Special education - Assignment Example

Some of the special needs entail communication challenges, physical disabilities, behavioral and emotional behaviors and developmental disorders. Students exhibiting the special needs usually benefit from additional educational services where different approaches are used with examples of a resource room, use of technology and a teaching area that is specifically adapted (University of La Crosse, 2012). This is where special educators come in. Special educators have a repertoire that has evidence based strategies meant to individualize instructions specifically for individuals who have exceptional learning needs (ELN).

These strategies enhance critical thinking in learning, problem solving as well as individual skill performance. More over the strategies enhance self-reliance, self-control and self esteem. Special educators play a huge part in put a lot of emphasis in maintenance development and generalization of skills and knowledge across settings, environments and lifespan (University of La Crosse, 2012). When it comes to assessment, this is a very crucial process during decision making as well as teaching of special educators.

The educators use various types of assessment information when making different educational decisions. They also use assessment results to assists them identify the exceptional learning needs and also to come up and enforce individualized instructional programs and also adjust instruction when it comes to responding to ongoing learning progress (University of La Crosse, 2012). . In addition, they understand assessment that is related to eligibility, referral, instruction, program planning and placement.

An empirical study conduct by the National Center on Educational Outcomes (NCEO) in regards to the participation of disabled students in regards to statewide testing programs, probed the question of why students were excluded in these assessments (Almond et al, 1997). Despite the fact that participation rates largely contributed to poor data collection during testing time, the study found that there was also the files that used key marker variables. This resulted in many disabled students being lost in the midst.

The study identified the four reasons that make statewide assessment to be used and they included; providing data so as to inform policy, make decisions regarding student competence, provide accountability data based on criterion achievement levels and lastly, to be able to compare the local agencies that are local (Almond et al, 1997). In their methodology, they focused on testing students with disabilities from 3rd, 5th, 8th as well as 10th graders. After having done their research, the NCEO found that program participation and demographic data would be used when it came to grouping of scores and also taking into consideration the effects of program services, age, language proficiency and socioeconomic status (Almond et al, 1997).

Therefore, when it comes to the evidence that I will use to make sure my students responses as well as errors guided discussion decisions and ensure that feedback is provided to learners, I will use the evidence based practice. This is where there is use of instructional strategy, teaching program or intervention that leads to consistent positive results particularly when they are experimentally