The topic of assessment alone raises many debated discussions, among teachers, and to add Special Education students into the polemical dialogue intensifies the debate. As a result, there are several alternative methods in assessing Special Education students within the learning environment. Professionals have created specifically designated techniques in helping these and all students achieve academic success. The authors, Peter Wright and Pamela Darr Wright, of the article Tests and Measurements for the Parent, Teacher, Advocate and Attorney; discuss several assessment approaches but none more polemical than norm referenced and criterion referenced tests (2007). For example, Criterion-Referenced Tests are the most common testing utilized by teachers in determining if their students have learned the content material being taught. This form …show more content…
The first article was written by Timothy E. Heron, Stacy A. Martz, and Howard Margolis entitled Ethical and Legal Issues in Consultation. In their article they explain the “conflicting and overlapping laws, regulations, and procedures” that educators and parents must experience in assuring that the legal rights of every student are met academically (p. 377). However, the most important issue addressed, for teachers and administrators, in their article is the fact that the ethical and legal implications have become very complex. As a result, in understanding the multifaceted laws can greatly empower the teacher and administrators to truly realize that it is normal to feel overwhelmed with the legal concerns in educational management. Furthermore, once they have achieved a foundation then it can be implemented in the classroom and the parents can also become actively involved in the process, eliminating some of the confusion; for instance, parental rights of due
In the society of today, there are various educators who believe in assessment as proper method to measure the performance of a child in school as well as the overall achievement of a specific school system. The assessment may be presented in the form of verbal, written, or multiple choice, and it usually pertains to certain academic subjects in the school curriculum. Recently, many educators began to issue standardized tests to measure the intelligence of a common student body. (Rudner, 1989) These standardized tests were initially created to reveal the success in institutional school programs, and exhibit the abilities of students today. The standardized tests can reveal the strengths and weaknesses of a student as well as the admission into certain programs. The test results also assist various schools in determining the proper curriculum, evaluate a specific school system, or a particular school related program.
Tom Smith, Edward Polloway, James Patton, and Carol Dowdy state, a 2008 report shows that 8.96% of the school-age population… have disabilities and of that number, 3.89% or almost half, were identified as learning disabled (2012, p. 160). Learning disabilities has always been a tough diagnosis due to accounting for a lot of factors like behavior, no proper teaching, culture and language, health issues, and other disability affecting learning. Not only that but there are different subject areas of learning disability in math, reading, and writing.
Unlike other disorders an individual may have, there is no quick way and easy way to confirm or deny a learning disability. There is no x-ray, blood tests, easy and quick surveys to help educators determine whether a learning disability exists. Many of the problems with identifying and assisting children with learning disabilities are to have knowledge of the various learning disabilities and how they affect students. The lack of information available to parents and teachers causes the students to continue to struggle in school and diagnosis for any disabilities to be postponed even further in their schooling.
The students with this type of disability exhibits hyperactivity, fine and gross motor coordination, low self-concept, and language delays (Friend & Bursuck, 2006). The type of assessment accommodations commonly prescribed for students with a speech or language impairment are allowing to substitute oral exams with written exams, providing a vocabulary list, allowing the use of calculator, private location for testing, modify the length of the test, substitute oral project presentations with written presentations, and allowing extra time for assessments. According to Friend and Bursuck (2006), one critical element in testing students with disabilities is ensuring that the test results reflect their knowledge and skills, not their
Eleven-year-old Anna is outgoing and bright. She attempts to work hard, but her progress in school has always been slow. She is a year behind her peers, particularly in her English class and her teachers have slowly begun to reduce their expectations of her. Her parents are worried because her confidence for learning is decreasing, and there is less motivation for her to do homework and class assignments. A psychologist found that her intelligence is in the gifted range, but she has difficulty in making out written symbols. It is easy to make the assumption that Anna seems merely as a child who is slow intellectually, but when taking a closer look, it shows that she is just as intelligent but happens to suffer from a learning disorder. Students with learning disorders have brain impairments that make it difficult for them to acquire skills and knowledge accurately and fast enough to keep pace with average academic progress (Encarta, 2003, p.1). The purpose of this research paper is to investigate the causes of learning disorders, various types of disabilities, their causes, and finally how in today’s modern era assistive technology is able to reduce the frustration of students and increase their level of performance.
