How to Confidently Defend Rubric-Based Speech Therapy Goals to Your Admin (Without Abandoning Your Values)
Have you ever sat across from your supervisor, an administrator, or an IEP team and felt your stomach drop when they asked: "What percentage is this student at with their goal?"
If you're doing child-led, neuroaffirming therapy with autistic students, you probably know this feeling all too well. Your goals don't fit neatly into an 80% accuracy box. Your sessions are built on connection, co-regulation, and honoring the child's autonomy. And yet, your paperwork demands numbers that don't reflect what you're actually seeing.
You're not imagining it. There's a massive disconnect between traditional goal writing and the work we're doing with autistic kids. But here's the good news: you don't have to choose between your values and measurable progress.
So in this post, I want to take a few minutes to chat about:
- Why 80% accuracy doesn't work for autistic students (and what the research says)
- How to explain rubric-based progress monitoring to skeptical administrators
- Exactly what to say when someone questions your approach
- How to write goals that are both defensible and meaningful
Let's dive in.
Why 80% Accuracy Was Never Designed for Autistic Students
Let's start with a truth we all need to hear: 80% accuracy was never designed for relationship-based, child-led therapy.
That metric came from discrete trial, drill-based methods. These are approaches that assumed all errors are equal, progress is linear, and the only thing worth measuring is correct versus incorrect. But real communication for autistic students, gestalt language processors, and AAC users is dynamic. It's contextual. It relies on co-regulation, trust, and how we show up as communication partners.
Think about a student you've worked with who's making incredible progress in your sessions. Maybe they're initiating more. Maybe they're using AAC spontaneously. Maybe they're expressing their needs through gestures and facial expressions in ways they never did before. But because your goal says "answer WH questions with 80% accuracy," your data doesn't capture any of that.
This is the problem with misaligned goals. When our goals don't reflect our approach, everything gets off track.
Dr. Emily Diehm, in her article Writing Measurable Goals, reminds us that goals are our roadmap. When that map is off, when the goal doesn't reflect what the child needs or what we're doing in therapy, everything gets derailed. Research by Goodman and Bond (1993) even found that poorly written IEP goals can prevent students from developing essential skills.
So no, you're not being difficult when you push back on percentage-based goals. You're being evidence-based.
What Rubric-Based Progress Monitoring Actually Looks Like
If 80% accuracy doesn't work, what does?
Enter rubric-based progress monitoring. It’s a system that tracks levels of independence and flexibility across multiple skills, giving you a complete picture of how a child is progressing.
Here's how it works:
Each rubric defines four observable levels of skill:
- Full support
- Moderate support
- Minimal support
- Independence
You choose 3-5 communication skills to track (like initiation, multimodal communication, or responding to communication partners), and you rate them on a scale of 1-4 based on what you observe.
Rubrics are amazing because they tell a story. Not just "Did the child do it?" but "How much support made it possible? How consistently? In what contexts?"
This is what Dr. Emily Diehm means when she says that measurability isn't just about percentages. It can be frequency, duration, speed, or degree of independence. Rubrics capture progress along a continuum and that's exactly what our autistic students need.
How to Defend Rubric-Based Goals in Your Next Meeting
So what happens when your administrator sees your rubric and says, "I don't see a percentage. Where are the numbers?" Here's what you can do:
Show Them the Rubric. Bring a blank rubric with you. Walk them through it. Say something like this:
"I want to show you this because I think it's going to be a game changer. Each level on this rubric is clearly defined and observable. When a student moves from a score of 2 to a score of 3, that's equivalent to a quantifiable change in skill—similar to a 10-20% increase in accuracy. But it's written in a way that actually captures what we're doing, because communication isn't black and white. There's a lot more nuance than accurate or inaccurate."
Tie It Back to SMART Goals. If your admin is concerned about measurability, show them how your rubric meets every component of SMART goal writing:
- Specific: Each score defines exactly what we'll observe.
- Measurable: We can track real change in the scores over time.
- Attainable: If a student's baseline is 10/20, we might aim for 16/20—which just requires small, achievable shifts.
- Relevant: The skills in the rubric link directly to state standards or your district's skill banks.
- Timely:We're documenting progress over the IEP year, just like any other goal.
Use the Research. Cite Dr. Emily Diehm's work. Reference Goodman and Bond's finding that poorly written goals directly impact student outcomes. Then say:
"Rubric data helps make progress observable and instructionally relevant. It's not just a formality, it's actually useful for understanding how the student is moving through their communication journey."
Now that we’ve talked through HOW to explain and defend rubric based goals, let’s talk about what to say when you're asked some of these common questions:
"Can't you just write this as a percentage?"
You could say: "Instead of accuracy percentages, I'm using a rubric that tracks levels of independence and flexibility because it provides more authentic, observable data for communication goals."
"But how do I know it's measurable?"
"Each level is defined and can be clearly replicated no matter who is collecting the data. Whether I'm collecting it, the teacher, or the paraprofessional, we're all using the same criteria."
"This seems like it's not tied to anything."
"Actually, this system still meets IDEA's definition of measurable progress. It's systematic, observable, and based on clearly defined criteria. And I can show you exactly how each score reflects growth."
The Secret to These Conversations is Confidence Without Defense
Most of the time, administrators aren't trying to catch you doing something wrong. They're asking questions because they want to ensure accountability. They want to know the data you're collecting is meaningful and accurate. So instead of feeling defensive, invite them in. Say:
"Can I show you an example? I want you to see why I'm so excited about this. Here's a rubric I wrote for initiation. You can literally see how these scores reflect how much independence this child is gaining."
When we take the time to understand the why behind our approach and we get confident explaining it, these conversations become collaborative, not confrontational.
Why This Matters for Autistic Students
This isn't just about defending a data system. It's about writing goals that actually reflect the real, meaningful progress our students are making.
When we measure progress solely by accuracy, we miss so much. We miss the child who's starting to trust us enough to initiate. We miss the AAC user who's finally tapping buttons spontaneously. We miss the gestalt language processor who's beginning to mix and match their scripts. Rubric-based goals let us see and celebrate all of that.
And when we change how we measure progress, we change what progress means and that's huge for our autistic kids.
So, here are some key points that I hope that you can leave this blog post and take with you:
80% accuracy was never designed for autistic students. It came from compliance-based, drill-focused methods that don't reflect real communication.
Rubric-based progress monitoring captures levels of independence and flexibility across multiple skills, giving you a complete picture of growth.
You can confidently defend rubrics by tying them to SMART goals, citing research, and showing administrators exactly how they work.
These conversations don't have to be confrontational. You can invite collaboration, share examples, and stay grounded in your why.
Rubrics help us honor autistic communication by measuring progress in ways that reflect autonomy, co-regulation, and multimodal communication.
Ready to Start Writing Rubric-Based Goals with Confidence?
You don't have to choose between your values and defensible data. Rubrics give you both. If you're ready to write goals that truly reflect your neuroaffirming, child-led approach and feel confident defending them at your next team meeting, I'd love to support you.
You can download the Aligned Rubric Framework and Goal Bank here. It’s my complete toolkit that transforms how you write and track neuroaffirming communication goals—without starting from scratch every time. It's SO much more than a goal-bank; it's a total paradigm shift in how we document and celebrate real communication growth for autistic students. With The Aligned Rubric Framework, you can literally copy and paste your way to better communication goals that are actually meaningful for autistic students.
I hope that this blog post brought some clarity to your goal writing. I’m so honored to support you.
