A fifth-grade student with an intellectual disability has a goal to use a set of five picture cards to retell the important information in a story. The committee drafts a goal to make it complete and appropriate by adding a component. Which component should be added?

A fifth-grade student with an intellectual disability has a goal to use a set of five picture cards to retell the important information in a story. The committee drafts a goal to make it complete and appropriate by adding a component. Which component should be added?

• A. specific
• B. measurable
• C. time bound
• D. attainable

Answer: (B)

Measurability is what lets you know if a goal was achieved. In this scenario the goal already uses a concrete tool—the five picture cards—which makes the task specific. But without a way to judge how well the student retells the important information, you can’t determine success or track growth over time. Adding a measurable component gives you an objective standard to meet, such as requiring that the student retell the key story details using the cards with a specified level of accuracy or completeness, based on a rubric. This turns the goal into something observable and assessable. Other enhancements like a time frame or feasibility are useful, but they don’t by themselves provide a way to gauge success. A deadline can be helpful for pacing, and ensuring the goal is attainable matters for practicality, but the essential missing piece here is a clear measurement of performance.

Measurability is what lets you know if a goal was achieved. In this scenario the goal already uses a concrete tool—the five picture cards—which makes the task specific. But without a way to judge how well the student retells the important information, you can’t determine success or track growth over time. Adding a measurable component gives you an objective standard to meet, such as requiring that the student retell the key story details using the cards with a specified level of accuracy or completeness, based on a rubric. This turns the goal into something observable and assessable.

Other enhancements like a time frame or feasibility are useful, but they don’t by themselves provide a way to gauge success. A deadline can be helpful for pacing, and ensuring the goal is attainable matters for practicality, but the essential missing piece here is a clear measurement of performance.