1. Purpose of the Parent District Provider Agreement
    2. Current Level of Academic Performance
    3. Measurable Goals
    4. Writing Measurable Goals for the PDPA
      1. Samples from PDPAs
    5. References and Resources

TAP Number: BPSO-2006-008
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October 2006
Technical Assistance Paper
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Related to Parent District Provider Agreements (PDPA)
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Purpose of the Parent District Provider Agreement
The purpose of the Parent District Provider Agreement (PDPA) is to assist low-performing
students in meeting state and school district expectations in academic proficiency in reading,
language arts, and mathematics. The PDPA should reflect each student’s program with
instruction that is focused, intensive, and tailored to meet the individual needs of the student.
The PDPA is the primary vehicle for communicating the parent, district, and provider
commitment to addressing the unique educational needs of a student.
Critical Elements of the PDPA
The PDPA must:
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be based on
academic performance data and a diagnostic assessment conducted by
the state-approved SES provider to identify student’s academic deficiencies and skill
gaps
. Academic performance data might include FCAT scores, scores from other
standardized tests, and report card grades. In addition, diagnostic assessments should be
used to pinpoint specific academic deficiencies and identify priority educational needs.
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identify
specific and measurable achievement goals
for the student in reading, language
arts and/or mathematics. Academic goals and FCAT tested benchmarks should be stated
specifically for each deficiency and prioritize educational need in the content area based on
appropriate diagnostic assessments. The measurable goal should focus on the knowledge
or skills that will enhance the student’s performance and assist in achieving the desired
outcome.
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include
individualized instructional program and academic intervention strategies
designed to meet students’ individual needs. Intervention strategies and tutoring should be
proven effective by scientific research and focused on specifically diagnosed deficiencies. If
the student has been identified as having a deficiency in reading, the PDPA must address
the student’s specific deficiencies in phonemic awareness, phonics, fluency, comprehension,
and vocabulary. If the student has been identified as having a deficiency in mathematics, the
PDPA must address the student’s specific deficiencies in the identified standards of the
Sunshine State Standards (number sense, measurement, geometry and spatial sense,
algebraic thinking, and data analysis and probability). For information regarding Florida’s
Sunshine State Standards, see www.firn.edu/doe/curric/prek12/index.html.
TECHNICAL ASSISTANCE PAPERS (TAPs) are produced periodically by the
REFER QUESTIONS TO:
Bureau of Public School Options to present discussion of current topics. The
TAPs may be used for inservice sessions, technical assistance visits, parent
Mary Jo Butler
organization meetings, or interdisciplinary discussion groups. Topics are
maryjo.butler@fldoe.org
identified by state steering committees, district personnel, and individuals, or
from program compliance monitoring.
(850) 245-0479
BUREAU OF PUBLIC SCHOOL OPTIONS
John L. Winn, Commissioner
325 WEST GAINES STREET, ROOM 314
TALLAHASSEE, FL 32399-0400

