Mastery Criteria & STOs
Set mastery criteria and Short-Term Objectives to track when skills are truly mastered.
What Are STOs?
Short-Term Objectives (STOs) define measurable goals for each skill or behavior. Each STO includes a name, a mastery criterion, and a status. Set the criteria once - TallyFlex evaluates progress automatically as you collect data.
Creating an STO
Open a skill or behavior’s settings. In the Objectives card, tap Add Objective to create a single objective.
- Objective name - Enter a short name (e.g., “spontaneous requests” or “follows directions”)
- Target threshold - The value to meet (e.g., 5 occurrences, 80%)
- Period - How to group data (Session, Day, or Week)
- Consecutive - How many periods in a row must meet the threshold
TallyFlex automatically generates the full objective text from your inputs (e.g., “Increase spontaneous requests to >= 5 per session for 3 consecutive sessions”). You can edit the generated text to customize it.
Generating a Progression
For programs that need multiple STOs building toward a goal, tap Generate to create an entire progression at once.
How It Works
- Enter baseline and goal - Where the learner is now and where they need to be (e.g., baseline: 5, goal: 10)
- Choose a generation mode - How to split the progression:
- Objectives - Specify how many objectives to create (TallyFlex calculates the step size)
- Step size - Specify the increment between each objective (TallyFlex calculates how many)
- % of start value - Each step increases by a percentage of the baseline
- Set the period and consecutive count - Applied to all generated objectives
- Customize the name template - Uses placeholders like
{index},{name},{threshold},{period},{consecutive}to generate each objective’s name
Example
With baseline 5, goal 10, and step size 2, TallyFlex generates:
- O1: Increase spontaneous requests to >= 5 per session for 3 consecutive sessions
- O2: Increase spontaneous requests to >= 7 per session for 3 consecutive sessions
- O3: Increase spontaneous requests to >= 10 per session for 3 consecutive sessions
The first objective starts at baseline to confirm stable performance before progressing. All three objectives are created with correct mastery criteria, ready to activate in sequence.
Mastery Criteria Types
Standard Trackers
| Metric | Example Criterion | Use When |
|---|---|---|
| Percent correct | 80% across 3 consecutive sessions | Tracking trial-by-trial accuracy (e.g., sight word identification, math facts) |
| Frequency | Fewer than 2 occurrences across 5 consecutive days | Counting behavior occurrences (e.g., hand raising, elopement) |
| Duration | Under 5 minutes across 3 consecutive sessions | Measuring how long behaviors last (e.g., tantrums, on-task engagement) |
| Latency | Under 10 seconds across 3 consecutive days | Measuring response time (e.g., compliance after instruction) |
Task Analysis Trackers
Task analysis trackers (multi-step skills like hand washing or morning routine) have four additional criterion types that evaluate prompt-level data:
| Criterion Type | Example | Use When |
|---|---|---|
| Percent independent | 80% of steps independent across 3 sessions | Some prompting is acceptable |
| All steps independent | 100% independent across 3 sessions | Safety-critical skills or complete independence required |
| Maximum prompt level | No step beyond gestural across 3 sessions | Fading to minimal prompting |
| Maximum prompt count | No more than 2 verbal prompts across 3 sessions | Targeting specific prompt reduction |
For task analysis setup details, see Task Analysis Setup.
Period Types
The period type determines how TallyFlex groups data for evaluation.
| Period | Groups Data By | Best For |
|---|---|---|
| Session | Each individual session | Structured teaching sessions, skill building with multiple daily sessions |
| Day | All sessions in a day | General behavior tracking, daily performance goals |
| Week | All sessions in a week | Low-frequency behaviors where daily data may be too sparse to evaluate meaningfully |
Example: “80% across 3 consecutive sessions” evaluates each session independently. “80% across 3 consecutive days” combines all sessions from each day into one data point.
Reading Mastery Progress
The mastery progress widget shows how close the learner is to meeting criteria.
- Pass/fail per period - Each period shows whether the criterion was met
- Current streak - Consecutive periods meeting criteria (resets on a miss)
- Ready to mark as mastered - When the streak reaches the required consecutive periods, TallyFlex surfaces a prompt. The BCBA or teacher reviews the data and confirms mastery manually
STO Statuses
Each STO moves through a lifecycle:
| Status | Meaning | Next Steps |
|---|---|---|
| Pending | Created but not yet active | Activate when ready to begin |
| In Progress | Actively being tracked and evaluated | Data collection drives progress. Can also pause (On Hold) or deactivate (Pending) |
| Mastered | Criteria met - permanent status | Cannot be undone. If a skill regresses, create a new objective at the same level |
| On Hold | Paused temporarily | Reactivate or return to pending |
Tip: Only one STO needs to be In Progress at a time. Keep upcoming objectives as Pending until the current one is mastered.
Goal Direction
When creating a skill or behavior, the Goal setting (Increase or Decrease) affects how the threshold is evaluated:
- Increase (skill acquisition) - Performance must be at or above the threshold (e.g., 80% or higher)
- Decrease (behavior reduction) - Performance must be at or below the threshold (e.g., 2 occurrences or fewer)
TallyFlex applies the correct comparison automatically based on the goal direction.
Prompt Fading with STOs
STOs pair well with the Goal Support Level (the maximum prompt level that still counts as success) on percent correct trackers for structured prompt fading (gradually reducing the level of support over time):
- STO 1: 80% success at Verbal for 5 consecutive days
- STO 2: 80% success at Gestural for 5 consecutive days
- STO 3: 80% success at Independent for 5 consecutive days
When the learner masters each STO, update the Goal Support Level to the next less intrusive level and activate the next objective.
See Percent Correct with Prompt Levels for Goal Support Level configuration.
What’s Next?
- Auto-Progression and Mastery - Use mastery criteria with program phases for automatic progression
- Skills & Behaviors - View progress graphs for your programs
- Working with Graphs - Graph customization and data analysis
- Percent Correct with Prompt Levels - Goal Support Level and prompt fading
Need Help?
Questions about mastery criteria or STOs? Email support@tallyflex.com for assistance.