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Using terms such as grade level assessment, instructional level passages and age appropriate tasks are ambiguous to indicate competency in assessment levels.

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What makes a good / acceptable PLOP:
- clear and understandable statement

IEP Roadmap:
- short-term objectives / benchmark
- annual goal (CABD)
- precise learning goals and objectives or benchmarks provide a clear focus for instruction

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Short term objectives do not involve a "time frame", whereas benchmarks must have a time factor.

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A well-written Annual Goals (AG) and Short-Term Objectives (STOs) have to be specific, measurable, accurate and most importantly, achievable for the student to achieve (based on their current performance). It will be redundant if both AG and STOs are impossible to achieve, which will put on stress on the AED LBS as well as the student.

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1. Difference between STO and Benchmark is as follows:
STO - dividing the Annual Goal (AG) into discrete skill components (smaller steps to achieve) without involving time factor.
Benchmark - describe the amount of progress that the student is expected to achieve within a stipulated time. For example, to be able to read 100 words independently by the end of term 1.

2. Having specific learning goals and objectives will enable the AED LBS to have a clear focus on what to achieve periodically. Thus, easier for the AED LBS to monitor the student's progress and make necessary changes when applicable.

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1. STO should clearly communicate expectations to stakeholders (therapists, teachers and parents) in terms of the knowledge and skills a student should acquire. It should not be a personally understood statement.

2. STO can be both Hierarchy (Sequential) or targeting important skills in a domain. Sequential is, student, accomplish the first objective before moving on to the next.  Targeted skill focuses on an important component of skill and does not have to follow a specific sequence.

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IEP goals includes; conditions, learner, behaviour and criteria. Each of the component contributes in making a SMART goal.

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STO and BM should be meaningful and measurable outcomes between student's current performance level and the annual goal.
There are two general strategies for writing STO and BM, one is sequential strategy and the other is targeting important skills in the domain.

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IEP goals include four components: Conditions, Audience, Behaviour, Degree (CABD). It must be specific, observable or measurable behaviors and represent realistic growth for students.

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Key Learning Points:

1. STO vs BMs

Clarity on the characteristics of STOs and BMs. STOs being measurable, intermediate steps and BMs are like major milestones to indicate progress within a specific time-frame. The similarity is where the final steps in either STO and BMs to be integrated as the last step before the annual goal accomplishment.

2. The importance of incorporating STOs and BMs into IEPs. This is to ensure all stakeholders involved in the IEP, (i.e student, parents, school personnel etc) are able to monitor the student's progress throughout the year. Additionally, I think that progress monitoring provides a sense of ownership to everyone in the IEP team, working towards the same annual goal.

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SMART IEP goals begins with PLOP in mind followed by the 4 components CABD (condition, audience, behaviour, degree) and integrating STOs or BMs for progress monitoring. Remembering this logical sequence will help me in planning future IEP goals successfully.

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Benchmarks are used to indicate the amount of progress the child is expected to make within a specified period of time. Whereas, STOs are used if the IEP team can divide annual goals into discreet skill components.

AGs must be accompanied by benchmarks or short-term objectives. An AG should tick all the criteria of a SMART goal as it enables all stakeholders to monitor the student's progress efficiently.

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The four components of an IEP goal consists of C(condition), A(audience), B(behaviour) and D(degree). It is important to set specific, measurable and realistic goals for the students.

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1.) Short-term objectives and benchmarks if specific in measuring the accurate conditions of performance, can be reflective indicators if a strategy or intervention is successful. They are intermediate indicators of measurable outcomes which are credible and precise, to reflect and map the student's closing ideal current performance level to the annual goal/objective.

2.) With every student having differing needs, there is an importance in understanding and being familiar in curriculum or target skill demands. Only then would an effective IEP be tailored to be a relative fit for the particular student. A logical structure sequences an IEP's instructional process to either sequentially increase in difficulty, or target important component skills.

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1. Writing good AGs, STOs/Benchmarks provide a clear, measurable and progressive direction for all key stakeholders in monitoring the progress of the student. It also acts as an effective tool of communication to drive across the idea and rationale on how these progressive measures will lead to attaining the proposed end goal for the student

2. Before writing any AGs, STOs or Benchmarks, there is an inherent need to understand the child's present level of competency and mastery holistically to have a good gauge at which areas need to be targetted and what the PLOP is. Only then can we build, achievable, measurable and specific goals

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I would use the M.A.D as a guiding tool when writing an IEP and setting STO for my students.

Materials – allows for specific details about the tool (E.g., a grade __ passage, prompt cards, etc.). This will help to eliminate ambiguity and provides a measurable standard for progress monitoring.

Assistance – the type/level of support the child receives as they work towards the goal set. (E.g., graphic organizer, to complete ___ independently, cue cards, etc). Assistance can fade over time to monitor the child’s independency.

