Is your child's IEP goal actually measurable?
Vague goals like “will improve reading skills” are hard to track — here's how to spot one. Paste one goal from your child's IEP and get an instant verdict, free, no account, no child data.
In the IEP document the school gave you, look for the section called “Annual Goals” — copy any one goal here.
What makes an IEP goal measurable?
Under IDEA — the federal law behind every IEP — annual goals must be measurable. In practice, a strong goal has four parts:
- Baseline— where your child starts today (“currently reads 40 words per minute”). Without it, nobody can tell if the goal is ambitious or trivial.
- Mastery criterion— exactly what counts as success (“90 wpm with 95% accuracy in 4 of 5 trials”), not “will improve.”
- Measurement method— the named tool or procedure (“weekly DIBELS probes,” “teacher data collection”) that will produce the evidence.
- Timeline— by when (“by the annual review date”).
If a goal is missing these, you can ask the IEP team to rewrite it — you don't have to accept vague goals. Know your rights →
This tool is provided for informational purposes only and does not constitute legal or educational advice. Results are AI-generated suggestions — bring them to your IEP team or a qualified advocate.