Math IEP goals

Math is four pages here, because a math goal is measured four different ways: digits correct on a computation probe, a step-by-step word problem, a task done in a shop or a kitchen, and a five-year-old counting objects on a table. Write one below, or start from the phrase you were looking for.

Write a math goal

Annual goal

By the annual review date, when given a mixed set of single-digit addition facts, [Student] will write answers at 30 correct digits per minute, as measured by weekly one-minute math computation probes.

Benchmarks

  1. 1

    By the annual review date, when given a mixed set of single-digit addition facts, [Student] will write answers at 14 correct digits per minute, as measured by weekly one-minute math computation probes.

  2. 2

    By the annual review date, when given a mixed set of single-digit addition facts, [Student] will write answers at 19 correct digits per minute, as measured by weekly one-minute math computation probes.

  3. 3

    By the annual review date, when given a mixed set of single-digit addition facts, [Student] will write answers at 25 correct digits per minute, as measured by weekly one-minute math computation probes.

Collecting the data next? Print a tracking sheet built for the way this goal is scored.

Replace [Student] and any remaining bracket in your own document. The IEP team writes the goal from this student's present levels; this is a starting draft, not an IEP.

91 math goals, on four pages

Each shown at an example present level and target.

Math computation

23

Facts, multi-digit operations, fractions, decimals, integers.

See the goals

Math problem solving

23

Word problems, multi-step reasoning, money, time, measurement.

See the goals

Kindergarten math

24

Counting, cardinality, comparing, shapes, sums within 10.

See the goals

Functional math

21

A cross-section: money, time, measurement, shopping, a paycheck.

See the goals

Find the goal you came for

Teams ask for math goals by the skill in the present levels rather than by which page they sit on. Each link below goes straight to the goal, written out at an example present level and target.

Math fact fluency

Fluency goals are the ones most often written unmeasurably — “will improve math fluency” cannot be scored. Every one of these counts correct digits or correct answers in a fixed minute, which is the measure a one-minute probe already produces.

Number sense

Knowing what a number means before operating on it: how many are here, which is bigger, what a digit is worth, what eleven is made of. These sit across the kindergarten page and the computation page because the skill spans them.

Money

Money goals belong to whichever setting the money is in — a word problem, a register, or a paycheck — so they are written in three different areas and collected on the functional math page.

Time and measurement

Telling time, elapsed time, and measuring with the tool the task actually calls for. The classroom versions are problem-solving goals; the ones scored during a real routine are life-skills goals.

Word problems

Where a student loses a word problem is rarely the arithmetic. These separate the parts — finding the question, choosing the operation, ignoring the extra number, checking whether the answer is sensible — so a goal targets the step that is actually breaking.

Shapes and position

The shape goals in this bank are early-years ones: naming flat and solid shapes whichever way round they are turned, describing where something is, and building or drawing a shape with the right number of sides.

Other skill areas

Reading fluencyReading comprehensionDecoding and phonicsVocabularyWritingBehavior
The five parts of a measurable goal

Sources

Every figure on this page comes from one of the documents below, with the day it was read. Requirements change — open the source if you need today's wording.