Directions/instructions – how the child completes the assessments and what type of intervention was used to move them to achieving the IEP Goal. (E.g., explicit instructions on ______, “show all your work when solving the problems”, etc). The directions will allow stakeholders make appropriate interpretations when comparing scores with benchmark tables.

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dear Dr liz,

can i request that we do together as a class on how to calculate the numbers to get the Mastery Criteria please? thank you

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Writing an IEP involves a team of stakeholders involved in the child’s education journey. It is important that we set SMART Goals when planning so that it is most beneficial to the child’s learning. In this article, the two learning points which I picked up are:

1) Short – Term Objectives (STO): We set achievable targets for the student to taste success before we increase the challenge (higher targets). Setting the goals small allows the child to work in a slow and steady momentum and not be overwhelmed by the need to “catch up” with their peers which causes anxiety and low self-confidence.

2) There are 3 components in the performance criteria (Degree). First, the criterion level. This is important when setting a goal in an IEP. It is measurable and specific. Second, the number of times the child should demonstrate that level. We want the child to be able to remember and apply the knowledge and skills taught in their education journey (or life journey for Social Skills). Therefore, it is necessary that we know how consistent the child is and monitor if they have mastered what has been taught. Third, the evaluation schedule. This will help the teachers to evaluate their instructional planning and provides information to other stakeholders on the mastery of the intervention planned.

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We can add clarity and quality towards a given condition by adding in Accomodating Procedures and Evaluation Setting. This will differ from student to student in accordance to their needs and difficulty and whether the school has the resources to provide the necessary support.

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Avoid using ambiguous verbs that are not observable. For example, students can read and comprehend or solve a math problem. The term read, comprehend and solve are not observable behaviours.

The term identify is another example of an ambiguous verb because it can mean, pointing, colouring, circling etc.

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1) The reason for writing clear and precise goals and short-term objectives are as follows:

- Provides a clear focus for instruction which promotes positive outcomes for students with needs

- Provides a clear basis for monitoring student progress or lack of progress

- Communicates expectations to other teachers or parents and therapists

2) Enforces educators to prioritise the needs and set clear, objective goals for the student after taking into consideration the level of performance the student is currently at.

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1) Goals and STOs/Benchmarks has to be precise and clear as that will:
- provide a clear focus for instruction, which will benefit students with disabilities
- provide a clear basis in monitoring the progress of an individual
- communicate clear expectations to stakeholders on the skills and knowledge the student should acquire

2) The difference between Benchmarks and STOs are that, the former defines major milestones and the latter defines measurable, intermediate steps. STOs aid in dividing annual goals into separate skill components whereas Benchmarks describes the amount of progress a student has to make within a specified time frame.

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1) IEP Goals must be SMART (Specific, Measurable, Action Verbs, Realistic and Time Limited)

-  The SMART acronym will serve as a guide for educators to come up with specific, measurable and realistic goals with action verbs. Action verbs has to be observable and measurable. Some examples of action verbs would be: answer verbally, point to, verbally request, maintain appropriate, count money, etc.

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The choice of action verbs must be clear and exact as it makes behaviours observable, measurable and student centered.
The common choice of words in measuring students behaviour like increase, decrease, achieve are ambiguous and should be avoided as they do not refer to a particular skill or task that students perform.

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IEP goals must be SMART including the learner, conditions, behaviour and criteria.

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To appropriately write my condition, I can follow the acronym MAD which stands for Materials, Assistance and Directions/Instructions.

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"The A in SMART is not just Attainable, it is an Action Verb.. I saw it somewhere."
- Clive

The A in the SMART acronym used in IEP related documents refer to Action Verbs according to Hedin's article. Action Verbs are used to create specific, measurable and realistic goals.

Using an action verb keeps the statement objective and observable. It prevents vague interpretations of what we are trying to relay to a reader.

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1.      I learned that PLAAFP refers to present level of academic and functional performance.

2.      I also learned how to identify a good PLOP.

3.      I learned the difference between Short -term objectives (STO) vs benchmark.  STO occurs when annual goals can be broken down into individual skill components. Benchmarks refers to the progress a student has to make within a certain time-frame.

4.      I feel setting SMART goals for the student highly motivate the student to perform better, looking and charting their own progress will also inspire them further.

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1. There are 3 components of degree (CABD) and they are Criterion Level, Consistency of Criterion Level, and Evaluation Schedule. Following these 3 components, I can have clear and detailed information about the target behaviour to be acquired.

2. Having a well done and precise annual goal, STO/BM provides clear focus for instruction, clear basis for student-progress monitoring and also greatly helps with communication of expectations between stakeholders.

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1.
Short-Term Objectives are the division of key skills or requirements leading up to an Annual Goal.

