Writing Present Levels of Performance That Actually Guide Instruction
Good goals are downstream of good present levels. A structure for PLAAFP statements that are data-driven, strengths-based, and actually useful.
What present levels are for
The present levels section — often called PLAAFP or PLOP — describes how the student is performing right now: strengths, needs, and how the disability affects involvement in the general curriculum. Everything else in the IEP should be traceable to it: goals address the needs it names, and services support the goals.
A structure that works
- Lead with strengths: what the student does well — academic, social, regulatory, interests that motivate
- State current performance with data: recent probes, work samples, observation — not impressions
- Name the need precisely: "difficulty with multi-step written directions," not "struggles to focus"
- Describe the effect on general education: what this need makes hard in a gen-ed setting
- Add parent and student voice: their concerns and priorities belong in the record
Before-and-after example
Weak: "[Student] struggles in reading and gets distracted easily." Useful: "[Student] decodes second-grade text at 45 words per minute with 2 errors (probe, Sept). Strengths include strong listening comprehension of grade-level read-alouds. Needs include decoding multisyllabic words and sustaining attention during independent written work, which currently requires adult prompting to begin."
Keep it current all year
Present levels written once a year from memory go stale by November. The teachers who write the strongest PLAAFPs are the ones whose data is always current — daily goal logs and behavior records that summarize themselves. Spark's weekly reports and student dashboards exist partly for this: present-level statements become exports, not compositions.
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