Your questions, answered

Goal Studio’s group data sheet holds up to six students’ rubrics on one page, so you’re not flipping between packets mid-session. Type each student’s initials at the top of their column, and you’ll have every rubric in front of you as a quick reference while you work.

During the session, give each skill a quick score from 1 to 4 when it comes up, or use the tally version if you’d rather mark each moment as it happens. If a skill doesn’t come up, write N/O for not observed. That isn’t a fail, it just means the moment didn’t happen today. You don’t need to catch everything, only what you see.

The sheets are fillable, so you can type right on your laptop or tablet, or print them if you’d rather use a pen.

You’re taking data every session, and that data becomes how you score the rubric. I like to score monthly, because when you’re scoring 3 to 5 skills, some skills just won’t come up in some sessions. Some days kids are having a grand old time and there’s nothing for them to protest. I’m not going to contrive a reason to get them to say no just for the sake of my data sheet. You can score weekly if that works better for you.

Right now, the skill bank has all of the communication functions you saw. Members of the Collective and I are working on an additional list of skills for higher level communication skills and some executive functioning skills. So it’s not in there yet, but it’s in process. When you purchase The Goal Studio, you will automatically get any upgrades/additions. Additionally, you can add your own skills into the rubric skill list, so you can truly work on just about anything.

As someone who has worked exclusively with autistic children for my whole career, I designed this tool with them in mind. That being said, The Goal Studio is not only useful for autistic children. It’s great for any child who is working on expanding their communication functions or language skills.

Absolutely. The goals I write for GLPs are typically about expanding communication functions, so it’s a great fit. The skills aren’t written in NLA framework wording, but many of our members support GLPs and use Goal Studio for that.

As of right now, the tool is English only. That being said, we are always working on improving the features. Our goal is to offer translated versions in the near future.

Goal Studio doesn’t connect directly to any IEP or EMR system, so it works with whatever you already use. You copy and paste your goal and objectives in, or download or print them. For the rubric itself, you have a few options, depending on what your software allows:

• Attach it. Upload the rubric however your platform requires, and write “(attached)” after “communication rubric” in the goal so everyone knows there’s a table attached. A lot of programs, like IEP Writer, work this way.
• Paste it in. Copy the rubric table straight into your present levels or goal area, and write something like “(table in present levels)” or “(table below)” in the goal.

Members have used it successfully with a variety of EMRs and IEP programs. It also works in medical settings. It’s been used in a hospital where goals are leveled differently, and it adapted to their system.

If a student moves schools, the rubric is attached to their goal. Since it’s written clearly, the new team should be able to follow it.

Yes. You can copy them, paste them, download them, print them, and share them with anyone on the team working with that student.

Yes. Rubric-based goals are well documented in the research. The reference list is below, and you can share it with anybody who needs it. It shouldn’t be an issue with purchase orders.