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provide the process and schedule for
frequent monitoring of student’s progress
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Continuous progress monitoring of academic performance is necessary for many reasons.
Continuous progress monitoring enables teachers to detect a student’s academic difficulties
early and modify or accommodate the curriculum and instruction. Students should be aware
of their progress and can use the information for goal-setting and motivation. Information
from progress monitoring will reinforce the efforts of teachers and parents who are supplying
the supplemental instruction and increase the probability that such services will be effective.
Frequent progress monitoring will help inform tutors, teachers, and parents of the student’s
progress toward meeting the annual goals. It is recommended that a student’s progress be
monitored at a minimum of once each month. This will enable the tutor, parent, and teacher
to determine if the academic intervention and support is effective, and if not, to revise or
make accommodations to the instruction to reflect a more effective intervention.
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provide
a timetable for improving the student’s achievement
that ensures that services
are provided to students as soon as possible in the school year, but no later than October
15 of each school year. The timetable should include the length of each tutoring session,
the frequency of the sessions, and the duration (i.e. end of the school year).
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describe
how the provider will regularly inform the student’s parents and teachers
regarding the student’s progress.
Progress reports to parents and teachers must be
regularly scheduled, and the format should provide information in a way that is easy to
understand.
Current Level of Academic Performance
Gathering information related to a student’s current level of academic performance is the first
step in developing a PDPA. The PDPA team members must use the information to establish a
baseline of the student’s current functioning level in order to develop measurable annual goals
and determine what services are needed to meet the needs of the student. It is important that
the current level of performance statement is written in a way that is clear to all participants and
measurable so that student progress during the tutoring sessions can be easily monitored and
reported.
The current level of academic performance should contain information on the following:
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specific information about the student’s achievement and performance on a variety of
assessments and observations
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strengths and/or weaknesses of the student based on the diagnostic assessments
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informal data and observations
Measurable Goals
A measurable goal is an individualized, specific statement of what the student needs to learn
and how well it must be accomplished. The measurable goals must clearly communicate what
the student is expected to accomplish and specify the criterion or measure that will be used to
determine whether or not the student has achieved the goal. Measurable goals should reflect
the student’s most critical academic needs that are to be addressed during the tutoring
sessions. The measurable annual goals set up the process for how progress can be measured
and reported to meet the requirements of the PDPA.
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To be measurable, each goal must include a clear description of what the student is expected to
learn and the criterion or measure that will be used to show if the goal has been achieved.
Project SMART (2000) suggests the acronym SMART for writing measurable goals. The
acronym SMART has a number of slightly different variations, which can be used to provide a
more comprehensive definition for goal setting:
S
- specific, significant, stretching
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M
- measurable, meaningful
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A
- agreed upon, attainable, achievable, acceptable, action-oriented
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R
- relevant, realistic, reasonable, rewarding, results-oriented
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T
- time-based, timely, tangible, trackable
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Specific goals
should be straightforward and emphasize what the team wants to happen for
the student. A specific goal outlines the what, why, and how of the SMART model.
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WHAT
are you going to do? Use action words such as direct, organize, coordinate, lead,
develop, plan, build etc.
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WHY
is this important to do at this time? What do you want to ultimately accomplish?
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HOW
are you going to do it? (By...)
Measurable goals
should show a change in student performance. A measurable goal
addresses how the team will know when the student has reached his or her goal. For example,
the student will show a 25 percent increase in the correct number of words read in one minute
on grade level probes. A measurable goal shows the specific target to measure and the
instrument used to measure it. “The student will improve his or her reading skills” is not a
measurable goal. A measurable goal has the following benefits:
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keeps students and teachers on track
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helps students and tutors reach the target dates
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allows parents and students to monitor the progress toward reaching the goal
Agreed upon goals
support the collaborative effort involving a student’s parents, a
representative from the student’s school or the school district, and the provider selected by the
parent. These individuals should function as a team to develop the PDPA and agree upon the
goals. Each team member is responsible for bringing information to the process, including but
not limited to the most recent results of each student’s performance on state and/or district-wide
assessments, the student’s classroom performance, provider assessments, observations by the
teacher or parent, and other existing and relevant student plans such as an academic
improvement plan (AIP), individual educational plan (IEP), or English language learner (ELL)
plan. It is the responsibility of the school district to develop procedures consistent with the
requirements of NCLB related to the development, implementation, and evaluation of students’
PDPAs.
Relevant goals
are goals which are tied to the Sunshine State Standards and help students
reach and/or exceed grade level achievement. The benchmarks for the Sunshine State
Standards refer to a description of the content or skill that must be learned to achieve the
standard. The Sunshine State Standards, benchmarks, and grade level expectations provide
the framework for the curriculum used in Florida schools. It is not necessary to duplicate this
information on the PDPA.
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Realistic goals
are written to bring the student closer to achievement at or above grade level.
Realistic goals are not written to be easy to ensure student success.
The goal must be based on the current academic performance of the student. For example, a
goal of learning to use every Latin prefix and suffix with 100 percent proficiency in two days is
not realistic for an elementary student. It is more realistic to set a goal of learning the Latin
prefixes of pre-, post-, and non- in context. The student can then work toward mastery of these
prefixes gradually and build upon these successes.
Timely goals
should specify a clear timeframe such as “by the end of the tutoring sessions”, “in
twelve weeks”, “by the end of the year”, etc. Putting an end point on the goal provides a clear
target to work toward. If a timeframe is not established, there is no urgency to take action.
To be measurable, a goal must include a clear description of what the student is expected to
learn and the criterion or measure that will be used to show if the goal has been achieved.
Bateman and Herr (2003) suggest four indicators to test whether or not a goal is measurable. A
measurable goal must:
 
