Assessment and Evaluation in Special Education - Term Paper Example

Critically discuss and evaluate the role of assessment in special education. Discuss the place of the standardized assessment in this process. Critically discuss and evaluate the role of assessment in special education. Discuss the role of standardized assessment in this process. Introduction Assessment teams use a variety of approaches and procedures in order to identify the students’ educational needs and provide them with help. Standardized testing plays an important role in the assessment process as it provides the basis for determining eligibility for special education needs. However, this procedure is severely criticised by theorists in the field, who find it discriminative and useless for education needs. The examples describing assessing language-minority students and the assessment teams’ struggle to respond to the NLCB requirements show us how challenging is the role of assessment in the special education of today. Assessment is an integral part of students’ and teachers’ life in all educational institutions (Goodman, 1990). However, in the realm of special education the assessment process plays a significantly important role as it serves to identify “special needs” of individual students and, thus, to make decisions about their diagnosis, placement, progress, or institutional program (Goodman, 1990). Special education assessment is a complex, demanding and ongoing procedure which involves systematic work and collaboration of school personnel, parents, medical personnel, psychologists and other professionals (Goodman, 1990). There are several steps in the educational process, all of them necessary to create the Individual Education Plan, adjusted to abilities and needs of individual students. All members of the assessment team use a variety of procedures and approaches to collect educationally relevant information, which can be used for decision-making purposes. While informal classroom assessments, such as observations or curriculum-based measures, are used for instructional decisions, formalized and standardized tests play a crucial role in making legal decisions – for example, determining the students’ eligibility for special education services (McLoughlin and Lewis, 2008). The test scores need to meet eligibility criteria established by the state so that the students could be provided with special help. Thus, reliable and valid testing is a primary area of professional responsibility for the assessment team. However, such “assessment for classification” has been severely criticized by the theorists, who claim that the whole procedure labels students and has no educational utility for the teachers (Goodman, 1990). It also has met with criticism from teachers, parents and medical personnel for discriminatory practices in assessment, inappropriate diagnosis of culturally and linguistically diverse students, and many other reasons. These issues are a manifestation of larger problems concerning the whole assessment process. Today, special education faces many new challenges and, thus, the role of the assessment process in special education is constantly changing. Assessment used for decision-making purposes The theorists in the field of special education define assessment as a process of data collection, used for decision-making purposes. Thus, assessment should not be confused with testing, which is one type of assessment, and diagnosis, which aims at establishing the cause of disability (Mc Loughlin and Lewis, 2008). In contrast, assessment has several purposes: identification, screening & preferral process, determining eligibility, program planning, monitoring student progress, and program evaluation (McLoughlin and Lewis, 2008). Special education assessment provides information for two types of decisions: legal decisions and instructional decisions. Legal decisions comprise determining whether a particular student has a disability which affects his or her educational performance. Once the disability is diagnosed, the student can be provided with special education services. Instructional decisions involve preparation of the Individualized Educational Program (IEP) for students with disabilities. After determining the student’s eligibility for special education services, assessment is used for several purposes in the IEP preparation. First, it serves to establish students’ current levels of performance. Equipped with the relevant knowledge on students’ strengths and weaknesses, the assessment team can establish the objectives of the program. Moreover, assessment serves to select appropriate services and curricular modifications to satisfy students’ needs. Finally, the data collected for assessment needs are used throughout the school year to make decisions about the curricular content, instructional methods, and overall effectiveness (Mc Loughlin & Lewis, 2008). The meaning of different steps of assessment The first step in the assessment process is the identification of students with school problems (Mc Loughlin and Lewis, 2008). Informal assessment techniques, such as classroom quizzes or task analysis, enable the teacher to see the students’ academic and behavioral problems. Once the problem is identified, there are several educational strategies that can be used in order to meet the low-achieving students’ educational needs and draw on their strengths. However, if the student’s performance does not improve, the teacher can ask the Prereferral Support Team for help. The team, usually made up of other general education teachers and a school counsellor, works together to design strategies that can help the student to overcome difficulties and be successful in the general education classroom. (McLoughlin and Lewis, 2008). If the interventions result in the student’s improved performance, the team continues with the plan and organizes another meetings to discuss the student’s progress. In the contrary case, the child is referred for special education evaluation. Next comes the evaluation process, which involves formal assessment of all areas of suspected disability. Each student has an Individual Assessment Plan, adjusted to his or her needs. The standard testing procedures must be followed to ensure absolute reliability and accuracy. Once the tests are completed, the Individual Educational Plan team reviews the case, studies evaluation results and, finally, determines the student’s eligibility for special education services. The IEP must include such information as current levels of the student’s educational performance, annual and short-term objectives, type of special education services, the student’s participation in general education activities, procedures for participation in district-wide assessment, strategies for monitoring progress, transition services if needed and, finally, special factors related to the student’s needs (Mc Loughlin and Lewis, 2008). As a teacher of children with autism, at this stage I help the assessment team to design an Individual Assessment Plan for children who have been diagnosed with autism and, thus, usually experience learning difficulties (LD) which are related to autism spectrum disorders. For example, children with autism often have difficulties with mathematics problems which involve logical thinking. Thus, I suggest implementation of more concrete programs, in which the teacher provides students with a method to solve the problem (Moyes, 2002). Once the student’s parents approve the IEP, the program can be implemented, which is the last step in the assessment process. The implementation of an IEP involves continuous monitoring of students’ progress, annual review of the plan, and