References and recommended reading

• Arter, J. A., & Chappuis, J. (2006). Creating & recognizing quality rubrics. Pearson Education.
• Arter, J. A., & McTighe, J. (2001). Scoring rubrics in the classroom. Corwin Press.
• Baartman, L. K. J., Bastiaens, T. J., Kirschner, P. A., & van der Vleuten, C. P. M. (2006). The wheel of competency assessment: Presenting quality criteria for competency assessment programmes. Studies in Educational Evaluation, 32, 153–170.
• Brookhart, S. M. (2018) Appropriate criteria: Key to effective rubrics. Frontiers in Education, 3, 22.
• Diehm, E. (2018). Writing measurable and academically relevant IEP goals with 80% accuracy over three consecutive trials. Plural Publishing.
• Fuller, J. L., & Fienup, D. M. (2018). A preliminary analysis of mastery criterion level: Effects on response maintenance. Behavior Analysis in Practice, 11(1), 1–8. https://doi.org/10.1007/s40617-017-0201-0
• Gillam, S. L., Gillam, R. B., Fargo, J. D., Olszewski, A., & Segura, H. (2016/2017) Monitoring Indicators of Scholarly Language (MISL). Communication Disorders Quarterly, 38(2), 96–106.
• Hall, J., & Plante, E. (2020). Data-informed guideposts for decision making in enhanced conversational recast treatment. American Journal of Speech-Language Pathology, 29(4), 2068–2081. https://doi.org/10.1044/2020_AJSLP-20-00017
• Jonsson, A., & Svingby, G. (2007) The use of scoring rubrics: Reliability, validity and educational consequences. Educational Research Review, 2(2), 130–144.
• Kurth, J. A., Toews, S. G., Shogren, K. A., Townsend, R. J., & Zagona, A. L. (2025). Using the self-determined learning model of instruction for teachers to set goals to enhance their inclusive education practices. Research and Practice for Persons with Severe Disabilities. https://doi.org/10.1177/15407969251364226
• Lerman, D. C., Dittlinger, L. H., Fentress, G., & Lanagan, T. (2011). A comparison of methods for collecting data on performance during discrete trial teaching. Behavior Analysis in Practice, 4(1), 53–62. https://doi.org/10.1007/BF03391775
• Moskal, B. M., & Leydens, J. A. (2000). Scoring rubric development: Validity and reliability. Practical Assessment, Research & Evaluation, 7(10).
• Panadero, E. (2020) A review of the arguments against the use of rubrics. Educational Research Review, 30, 100329.
• Pindiprolu, S. S., Lignugaris/Kraft, B., Rule, S., Peterson, S., & Slocum, T. (2005). Scoring rubrics for assessing students’ performance on functional behavior assessment cases. Teacher Education and Special Education, 28, 79–91.
• Powell, T. W., et al. (2024). Maximizing student outcomes in schools: Data-driven individualized education program goals and progress monitoring.
• Richling, S. M., Williams, W. L., & Carr, J. E. (2019). The effects of different mastery criteria on the skill maintenance of children with developmental disabilities. Journal of Applied Behavior Analysis, 52(3), 701–717. https://doi.org/10.1002/jaba.580
• Ruble, L. A., McGrew, J. H., & Toland, M. D. (2022) Goal Attainment Scaling as a measure of IEP goal progress. Focus on Autism and Other Developmental Disabilities.
• Schoepflin, E. K., Khamis-Dakwar, R., Gorman, B. S., & Cox, S. R. (2026). A survey of speech-language pathologists’ current clinical practices in setting mastery criteria. Language, Speech, and Hearing Services in Schools, 57(4), 1193–1211. https://doi.org/10.1044/2026_LSHSS-25-00139

No. It writes the levels for you, based on the scoring lens you choose. You can leave them as is, or edit any level to add or change something.

The progress graph on the data sheets doesn’t fill itself in. I chart it by hand because I like seeing progress that way.

Goal Studio is its own tool. It’s not a subscription. It’s one payment, $67, with lifetime access, and every update is included. Anything you buy now includes new skills and updates when they’re added.

It doesn’t write session notes. The session note generator is a Child-Led Collective feature. The Collective is its own monthly membership, $34 a month right now, going to $47 a month, at join.childled.org. When you buy Goal Studio, you’ll see an option at checkout to apply your $67 toward an annual Collective membership. And if you ever join and later leave the Collective, you keep Goal Studio.

Yes. Every step works with the handout, on paper or in a Google Doc. That’s how I did it for nine and a half years. By hand, June’s goal took us 37 minutes. In Goal Studio it took 1 minute and 49 seconds. Goal Studio just makes it faster, and it means you’re never starting from a blank page.

The replay is here: goal-studio-replay.pages.dev. It’s available through Friday, November 13 at 11:59 PM ET. You can also download the workshop handout from that page.

If you attended live, you’ll get an email in the next day or so with a link to get your certificate.

If you used a work email, that’s usually why. A lot of school email systems block our emails and login links. Email hello@childled.org and we’ll fix it for you.