Every special educator knows the goal: design instruction that meets each learner where they are, and offer every student multiple ways to access rigorous content. The Universal Design for Learning (UDL) framework — developed by CAST in 1998 and grounded in the science of how people learn — gives that goal a structure, organizing instruction around three principles: multiple means of representation, expression, and engagement. But knowing the framework and consistently planning within it are two different things. A powerful resource helps. What the research increasingly shows is that a resource paired with structured professional learning helps far more.

Two Goalbook impact studies — one in Washington, D.C., and one in Vancouver, Washington — tell a consistent story: Goalbook Toolkit becomes most powerful when it is embedded in coaching and professional learning, not handed to teachers as a standalone tool.

When coaching and Goalbook work together, differentiation improves

In 2016, Goalbook partnered with the independent research organization WestEd to study how UDL, delivered through instructional coaching, affects teacher practice in DC Public Schools. Over four months, three instructional coaches were trained in UDL and then coached ten teachers through a structured cycle: co-planning a lesson focused on one student with an upcoming IEP, using Goalbook to build UDL-aligned plans, observing the lesson against a UDL rubric, and conferencing afterward to reflect.

The results were striking in their consistency. On a 0–3 scale, teachers’ ability to differentiate instruction rose from 1.7 to 2.4 by their own rating, and from 1.9 to 2.6 as observed by their coaches. Every one of the ten teachers improved. And the growth wasn’t limited to teachers: the coaches’ own ability to coach differentiation climbed from 2.1 to 3.0. Teachers reported stronger planning across all three UDL principles — gains of 0.5 in representation, 0.9 in expression, and 0.8 in engagement — and all 13 participants said Goalbook strongly supported their ability to learn about and integrate UDL, naming the Goal Wizard among the most helpful features.

The takeaway from the district’s own coaches was telling. As one put it, the rubric and Goalbook together showed “how many different strategies could be incorporated into a lesson” — moving practice beyond “one strategy per category” toward genuinely multiple means of representation, expression, and engagement. Structure plus tool changed what teachers could see and do.

Educators in the field say the same thing

That pattern echoes what special educators reported in a separate 2020 external evaluation of Evergreen Public Schools in Vancouver, Washington — a district that had built its Goalbook implementation around UDL-focused professional learning since 2017–18. Surveyed educators pointed to the same strengths: the connection between state standards, UDL strategies, and anchor goals; intuitive, standards-aligned goal writing; and the ease of adapting a wide variety of goals to individual learners. Overall, 76% were very or extremely satisfied with the Toolkit, and in the companion write-up, 94% called Goalbook a valuable resource they would continue to use.

Notably, the most common improvement request in both studies was the same: educators wanted more professional learning and collaborative time to use the Toolkit well. That’s not a critique of the tool — it’s a signal about how impact is made. Teachers who are given structure and support don’t just adopt a resource; they build durable capacity.

Why the combination works

There’s a through-line here that connects to a broader body of Goalbook research on educator self-efficacy: when educators feel confident and well-supported, their practice — and their satisfaction and retention — improves. In a 2023 Johns Hopkins study, special educators’ self-efficacy for instructional design rose measurably over a year of Toolkit use. The DCPS and Evergreen findings show one concrete mechanism behind that confidence: a structured coaching cycle that makes the UDL framework actionable, with Goalbook as the engine that turns a planning principle into a specific, standards-aligned strategy a teacher can use tomorrow.

Put simply, the framework provides the why, coaching provides the how, and Goalbook provides the what — the concrete goals, strategies, and scaffolds that make UDL real in a lesson plan.

The payoff: from differentiated classrooms to inclusive systems

There’s a reason differentiation is worth this much attention: it is the mechanism behind inclusion. When teachers can design instruction that gives every learner access to grade-level content — the very capacity this UDL coaching built — more students with disabilities can succeed in the general education classroom rather than a separate setting. Differentiation is the how; a more inclusive placement is the result.

A recent Goalbook Research Team analysis of state-reported LRE data suggests that the result shows up at scale. Across ten states in 2023–24, districts with four or more years of Goalbook Toolkit implementation posted an average “least restrictive environment” rate — the share of students with IEPs in a regular classroom 80%+ of the day — of 79.14%, compared to the aggregate state average of 68.76%. Long-term partners outperformed their state average in 10 out of 10 states. One district, Hortonville Area School District, moved from 48% to 88% LRE and eliminated all of its self-contained emotional/behavioral-disorder classrooms.

That analysis is descriptive, not causal — but it closes the loop this study opens. Here, in a four-month coaching study, we can watch teachers get measurably better at differentiating. There, in a decade of state data, we can see the kind of inclusive outcome that stronger differentiation makes possible. Build the capacity, and the system can follow.

What this means for leaders

For district and school leaders, the practical implication is clear: don’t just provide the tool — provide the structure around it. The DCPS study’s own recommendation was to give teachers structured support when implementing UDL, and to train both coaches and teachers on how to use UDL resources and technologies together. That means pairing Goalbook access with a coaching model that includes group and individual training, co-planning, observation, and reflection — and giving coaches the same hands-on practice with the UDL rubric that they will ask of their teachers.

The evidence, across two districts and multiple years, points in the same direction: Goalbook Toolkit lifts instruction most when it is woven into professional learning. Invest in both, and teachers gain not just a resource, but the capacity to design rigorous, accessible instruction so that all students succeed.

References

WestEd / DC Public Schools Instructional Impact Study (2016)

Evergreen Public Schools Instructional Impact Study — Dunn & Rice, AASEP (2020/2022)

A Study of Educator Attitudes and Beliefs and Goalbook Toolkit Usage — Webb, Cook, Grant, & Ross, Johns Hopkins CRRE (2023).