reevaluation of eligibility at least every three years. The role of standardized testing in the process Each step of the assessment process is essential to meet the students’ special educational needs. However, while professionals in the field find informal assessment useful and relevant for instructional planning (Goodman, 1990), standardized assessment procedures have met with severe criticism from theorists, teachers and many other groups. Formal and standardized testing procedures are used in the referral process and determining eligibility for special education services. Under federal law in the USA, standard procedures must be followed to provide the maximum accuracy. These procedures concern the preparation of the tester, the testing environment and the student, test administration, observation of test behavior and work style, and interpretation of test results (Mc Loughin & Lewis, 2008). Students are assessed in terms of their general intellectual functioning, educational performance, and index of suspected disability. There are three predefined categories of handicapping conditions: emotionally handicapped (EH), educable mentally retarded (EMR), and learning disabled (LD) (Rueda, 1989). Under the US law, students need to meet all definitional requirements under a suspected category of handicap to be eligible for special education services. For example, to be diagnosed with learning disabilities a student must demonstrate a significant gap between expected and actual performance in at least one academic or language skill. (Rueda, 1989). Students who do not meet these requirements cannot be provided with special help. Thus, many actually low-achieving students are left without the help they need (Rueda, 1989). What is more, the referral process does not take into account the data collected in the informal assessment procedures, which is often more relevant and provides accurate information on the student’s educational functioning (Sigmon, 1990). The dependence of the referral process and eligibility criteria on the definitional requirements has met with severe criticism from the theorists in the field of special education (Rueda, 1989). Today, IQ testing is not considered as objective and scientifically valid as it used to be (Tomlinson, 1982). There is a concern that the division of students with mild disabilities into the three predefined categories labels the students rather than provides information about the characteristics and needs of individual children. Moreover, the research in the field indicates effectiveness of similar instructional processes with all these three groups as well as with normally-achieving students. For example, direct instruction is very effective with both normally-achieving students and with children with learning disabilities (Lloyd, 1984). Therefore, there is no educational explanation of this categorization. Another drawback of the standardized testing process is lack of reliability concerning the research in the field. The measures used by researchers to assess students are considered not as reliable as those used by teachers or other education workers. Thus, some of the researchers´ measures may result inappropriate to use in a special education classroom (Lloyd, 1984). The issues in assessment today Another problem related to formal assessment concerns inappropriate assessment, diagnosis, and placement of language-minority students. Many of these students are misdiagnosed with language disabilities and referred to special education classrooms due to behaviors, which are related to their level of proficiency in English, such as lower level of English proficiency, first language loss, codeswitching, linguistic borrowing, and dysfluencies (Weaver, 1998). While these behaviors of a native speaker could signal a learning disorder, they are common during the process of second language acquisition and do not mean a handicapping condition (Weaver, 1998). There are several conditions that must be followed in order to distinguish a suspected disorder from a language difference. First, the disorder must be present in the student’s native language. Moreover, the student should be provided with appropriate assessment in his or her native language. The results of assessments should be compared to that of children with similar language and cultural experience. Finally, interruptive factors in the student’s native language development must be identified (Weaver, 1998). Accessing culturally and linguistically diverse students is one of the principal challenges of assessment today. The status of educational assessment has also been affected with the implementation of No Child Left Behind Incentive (NCBL). Under NCLB children with special needs are included in the general education curriculum, classroom, and accountability systems (Cole, 2006). It means a new challenge for the Individual Assessment Plan team as the IAP should state to which extent the student can participate in general education settings and establish procedures for the student’s participation in district-wide assessment. Moreover, the NCLB demand to report the results of state and district publicly requires special educators and general educators to work together in new ways and, thus, help special education students to achieve good results. Conclusion Assessment plays a very important role in special education. With early identification of educational problems, students can be referred for special education services and, thus, be provided with the help they need. Monitoring students’ progress and gathering information about their needs enables the educators to design the Individual Educational Plan, which will help the students to improve their academic performance. Standardized testing is a crucial part of the assessment process as it determines the student’s eligibility for special help. However, the example of language-minority students shows clearly that this area of activity tends to label the students and in many cases deprives them of the help they need. Due to changes in educational law and the needs of today’s society, the field of special education is constantly changing. Thus, assessment teams need to face many new challenges to respond to the needs of future special education. References Cole, Cassandra (2006, Fall). Closing the Achievement Gap Series: Part III. What is the Impact of NCLB on the Inclusion of Students with Disabilities? Education Policy Brief, 4 (11), 1-12 Donnell, L., McLaughlin, M., & Morison, P (1997). Educating one & all: students with disabilities and standard-based reform. Washington: National Academy Press Goodman, L. (1990). Time and learning in the special education classroom. Albany: State University of New York Press Lloyd, J. W. (1984). How shall we individualize instruction-or should we? Remedial and Special Education, 5 (1), 7-15. Mc Loughlin, J., & Lewis, R (2007). Assessing Students with Special Needs. Upper Saddle River: Prentice Hall. (Original Work Published 1994) Moyes, R. (2002). Addressing the challenging behavior of children with high functioning autism. London: Jessica Kingsley Publishers Rueda, R (1989, Oct.). Defining mild disabilities with language-minority students. Exceptional Children, 56 (2), 121-128 Sigmon, S. (Ed). (1990). Critical voices on special education: problems and progress concerning the mildly handicapped. Albany, State University of New York Press Tomlinson, S. (1982) A sociology of special education. London: Routledge Weaver, L. (n.d), Assessment of Second Language Learners, A Course Module, University of Houston Clear Lake, prtl.uhcl.edu/.../Modules/Module2- Assessment%20of%20Second%20Language%20Learners.pdf, accessed on 14.10.09 Read More