Journal 4

Topic 4

Assessment and Screening

The Basics

Testing and assessment is ongoing with children in special education programs. Some are formal, normed and standardized. Formal tests are used to compare populations as well as evaluating individual children. Some are less formal and used for ongoing assessment of a students progress in meeting his or her IEP goals. These can include curriculum based assessment, using chapter tests from a text, or teacher made tests, created to measure specific goals on a child's IEP.

www.specialed.about.com

Federal Policies and Legislation
IDEA 2004 (Individuals with Disabilities Education Act) outlines specific guidelines for screenings and evaluations. Including:
“3. Clarify that screening for instructional purposes is not evaluation.

The screening of a student by a teacher or specialist to determine appropriate instructional strategies for curriculum implementation shall not be considered to be an evaluation for eligibility for special education and related services.
[34 CFR 300.302] [20 U.S.C. 1414(a)(1)(E)]”
“5. Add a requirement that evaluation procedure be administered in form that is most likely to yield the most accurate information.

Each public agency must ensure that assessments and other evaluation materials used to assess a child under Part 300 are provided and administered in the child’s native language or other mode of communication and in the form most likely to yield accurate information on what the child knows and can do academically, developmentally, and functionally, unless it is clearly not feasible to provide or administer.
[34 CFR 300.304(c)(1)(ii)] [20 U.S.C. 1414(b)(3)(A)(ii)]”


Terms to Know

1. Intelligence Testing- Intelligence testing is usually done individually, although there are group tests used to identify students for further testing or for accelerated or gifted programs.

2. Standardized Testing- tests used to evaluate large groups, such as schools or entire school districts.

3. Curriculum based assessments- are criterion based tests, usually based on what the child is learning in the curriculum.

4. Criterion-Refrenced Tests- A test in which questions are written according to specific predetermined criteria. Student is not compared to others.


5. Norm-refrenced Tests- This type of test determines a student's placement on a normal distribution curve. Comparing students to one another.

6. Reliabilty- a test is considered reliable if it allows for stable estimates of student ability.

7. Validity- refers to the extent to which a test's content is representative of the actual skills learned and whether the test can allow accurate conclusions concerning achievement.


Websites to See

www.rubrics4teachers.com

www.naep.org

www.nciea.org


Kansas Special Education Assessments

Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children-Fourth Edition (WISC-IV)
BASC - Behavior Assessment System for Children
Woodcock Johnson III (WJ-III)

Response to Intervention (RTI) Tiers

Tier I- Interventions beginning in the classroom. All students are placed here in the beginning.

Tier II- Student that are identified and need an extra push with some accommodations.

Tier III- More intensive instruction. Some individual or small group sessions may be needed.