Outline the concerns that may exist with using an RTI model when identifying students suspected as having a learning disability.
When a child doesn’t seem to be learning, some teachers and parents in his/her life might criticize the child and think of them as stupid, or maybe just too lazy to want to learn. What they don’t realize is that the child might have a learning disability. But how are these children being helped? There are many programs, special schools and facilities, home teaching methods and many other ways in which children with Learning Disabilities are being helped.
In conclusion, it seems as though all the positives of the response to intervention program outweigh any negatives about it. The RTI program is extremely helpful in identifying any student that is having academic difficulties at an early age. Whether these students should be considered in the special education program or not can also be determined by using the RTI program. There is no reason to allow students to fail before any intervention is even considered. Anything that is beneficial in helping students succeed in their academic achievements should be viewed as a
Standardized testing remains to be a major controversial issue for the American society today. Exams are given to students at different levels in their educational career and are supposed to measure their academic knowledge, but are these tests really the best way to evaluate students? There have been numerous alternatives suggested to replace or be used in conjunction with standardized testing.
Pierangelo, R. A., & Giuliani, G. A. (2013). Assessment in special education: A practical approach. (10th ed.). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson.
There are a number of definitions in the literature to describe the strategy of portfolio assessment. Brady and Kennedy (2009) describe portfolio assessment as a collection of work samples or products collected over time to demonstrate student progress in learning and achievement of outcomes. This is the most succinct and ideal definition as the idea of assessment is to not only assess the final products of learning but to also assess the process a student takes to achieve that final product. Portfolios in general provide evidence of a how a student thinks, questions, analyses, synthesises, produces and creates (Borich & Tombari, 2004). Grace (2002) emphasises that they keep track of a student’s success rather than their failures. This naturally allows you to determine what their learning n...
It is important that teachers give children a fair chance to show their knowledge when assessing. “The purpose of assessment is to provide feedback that can be used to improve student performance” ( Orange 2000). Teachers assess children to ensure that they are understanding the material, and to make sure they are learning. For young children especially tests should never be the only criteria of assessment. Instructors should always make sure that their assessment is fair. When testing a child, make sure that the testing method used is appropriate for that child. For example, if giving a test that relies on visual aids to administer the test it is important that the teacher is certain that all the children have good enough vision to clearly see the aids.
Thurlow, Martha, and James Ysseldyke (2002). Including Students with Disabilities in Assessments. Washington, D.C.: National Educations Association.
Through assessment students and teachers are able to determine the level of mastery a student has achieved with standards taught. Both formative and summative assessment should be purposeful and targeted to gain the most accurate data to drive further instruction (Ainsworth, 2010). While this syllabus does a good job of identifying the need for both formal and informal assessments, the way in which this is communicated does not provide enough detail for understanding. Simply listing assessment types does not give any insight into how these assessments fit in the learning process of this course. While some of the assessments mentioned could be common assessments chosen by the school or district to gain insight into the effectiveness of instruction, the inclusion of authentic assessments is most beneficial to students and demonstrates learning in a context closer to that of a work environment (Rovai, 2004). Unfortunately, this particular course, according to this syllabus, relies heavily on quizzes and traditional tests and essays to form the bulk of assessment opportunities. While other activities, such as formative assessments, journaling and discussions are mentioned as possible avenues for scoring, they are given a very low percentage of the overall grade. This shows that they are not valued for their ability to show progression and mastery. If this is indeed the case, this puts the students as a
The advantages of portfolio assessment are many. Foremost, portfolios, when compared to written testing, provide teachers with a more complete picture of a student’s progress. Portfolios exhibit a student’s ability to problem solve and to reflect on the work that he has done. They also give students the opportunity to tangibly track their progress in a class. When implemented, portfolios can also encourage a school system to work towards a more “collaborative evaluation environment” (Curry, 2000). This indicates that the portfolios are not only tools for teachers to assess a student’s progress, but also for administrators to monitor a teacher’s classroom management.