Key Takeaways

• IEP goals provide structure and support – Well-defined IEP goals help students with reading comprehension challenges by creating a clear roadmap for skill development.
• Collaboration is essential – Effective IEP goals require input from educators, parents, and support staff to ensure they are tailored to the student’s unique needs.
• Implementation and tracking matter – Setting goals is just the first step; using evidence-based strategies and continuously monitoring progress ensures student success.
• Get started with 20+ example IEP goals – This guide includes specific, measurable IEP goal examples to help educators create personalized plans for student success. 

Reading comprehension is a fundamental skill for academic success. It involves understanding, interpreting, and making connections with text. However, many students struggle with comprehension, which can impact their learning and overall achievement.

Individualized Education Program (IEP) goals can provide a structured plan to support students with reading comprehension challenges.  These goals are tailored to meet the unique needs of each student and provide a roadmap for their educational journey. In this guide, we will explore the key components of reading comprehension, how to set effective IEP goals, and strategies to support student progress.

What is Reading Comprehension?

Effective reading comprehension involves several skills, including:

• Identifying the main idea and supporting details
• Making inferences and connections
• Understanding vocabulary in context
• Summarizing and synthesizing information

Students with reading comprehension difficulties may struggle with one or more of these skills, making it harder for them to engage with academic content. Common challenges include difficulty understanding complex sentences, limited vocabulary knowledge, and trouble making inferences.

These difficulties can have a significant impact on a student’s overall learning. Without strong reading comprehension skills, students may struggle to comprehend textbooks, understand instructions, and engage with academic content. Addressing these challenges through targeted IEP goals can help students build essential reading skills.

What are IEP Goals?

IEP goals are specific, measurable objectives outlined in a student’s Individualized Education Program (IEP) to address their unique learning needs. These goals provide a structured plan for supporting students in key academic areas, including reading comprehension. IEP goals help educators, parents, and students track progress and ensure that appropriate interventions and strategies are in place to foster academic growth.

How to Set IEP Goals for Reading Comprehension

Developing and implementing IEP goals for reading comprehension requires a collaborative, structured approach to ensure student success. From initial goal setting to ongoing monitoring, each step should be data-driven, measurable, and adaptable to meet the student’s evolving needs.

Step 1: Collaborate with key stakeholders.

Successful IEP goals start with input from students, parents, teachers, and support staff. Each stakeholder provides valuable insights into the student’s strengths, challenges, and academic needs. This collaboration ensures that goals are realistic, personalized, and aligned with the student’s learning environment.

Step 2: Assess current reading comprehension skills.

Before setting goals, conduct a comprehensive assessment of the student’s reading comprehension abilities. This should evaluate:

• Literal Comprehension (e.g., understanding main ideas, identifying key details)
• Inferential Comprehension (e.g., making predictions, drawing conclusions)

Understanding the student’s baseline skills helps educators set targeted, appropriate goals and track progress effectively.

Step 3: Set SMART IEP goals.

IEP goals should be structured using the SMART framework:

• Specific – Clearly define what the student needs to achieve.
• Measurable – Establish clear criteria for tracking progress.
• Achievable – Ensure goals are realistic given the student’s abilities.
• Relevant – Align goals with curriculum standards and learning needs.
• Time-Bound – Set a clear timeframe for achieving the goal.

Example SMART Goal for Reading Comprehension: “The student will identify the main idea and at least three supporting details in a grade-level passage with 80% accuracy in 8 out of 10 trials.”

Step 4: Implementing IEP goals with evidence-based strategies.

Once goals are set, the next step is ensuring effective classroom implementation through research-backed interventions such as:

• Explicit instruction in comprehension strategies
• Vocabulary development activities
• Guided reading practice tailored to the student’s needs

Teachers and support staff should be equipped with modifications and accommodations to reinforce these strategies effectively.

Step 5: Monitor progress and adjust goals.

Ongoing monitoring is essential for ensuring that students make measurable progress toward their IEP goals. Effective progress tracking includes:

• Regular assessments (formal and informal)
• Teacher observations and student feedback
• Data-driven adjustments based on student performance

If a student is meeting or exceeding expectations, goals should be adjusted to increase challenge and engagement. If a student is struggling to progress, instructional strategies should be reevaluated and modified as needed.

Step 6: Support parents and caregivers.

Family involvement is key to reinforcing reading comprehension skills beyond the classroom. Educators can provide parents with resources and strategies to:

• Foster independent reading habits
• Engage in meaningful discussions about books
• Create a literacy-rich home environment

By integrating collaboration, strategic goal-setting, evidence-based teaching methods, and continuous progress monitoring, educators can ensure that students receive the personalized support they need to build strong reading comprehension skills.

20 Example IEP Goals for Reading Comprehension

The ability to comprehend text is fundamental to academic success, yet many students struggle with various aspects of reading. Effective IEP goals should be targeted, measurable, and aligned with a student’s specific needs, helping them build the skills necessary to read with understanding and confidence. Below, we outline structured IEP goals that support the development of key reading comprehension skills.

