Case Study: Special School District improves IEP quality and student outcomes with Goalbook

District Leaders from St. Louis County Define, Ideate, and Execute to Improve Student Outcomes

Special School District of St. Louis County worked with Goalbook to address a major challenge: internal evaluation showed that the quality of its IEPs was not meeting district expectations, and that weak IEP goals were limiting student access to general education standards and postsecondary opportunities. The district wanted a better way to improve IEP quality and support special education staff, especially through clearer coaching and feedback for site administrators and teachers.

Goalbook helped the district use a design-thinking process to diagnose the root problem and redesign its IEP auditing approach. The solution included a standardized IEP evaluation rubric, a shared coaching framework, and a more consistent protocol for feedback and follow-up coaching. By helping Special School District strengthen coaching and make feedback actionable, Goalbook enabled leaders to focus on improving teacher competency and creating more rigorous, standards-based IEPs; the case study does not report specific numeric outcome data.

Special School District

Amber Del Gaiso

Measurement and Assessment Coach