Benchmarks on the other hand are progressive milestones that is better described as a tiered division or a scaffold.

An objective division such as the STO is an assembly of skills or tasks in a targeted domain that builds up to the final goal. As such it's achievement may not be sequential.

Benchmarks are more suited to coach and lead someone through a hierarchy of achievements until the final desired objective. The sequence of achievements may be based on difficulty or prerequisites.

2.
To write effective Goals, STOs and Benchmarks one must have several other knowledge and skills. The writer needs to have some knowledge of the curriculum they are setting goals for. They also need to have some knowledge about assessment strategies so they can formulate ways to assess and evaluate a student's progress and most importantly set realistic objectives and benchmarks.

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I must have the ability to individualize the IEP goals for student. A good IEP goals reflect the student’s unique strengths and needs. It must also be aligned to students’ present level of performance (PLOP). We use the SMART acronym to set the IEP goals. It must be specific, measurable, realistic using action verb and time bound. IEP goals include four components: Condition, Learner, Behaviour and Criteria.

To individualize the IEP goals, collecting data to understand the students’ strengths, interest and needs within each domain is the foundation of IEP. Data reported on students’ present level of performance (PLOP) includes quantitative and qualitative data. With these data, we can picture the student’s strength and needs to establish SMART IEP goals and choose appropriate intervention.

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1)      The condition under which the student will perform the behaviour is one of the essential parts in writing the short-term objective. The condition includes one requisite part and two optional parts. The two optional parts include any assistance or accommodation provided during or immediately before the assessment that might affect the student’s performance and the evaluation setting where you modify the assessment environment to accommodate specific student needs. A good condition phrase requires a clear description of the assessment material that will be used to evaluate the learning outcome.

2)      Vocabulary and spelling present special problem for writing short term objectives. The purpose of learning spelling and vocabulary is to enlarge the pool of words that students can spell or use while writing or speaking. There is possibility for overlap across the goal and objectives. I learnt that I can control some of the overlap by developing rules for selecting words for each tests. This will ensure long term mastery and helps integrate the various spelling skills. (For example: words spelled wrongly are automatically included on the next test)

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1. The Criteria of an acceptable PLOP:
- describe how the disability affects the student’s involvement and academic progress in the cirriculum
- state the student’s performance levels in the areas
affected by the disability (quntifiable, measurable, specific)
- logical cues for writing the accompanying goals for improvement

2. STO vs BM
- Short Term Objectives: dividing the Annual Goal into different and specified academic/social skill components without a specified time-frame.

Benchmark: A major milestone that accurately describe the amount of progress that the student is expected to achieve within a specifed time-frame.

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Action verbs used have to be specific, observable and measurable. For example, the word 'comprehend' is not specific because the act of comprehension is highly subjective to each individual. The act of comprehension is also not observable hence, it cannot be accurately measured.

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Short Term Objective (STO): No dates reflected. STO 1 to STO 3(max) before Annual Goal (AG).

Benchmarking (BM): Comes with specific timeframe like dates or months.

Absorbing these short forms into my BRAIN:
PLOP: Present Level of Performance
IEP: Individualized Education Plan
AG: Annual Goal
STO: Short Term Goal
BM: Benchmarking
CABD: Condition, Audience, Behavior, Degree
PLAAFP: Present Level of Academic Achievement and Functional Performance
CBM: Curriculum Based Measure

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Two key learning points:
1. The difference between Short Term Goal and Benchmark as there's always a confusion between these 2. To take note that STO has 3 steps before the AG.

2. The importance of IEP includes measurable annual goals and STO or benchmarks that describe each student’s expected learning outcomes.

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To use condition - learner - behaviour - criteria template in order to produce SMART IEP goal.

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Students' individualized education plans (IEPs) is very crucial when setting it for the students. It should reflect the student's unique strengths and needs. AED LBS can using the SMART acronym which develop specific, measurable, realistic goals.

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I learnt...

STO3 ( is not equivalent to AG (annual goal). It is better to have 3 STO and 2 BMs and not too many of each before the AG.
Benchmarks are major milestones used to indicate progress whereas short term objectives can be used to divide annual goals into smaller skill components.

These goals or objectives or benchmarks provide a clear focus for instructions, provide a clear basis for monitoring student and communicates expectations to people around the child such as family, teachers and therapists.

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Benchmarks have a time factor to it whereas short term objectives does not have it. IEP goals has to be customised to align with student's level of performance. Set SMART goals, do not set high expectations.

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For a successful IEP implementation, a good annual goal is crucial. To achieve our annual goal we need clear, measurable and immediate STOs or BMs.
Difference between STO and BM is:
STO - AG are divided into discrete skill components. We move to the next STO when the first STO is achieved.
BM - is the amount of progress a student must achieve in a given time frame.

