INTRODUCTION TO ASSESSMENT

1. INTRODUCTION TO ASSESSMENT Chapter One

2. CHAPTER OBJECTIVES • Define assessment • Understand the purpose of assessment • Know the professionals involved in the assessment process • List and define the classifications in special education as defined under IDEA • Know the 3 most common ways students are identified for the assessment process • Understand the covered methods of assessment • Have a general working knowledge of parental consent in the assessment process

3. Assessment • A process that involves collecting information about a student for the purpose of making decisions

4. Components of the Assessment Process • Collection • Analysis • Evaluation • Determination • Recommendation

5. Purpose of Assessment • Screening • Evaluation • Diagnostics • Eligibility • IEP Development • Placement • Instructional Planning

6. IDEA 2004 The federal law that protects those in special education • Public Law 108-446 • Aligns with NCLB • 13 Categories

7. Members of Multidisciplinary Team • Regular education teacher • School psychologist • Special education evaluator • Special education teacher • Speech and language clinician • Medical personnel (when appropriate) • Social workers • School/guidance counselor • Parents • School nurse • Occupational and physical therapists

8. Autism Developmental Delay Deaf-Blindness Emotional Disturbance Hearing Impairment Mental Retardation Multiple Disabilities Orthopedic Impairment Other Health Impairment Specific Learning Disability Speech or Language Impairment Traumatic Brain Injury Visual Impairment Disabling Conditions Under Federal Law

9. Three Ways Students Are Identified for Assessment

10. ONE • School personnel may suspect the presence of a learning or behavior problem and ask the student’s parents for permission to evaluate the student individually

11. TWO • The student’s classroom teacher may identify that certain symptoms exist within the classroom that seem to indicate the presence of some problem.

12. THREE • The student’s parents may call or write to the school or to the director of special education and request that their child be evaluated.

13. PARENTAL CONSENT

14. Components of a Comprehensive Assessment • An individual psychological evaluation… • A thorough social history… • A thorough academic history… • A physical examination… • A classroom observation • An appropriate educational evaluation…

15. Components of a Comprehensive Assessment • A functional behavioral assessment… • A bilingual assessment… • Auditory and visual discrimination tests • Assessment of classroom performance • Speech and Language evaluations… • Physical and/or occupational evaluations… • Interviewing the student…

16. Components of a Comprehensive Assessment • Examining school records… • Using information from checklists… • Evaluating curriculum requirements… • Evaluating the student’s type and rate of learning… • Evaluating skills… • Collecting ratings on teacher attitude…

17. NORM-REFERENCED TESTS • Norm Group • Basal • Ceiling • Standardization • Standardized Tests • Criticisms of Standardized Tests

18. Criterion-Referenced Tests (CRTs) • Scored according to a standard (or criterion) • Content-referenced tests • Informal Reading Inventories (IRIs) • Standards-Referenced Testing

19. Ecological Assessment • Analyses “a student’s total learning environment.” – Overton (1996)

20. Curriculum-Based Assessment (CBA) and Curriculum-Based Measurement (CBM) • CBA- a data collecting procedure that is a direct measure of a student’s progress within a curriculum • CBM- timing tasks and then charting performance

21. Dynamic Assessment • Mediation • Graduated prompting • Testing the limits

22. PORTFOLIO ASSESSMENT “a purposeful collection of student works that exhibits the student’s efforts, progress, and achievement in one or more areas” –Paulson, Paulson, and Meyer (1991) • Working Portfolio • Showcase Portfolio • Teacher Portfolio or Record Keeping

23. AUTHENTIC/NATURALISTICPERFORMANCE-BASED ASSESSMENT • Ask students to perform, create, or do something. • Tap higher-level thinking and problem-solving skills. • Use tasks that represent meaningful instruction activities. • Invoke real-world applications. • Let people, not machines, do the scoring, using human judgment. • Require new instructional and assessment roles for teachers.

24. TASK ANALYSIS - Involves breaking down a particular task into the basic sequential steps, component parts, or skills necessary to accomplish the task

25. OUTCOME-BASED ASSESSMENT -Involves considering, teaching, and evaluating the skills that are important in real-life situations

26. LEARNING STYLES ASSESSMENT -Attempts to determine those elements that impact on a child’s learning and “ought to be an integral part of the individualized prescriptive process all special education teachers use for instructing pupils.”

27. CHAPTER OBJECTIVES • Define assessment • Understand the purpose of assessment • Know the professionals involved in the assessment process • List and define the classifications in special education as defined under IDEA • Know the 3 most common ways students are identified for the assessment process • Understand the covered methods of assessment • Have a general working knowledge of parental consent in the assessment process

28. THE END