Assessment & Special Education - Essay Example

 Evaluating with learning disabilities is a complex and challenging task. Assessment of such is nevertheless an important and integral part of special education as it is important to identify and gauge the student’s disability and prescribe an appropriate development program. This paper discusses some of the attributes of special education assessment along with its strengths and weaknesses. The paper also describes my aspiration to become a special education teacher and my preferred area of specialization. Thereafter, the paper discusses some of my strengths and weaknesses in this domain and my experience as a special education evaluator. Assessing students with learning disabilities can be a challenge. However, we must remember that assessing is providing the child with an opportunity to demonstrate knowledge, skill and understanding. For most learning disabled students, last on the list should be a pencil/paper task. Below is a list of strategies that support and enhance assessment of learning disabled students. Special Education is a multi-faceted domain and consists of a highly diverse population of both teachers and pupils. Teaching in the area of special education requires appropriate qualifications and experience as it can often prove challenging to engage with people having disabilities. As such, teachers often specialize in any particular category of special education or may instead gain experience in multiple disciplines based on the provisions of local legislation. As an aspiring teacher in Special Education, I would like to specialize in the categories of learning and speech impairment since I feel most connected with students from these learning groups. I want to help children having learning disabilities like dyscalculia and dyslexia since related difficulties in comprehension, fluency and math only tend to complicate further with age. By specializing in learning disabilities, I can help students cope with the rigors of classroom learning besides helping them navigate through other scenarios in life like normal individuals. I also want to help students who have issues with speech or writing and cannot communicate effectively with others. According to Kritikos (2009), speech deficiencies such as stuttering are common impairments among children and can be eliminated through proper guidance and training (p. 92). In my role as a teacher, I want to improve the communication skills of my students and provide them with essential capabilities that can help them in dealing with such disabilities. The validity and significance of assessment in special education cannot be underestimated. Teaching children with disabilities requires a multi-faceted approach and depends on collaboration among a number of professionals in an appropriate environment. A typical assessment is thus undertaken by a multi-disciplinary team that examines a student from many different perspectives to identify the existence of any special needs and disabilities. The role of the team is extremely important during an assessment as it helps evaluate the extent and progress of any identifiable disability and develop a suitable special education curriculum that can help the individual. As such, an evaluator must possess comprehensive, accurate and real-time knowledge on the evaluation in order to offer the best support to the student. These skills can only come with experience and must be supplemented with regular on-the-job learning. There are, however, some issues associated with current assessment methodologies. Critics like Giuliani (2009) have alleged that students identified as being at-risk (i.e., those not having any disability) are often pooled together with students having special needs (p. 34). They argue that combining students in this manner inhibits the progress of the latter group as they may not be able to develop the required confidence and motivation in the presence of other students with better learning capabilities. Pierangelo (2007) also blames curriculum for not benefiting such students and says that the administration needs to develop a specific curriculum for each category within special education (p. 78). Methodologies such as inclusive learning have also been severely criticized by critics like Salvia (2009, p. 65). They argue that students with learning disabilities depend on alternative instructional methods that are different from regular classroom techniques. As such, they believe that it is not possible to use multiple methods within the same classroom. Overton (2008) undertook an elaborate survey to evaluate this issue and found that students with disabilities, who were clubbed into regular classrooms, were unable to cope with normal classroom teaching and had fallen behind even further due to inadequate help (p. 146). Gargiulo (2010) cites parental pressure as another major reason for this trend (p. 159). Parents of normal children often fear that devoting attention to students with learning disabilities requires considerable effort and time. Thus, they believe that attending to the special needs of each and every individual can inhibit the academic progress of all the students. According to Bakken (2009), the primary reason for inaccurate results from assessments is the lack of expertise and knowledge on the part of the assessors themselves (p. 142). Merely possessing an advanced professional degree in special education or obtaining a valid license does not qualify one as an able evaluator. Another major reason for inaccurate results is associated with the standards and metrics used to evaluate students with special needs. Most of these measures are just capable of capturing a snapshot of the child’s performance at a particular instant of time. Many factors can influence a specific behavior within the student on a given day and may not persist thereafter, thereby reflecting incorrectly during the evaluation. For example, the student may not feel comfortable with the surrounding environment during the evaluation and may have extreme difficulty in opening up. Such introvert tendencies may not be the case when the student is among his parents, friends or fellow classmates. Nevertheless, the unusual behavior of the student may impact his assessment, thereby leading to an incorrect identification of his learning requirements. While many assessments do encompass a certain margin of error to eliminate bias, Heller (2005) notes several cases where this margin was unable to account for a student’s unusual behavior during the assessment (p. 186). As someone aspiring to become a special education teacher, I have found myself to possess many relevant skills and competencies. I have participated in many workshops and training programs on evaluating the needs of school children at the elementary and middle levels besides diagnosing their emotional and social capabilities. I have also engaged in the development of classroom profiles that have helped evolve strategies for overall development and improvement of skills. In this context, my work has mostly focused upon identifying children who lack the basic socio-emotional skills and require immediate attention. This has been achieved primarily through the development of specific student portfolios that have helped prescribe and monitor relevant prevention strategies. I also have experience in evaluating the progress of children at the class, school and county levels and wish to improve upon them by learning more about socio-emotional tendencies in children. I constantly feel the need for further improvement in my capabilities as a potential special education teacher. As such, I am constantly self-observant about various aspects of my teaching and seek feedback from my colleagues and teachers whenever possible. I also believe that there are certain aspects to my current teaching approach that need to be changed or substituted with better method. For instance, rather than engage in mere questionnaire-based surveys and interviews, I am convinced that the best way to evaluate a student is by being more interactive and encouraging the student’s active and involved participation. This requires projecting me as someone the child can trust and approach whenever in need. I believe that developing these skills requires guided training from established professionals who have successfully implemented similar initiatives. I am also convinced that self-assessment is a critical component of qualitative teaching and stand committed to self-evaluation whenever possible. References 1. Bakken, J. (2009). Current Issues and Trends in Special Education: Identification Assessment and Instruction. Chicago: emerald Group Publishing. 2. Gargiulo, R. (2010). Special Education in Contemporary Society: An Introduction to Exceptionality. London: SAGE. 3. Giuliani, G. (2010). Assessment in Special Education: A Practical Approach. New York: Pearson. 4. Heller, K. (2005). Placing children in special education: a strategy for equity. National Academies. 5. Kritikos, E. (2009). Special education assessment: issues and strategies affecting today's classrooms. New York: Merrill. 6. Overton, T. (2008). Assessment in special education: an applied approach. University of Michigan. 7. Pierangelo, R. (2007). Understanding assessment in the special education process: a step-by-step guide for educators. London: Corwin Press. 8. Salvia, J. (2009). Assessment: In Special and Inclusive Education. London: Cengage Learning. 9. Upton, G. (2007). Special educational needs. London: Routledge. Read More