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1) Use either STO or benchmark. Writing precise goals will provide a clear focus for instructions!

2) 2 strategies when writing STO or BM.
a) Hierarchical or sequential strategy.
b) Targeting important skills in the domain.

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4 component:
Condition: Describe the context where student perform target behaviours
Learner: description of student's strength, interest and needs
Behaviour: use action verbs that will correspond with observable behaviours (eg. point, read, write)
Criteria: Mastery Criteria and Retention Criteria

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My Two Learning Points:

1.     Short-Term Objectives (STOs) can be developed by dividing annual goals into discrete skill components such as expressing comprehension in Mathematics and reading as discrete skills (Double-digit addition with carrying, literal comprehension, sequential comprehension, inferential comprehension. Conversely, grade-level reading performance using leveled readers are milestones. Each benchmark level signifies a milestone for the student.

2.     In determining the number of (STOs) or Benchmarks to fulfil the goal for each student, we need to consider at least two factors – 1) Consider how long it has taken to teach the targeted skills to previous students; 2) Consider how long it has taken to teach this student other skills previously. Then, we need to estimate what we can accomplish in one reporting period then evaluate the student’s ability and increase or decrease what should be accomplished or make no change in the (STOs) or benchmark.

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In drafting the Condition for a student’s SMART IEP goals, we need to consider Materials, Assistance and Directions/Instruction.

Materials involve each student’s strengths, needs and the contexts that the student performs target skills that encourages his/her successful task completion.  It also includes assessments completed by the student to measure skill performance in terms of levels and types. For instance, fifth and second-grade Mathematics assessments differ by the types of problems, which helps to track student’s progress and eliminates ambiguity.

Assistance is the number, type and level of supports that the student received as he/she completes skills. By specifying that a task is completed independently in an IEP goal specifies the level of assistance. Other forms of assistance include verbal prompting by teachers, cue cards, hand over hand assistance, calculators, checklists. Assistance levels allows teachers to make IEP goals measurable and give evidence of the student’s progress towards independence. For instance, when a student is doing a writing task, the number of prompts required decreases over time.

Directions/Instructions can include how the student will complete certain assessment and the type of intervention used to help him/her progress in achieving the IEP goal. For instance, for a writing task, the directions can be “plan for 1 minute and write for 3 minutes”. Professionals can also compare the scores such as writing scores against benchmarks to make appropriate interpretations for future planning.

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1)    The three reasons for writing precise learning goals and objectives are :

a)     Provide clear guidelines for positive outcomes for SEN students.

b)    Provide clear monitoring of student progress or lack of progress.

c)     Communicate expectations to parents, teachers and therapists about the knowledge and skills students need to acquire.

2)    The two strategies for writing STO or benchmarks are :

a)     Arrange skills in sequential order; students must complete the objectives in sequence to accomplish the final goal.

b)    Target important skills in the areas such as social skills, school survival skills, study skills, or daily skills. The goals do not need to be completed in order.

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The Criteria for IEP goals provide two types of information to make measurable goals by setting the appropriate mastery and retention criteria to make the goals realistic and time limited.

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My two learning points:

1) Benchmarks are distinct from short-term objectives (STOs). STOs and benchmarks both must be measurable, however, benchmarks include specific timeframes that the student should be able to achieve.

2) Annual goals, objectives, STOs, and benchmarks should be clearly and precisely stated. The objectives should provide a detailed basis for monitoring the progress of students. We can write clear goals or objectives by using essential parts, which include the following: Condition, Student, observable behaviours and performance criteria (degree).

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The lack of details in many IEP goals is a significant problem. We must consider both a student's strengths, as well as their current academic level (PLOP), not only through quantitative data (e.g. the number of words a student can read correctly), but also through qualitative data. We can obtain qualitative data from our observations as well as from interviews with teachers and parents.

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1) The IEP includes measurable annual goals and short-term goals or benchmarks that describe each student's expected learning outcomes.

2) It is important that the short-term goals and benchmarks be clear and concise. Precise learning goals and benchmarks provide a clear focus for instruction that leads to positive outcomes for students. They also provide a clear basis for monitoring student progress and help us make individualized curricular decisions. They also communicate to others the expectations for what knowledge and skills a student should acquire.

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There are four components to IEP goals: conditions, learner, behaviour and criteria. Each component contributes to making goals SMART.

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IEP should be done for students with high needs. This will help map out the issues and enable us to make Benchmarks and STOs.
We need to include measurable data so as to enable us to make measurable STOs and AGs.

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1) We need to make a good PLOP so as to enable us to make sound and achievable AGs and then STOs or benchmarks.

2) Verbs and actions words used in AGs and STOs should be easily understood by even layman so that it can be easily understood and implemented or measured by other people, other than the LBS.