reveal what to do to measure whether the goal has been accomplished
 
yield the same conclusion if measured by several people
 
allow a calculation of how much progress it represents
  
be understood without additional information (p. 14)
Writing Measurable Goals for the PDPA
Measurable goals are derived directly from the data regarding the student in the current levels
of academic performance statement. All members of the PDPA team are involved in developing
the goals, which will be used by tutors to focus instruction and measure progress.
The measurable goals may be written as either an overall goal based on end of the year
assessments or short-term goals based on the specific diagnostic and/or progress monitoring
data. There may be several short-term goals which are all tied to the one overall goal.
The PDPA team may elect to use short-term objectives, benchmarks, or a combination of the
two. The difference between the overall goal and short term goals is subtle. Short-term goals
describe sub-skills or intermediate steps toward reaching the overall goal and are generally
written using the same format as a measurable goal. Regardless of whether overall goals or
short-term goals are used, the PDPA team must be able to monitor the progress the student is
making toward the goal and to report that progress to parents.
Type of Goal
Measurable Goals
Assessment Tool
Overall Goal
By the end of 2007, Johnny Jones will make one year’s
growth as measured by a change in the Developmental
Scale Score (DSS) on the FCAT.
FCAT
Short-term Goal
By the end of the tutoring sessions, Johnny Jones’ oral
reading fluency will increase from 60 correct words per
minute to 90 correct words per minute as measured by
DIBELS progress monitoring assessments.
DIBELS progress
monitoring
assessments
Short-term Goal
By the end of the first month of tutoring, Johnny Jones
will show an increase of 20 percent in sight words
recognized using teacher-created flash cards of the 200
Dolch sight words.
Dolch sight word lists
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Specific examples of measurable and non-measurable goals:
Samples from PDPAs
Non-Examples (from PDPAs submitted)
Make them Measurable
Identifies words and constructs meaning from text,
illustrations, graphics, and charts using the
strategies of phonics, word structure, and context
clues.
Sally will be able to verbally identify the meaning of
words in context when reading grade level texts
with 80 percent accuracy.
The students will increase their knowledge of grade
appropriate vocabulary.
By the end of the tutoring sessions, Bobby’s Dolch
sight word recognition will improve by 50 percent
when assessed orally using flashcards.
Increases comprehension by rereading, retelling,
and discussion.
By the end of the tutoring sessions, Desiree will be
able to answer in writing specific questions
recalling details from grade level passages with 80
percent accuracy.
Student will use basic elements of phonetic
analysis including hearing, segmenting,
substituting, and blending sounds in words.
By the end of the tutoring sessions, Jamal will be
able to orally segment words of five phonemes with
80 percent accuracy.
Student will be able to communicate ideas and
information, be able to write stories, informative
pieces, and contribute ideas during group writing
activities.
By the end of the tutoring sessions, Ramon will be
able to write an expository passage of at least three
paragraphs on a given topic. The passage will
include at least three support details and have a
clear beginning, middle, and end.
The student will improve grade level math skills.
By the end of the school year, Johnny will make at
least one year’s growth as measured by a
developmental scale score increase of at least 231
points.
The student will read better by the end of the
tutoring sessions.
By the end of the tutoring sessions, Sylvia’s oral
reading rate will improve by at least 25 percent as
measured by correct words read per minute on
grade level DIBELS passages.
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References and Resources
Bateman, Barbara D. & Herr, Cynthia M. (2003).
Writing Measurable IEP Goals and Objectives.
IEP Resources, Attainment Company, Inc., Verona, WI.
Diagnostic Assessment in Reading
(
2000-2006) Wireless Generation, Inc., accessed at
http://www.wirelessgeneration.com/diagnostic-assessment-in-reading.php on July 31, 2006.
Florida Dept of Education,
Making Annual Goals, Short-Term Objectives, and Benchmarks
Measurable
, TAP: 312526 accessed at http://www.firn.edu/doe/bin00014/pdf/y2005-2.pdf.
Meyers, P.J. (1998)
Creating SMART Goals
,
Attitude is Everything
, accessed at
http://www.topachievement.com/smart.html.
Nikitina, Arina, (2006)
SMART Goals
, accessed at http://www.goal-setting-guide.com/smart-
goals.html.
Swearingen,Richard,
A Primer: Diagnostic, Formative, and Summative Assessment,
Heritage
College http://www.mmrwsjr.com/assessment.htm.
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