Improving Literal Comprehension Skills

Literal comprehension is the foundation of reading—students must be able to identify key details, sequence events, and recall facts before they can move on to deeper levels of analysis. Weaknesses in literal comprehension can lead to difficulty following instructions, completing assignments, or grasping subject matter across disciplines.

Example IEP Goals:

• The student will identify the main idea of a grade-level passage with 80% accuracy across five trials.
• The student will highlight or list three supporting details from a passage in four out of five reading exercises.
• The student will sequence key events from a story in correct order with 90% accuracy over three consecutive assessments.
• The student will answer literal comprehension questions (who, what, when, where) with 80% accuracy in eight out of ten trials.

Enhancing Vocabulary Knowledge and Word Recognition

A student’s ability to understand and apply vocabulary in context is essential for overall comprehension. Without strong word recognition and vocabulary skills, students may struggle to grasp the meaning of texts, leading to frustration and disengagement. These goals ensure students build the language foundation necessary for comprehension success.

Example IEP Goals:

• The student will define and use 10 new vocabulary words in context per quarter, achieving 80% mastery.
• The student will use context clues to determine the meaning of unfamiliar words with 75% accuracy over three assessment periods.
• The student will identify synonyms and antonyms for grade-level vocabulary words in four out of five opportunities.
• When encountering an unfamiliar word, the student will independently use a dictionary or glossary in 80% of reading tasks.

Developing Inferential Comprehension Skills

Inferential comprehension is what allows students to go beyond surface-level understanding and read between the lines. Students need to infer meaning, recognize cause-and-effect relationships, and interpret figurative language to fully engage with more complex texts. Strengthening inferential comprehension is crucial for academic achievement in higher-level reading and writing tasks.

Example IEP Goals:

• The student will predict story outcomes based on context clues with 80% accuracy in four out of five practice sessions.
• Given a character’s actions, the student will infer the character’s emotions or motivations with 85% accuracy across three assessment periods.
• The student will analyze cause-and-effect relationships in a passage, correctly identifying at least three cause-effect connections with 90% accuracy.
• The student will interpret figurative language (e.g., metaphors, similes) and explain its meaning with 80% accuracy across three trials.

Strengthening Critical Thinking and Higher-Order Comprehension

Beyond recalling facts, students need to engage in critical thinking about texts—evaluating information, distinguishing between fact and opinion, and understanding an author’s intent. These skills help students navigate not only academic texts but also real-world content, such as news articles and persuasive writing.

Example IEP Goals:

• The student will compare and contrast two texts on the same topic, identifying at least three key differences and similarities in four out of five opportunities.
• When reading an informational text, the student will distinguish between fact and opinion with 80% accuracy in three independent exercises.
• The student will evaluate the author’s purpose (persuade, inform, entertain) and provide supporting evidence with 80% accuracy across five readings.
• The student will summarize key points of a passage in their own words, capturing the central idea and essential details in eight out of ten trials.

Promoting Self-Regulation During Reading

Many students with reading difficulties struggle not because of a lack of ability, but because they don’t recognize when they’re not comprehending. Teaching students to monitor their own understanding and apply self-regulation strategies allows them to become independent readers who can persist through challenging texts.

Example IEP Goals:

• The student will pause after each paragraph to ask themselves a comprehension question (e.g., “What just happened?”) in four out of five reading tasks.
• When struggling to understand a passage, the student will independently apply a reading strategy (e.g., rereading, summarizing, using context clues) in 80% of instances.
• The student will self-monitor comprehension difficulties by noting areas of confusion and seeking clarification in four out of five reading assignments.
• The student will generate three questions before, during, and after reading to enhance engagement and understanding, achieving 80% completion in five out of six trials.

Encouraging the Use of Comprehension Strategies

Active reading strategies help students engage with text rather than passively absorb information. Strategies like summarization, questioning, and visualization improve comprehension and retention while fostering a more enjoyable reading experience.

Example IEP Goals:

• The student will use summarization strategies to retell key events of a story with 80% accuracy.
• The student will ask clarifying questions while reading, identifying at least two areas for deeper understanding in four out of five reading assignments.
• The student will engage in think-aloud exercises, verbalizing their thought process to demonstrate comprehension in four out of five guided practice sessions.
• The student will apply visualization techniques (e.g., drawing or describing a scene) to reinforce comprehension with 80% accuracy in three out of four trials.

IEP goals for reading comprehension should target specific, actionable skills that students need to become independent, engaged readers. By breaking down comprehension into foundational, inferential, and strategic components, educators can create personalized learning plans that help students build lasting reading success.

Bonus IEP Resource

Everyday Speech is a no-prep social skills curriculum that teaches skills like self-regulation, resilience, and problem-solving through evidence-based video modeling. Here is an example video modeling lesson from our curriculum: Understanding My IEP.

The video, developed for middle and high school students, guides students through understanding their IEP, highlighting its purpose, components, and the importance of self-advocacy in customizing their educational experience:

IEP goals for reading comprehension are crucial in supporting students with reading difficulties. By setting specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-bound goals, students can make progress in their reading comprehension skills and ultimately improve their overall academic success.

It is important to collaborate with the student, parents, and educational team, and regularly monitor and adjust the goals based on the student’s progress.