Formulating Long-Term Goals and Short-Term Objectives for Individual Education Programs

The following procedure has been suggested for formulating long-term goals and short-term objectives:

1. Begin with a review of priority areas in a student's IEP.

2. Identify a resource (materials or an instructional strategy) to be used in each priority area.

3. Write for each priority area a long-term goal which has the following components: (a) direction of behavior change, (b) area of behavior change, (c) present level of behavior, (d) desired level of behavior, and (e) resource(s) for achieving the goal.

4. Determine available assessment devices related to the resource.

5. Write a few short-term objectives with the following components for each long-term goal: (a) the conditions under which the behavior or skill will be observed, (b) the overt behavior or skill to be observed, and (c) the minimum performance level considered necessary for demonstrating mastery relative to the behavior or skill.

The purposes for writing goals and objectives in IEPs are to clearly describe what a handicapped student is to accomplish in an educational program and how student progress toward goal attainment will be evaluated.