Students with Learning Disabilities

Assessment

Purposes of Assessment

• Screening

• Determining eligibility

• Planning a program

• Monitoring student progress

• Evaluating a program

Types of Assessment

• Formal evaluation - Standardized testing - Norm-referenced

• Tests of Intelligence - Used to ascertain student’s general ability

level and to rule out mental retardation

Informal Evaluation and Assessment

- Criterion tests

- Probes

- Placement tests

- Checklists

- Direct observation

- Miscellaneous techniques

- Curriculum-based assessment

- Alternative assessment

Testing Guidelines

• Assessing Culturally Diverse Students– Over-representation of students from

culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds in programs for learning disabilities

• Testing Accommodations– i.e., extended time and tests read aloud– Teachers should make decisions on what

accommodations to use based on data-based decisions

Assessment Process in Learning Disabilities

• Prereferral– Analyze individual cases and find strategies before

referring to special education • Referral

– Involves determining if a student is a candidate for special ed services, contacting and discussing it with the parents, beginning a screening study, and meeting with parents and appropriate professionals to decide if formal evaluation is needed

Assessment Process Continued

• Assessment for Identification– Examining the parameters that define a

learning disability– Looking for severe discrepancy between

achievement and intellectual ability

Assessing Specific Components of a Learning

Disability– Exclusion: looking at other factors such as hearing

problems or emotional disturbance

– Academic Achievement: discrepancy between ability and achievement

– Language Achievement: listening comprehension and oral expression

– Process: visual, auditory, haptic, sensory-integration, and motor

– Discrepancy: failure to achieve in one of seven areas, the gap between achievement and and intellectual ability must be extensive enough to result in “severe discrepancy”

Determining Discrepancy

-Standard Score Comparisons

-Deviation from Grade Level

-Expectancy Formulas

-Regression Analysis

Assessment Model

1. Determine scope and sequence2. Decide what behavior to assess3. Select an evaluation activity4. Administer the evaluation5. Record student’s performance6. Determine short- and long-range

instructional objectives

Assessment for Instruction

• Assessment for How to Teach– Identify major areas of assessment: expectation

factors, stimulus events, response factors, and subsequent events

– Weigh the major areas in relation to each other; after they have been assessed and viewed as a whole, a profile may be written

• Individualized Education Program (IEP)– Once student is determined as having a learning

disability, assessment focuses on instruction; process is guided by an IEP