What are short-term objectives or benchmarks in an IEP?

Short term objectives, sometimes called benchmarks, can be added to goals to describe the expected achievement of the student on steps towards the annual goal. Short term objectives are not mandatory in California unless the student is eligible for the California Alternative Assessment, in which case they are required. Cal. Ed. Code Sec. 56345(a)(1)(C).

Often, teachers only vary the objective by the criterion of success, for example, by the percentage of accuracy expected, or for a fluency goal, the words per minute. This negates the value of having a benchmark since the annual goal would be reported that way anyway in each progress report. For example, if the annual goal was expecting 70%, the first progress report might say that the student is making progress and is at 50%.

By (the next annual IEP) given a passage at their instructional level, the student will increase their reading fluency to 70 correct words per minute in four out of five opportunities.

• Objective 1. By (first reporting period) given a passage at their instructional level, the student will increase their reading fluency to 50 correct words per minute in four out of five opportunities.

• Objective 2. By (second reporting period) given a passage at their instructional level, the student will increase their reading fluency to 65* correct words per minute in four out of five opportunities.

*Bear in mind that you might expect some regression during the long summer vacation and need to adjust goals accordingly.

A more useful way to use the objectives is to fade in the skill being taught or to fade out the level of support offered. If a goal requires prompting from an adult, that can be faded from moderate to minimal or from verbal to visual.

By (the next annual IEP), presented with cards containing a variety of phonemes, (consonants, vowels and consonant blends) the student will blend three or more cards to create single syllable words with 90% accuracy as measured by teacher data in four out of five opportunities.

• Objective 1. By (the first reporting period), presented with cards containing a variety of phonemes, after modeling the process three times by an adult, the student will blend three or more cards to create single syllable words with moderate visual and verbal prompts with 90% accuracy as measured by teacher data in four out of five opportunities.

• Objective 2. By (the second reporting period), presented with cards containing a variety of phonemes, after modeling the process once by an adult, the student will blend three or more cards to create single syllable words with minimal prompts with 90% accuracy as measured by teacher data in four out of five opportunities.

Objectives can also be used to break up the progression of skills taught within a scope and sequence of a structured program or curriculum.

By (the next annual IEP), presented with cards containing a variety of phonemes, (consonants, vowels and consonant blends) the student will blend three or more cards to create single syllable words with 90% accuracy as measured by teacher data in four out of five opportunities.

• Objective 1. By (the first reporting period), presented with cards containing a variety of phonemes, (consonants and vowels) the student will blend three cards to create CVC with 90% accuracy as measured by teacher data in four out of five opportunities.

• Objective 2. By (the second reporting period), presented with cards containing a variety of phonemes, (consonants and vowels) the student will blend four cards to create CVCe with 90% accuracy as measured by teacher data in four out of five opportunities.

For more details, see our article Key Parts of an IEP.