself
the ability to sit there and say, wow, look at this sweetie, you
just mastered that big goal andyou did it so quickly because
(08:50):
of all your hard work and all myhard work as a teacher, and now
we're going to move on to thiseven better goal and it's going
to help you do all these otherthings.
That's amazing.
Don't steal the joy from that,because, goodness knows, in
special education, those joysare that they are few and far
(09:12):
between.
At this point we got to startsetting ourselves and our
students up for success.
We have to start reallycelebrating the wins because,
let's be honest, we don't getthat many.
So don't steal them fromyourself and don't steal them
from your students by jamming awhole bunch of stuff into one
(09:34):
goal because we want to makesure it's rigorous enough.
Let's let's do this forourselves, let's do that for our
students, and this is somethingelse.
And this kind of goes back towhat I was just saying about
pinpointing the exactfoundational skill.
If you want to make really goodspecial ed goals, be so
(09:57):
specific that even your admin inyour classroom or in your
school building, youradministrators no, no, your
grandpa could pick up that IEPand would know what you're
trying to accomplish.
Leave absolutely nothing toquestion and don't be afraid to
(10:17):
put an example in there.
Don't be afraid.
I put in several times thatstudents.
I didn't want my students theywere practicing sight words and
they had to, you know, get allthese sight words.
I didn't want them to belooking at a list of a hundred
sight words.
I wanted them to have theirsight words on the cards and
that they would be able toidentify.
(10:38):
You know, one card, one word ona card at a time so that they
wouldn't get overwhelmed, andblah, blah, blah.
But I put that in there andI'll tell you what.
When my administrator went andread, read over that goal, she,
she was able to say, oh, oh, doyou have those cards?
Yeah, I have the cards, ofcourse, I have the cards, duh,
(11:01):
but that's how specific you wantyour goals to be, so that
anyone can pick up your IEP andgo, oh, I know what they're
working on.
And, because you're going tohave your data to back it up, I
know how I can continue withthis data.
Or I know how I can help thisstudent progress even faster in
(11:23):
reaching this goal, because Imean that would be awesome,
right, getting a little bitextra help with that.
No one is ever going to say noto that, right.
So I know that you have beenthrough if you're a special
education teacher, you have beenthrough goal making, training
and all that, and they focus onthe wordage that the student
(11:45):
will be able to.
And then they want to put allthis grandiose blast stuff in
there and you have to have apercent of accuracy and then you
have to have a number of trialsor opportunities and
shenanigans like that.
If you got to put that in there, then you got to put that in
there.
I get it.
But at the same time, if youdon't just make your goals
(12:10):
specific, make them measurable.
I know it sounds like smartgoals, but I'm not actually
going to go all the way withthis.
They need to be specific enoughthat an administrator you know,
the one that doesn't, you knowdoesn't really show their face
in the hallways that often thatone could pick this up and go,
oh okay, I know what she'strying to do with this student.
(12:31):
And that they're measurable,that it's something that you can
actually put a number to,because those two things right
there will make your goalsamazing.
You're going to make themunderstandable and you're going
to make them something that youcan actually show data on, and
(12:53):
in a couple weeks we're going totalk them something that you
can actually show data on.
And in a couple of weeks we'regoing to talk about this Use
that data to advocate for yourown students, which I mean,
let's be honest, we're alltrying to do that at this point.
So, anyway, I'll get off mysoapbox until next week, and
next week, we're going to talkabout communicating that data,
because you have those reallygood goals that you just made,
right, I mean that we justtalked about.
(13:13):
We're going to talk aboutcommunicating that data because
you have those really good goalsthat you just made, right, I
mean that we just talked about,and you're going to be able to
now collect that beautiful dataand communicate it with parents
in a way that they canunderstand, and then, after that
, we're going to talk about howto use that data that same data
from those really good goals toadvocate for your students so
that they can get the servicesand the supports that they
(13:36):
really need.
Until next time, may yourcoffee be strong, your students
calm and, as always, yourstudents progressing.
Bye.
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