Wednesday, May 8, 2013

The 7 Pieces of an Effective Assessment

Individual: An effective assessment must be administered individually and identify both the strengths and weaknesses of a student.



Relevant: A Functional Assessment should be relevant to the individual student. It must be designed to collect information and scores that are specific to the concerns of the parents and teacher. It should not be a standard comprehensive test battery that is used for every student that is tested regardless of the presenting problems.



Direct: A student’s academic skills should be directly assessed with the use of curriculum or skills related to learning. The level at which the student is able to perform as well as trends over skill areas should be recorded.



Observational: Behavior of the student as well as the environment should be evaluated by direct observation. 



Norm-referenced: Assessments that use norm-referenced comparisons of peers of the same age or grade should be part of the Functional Academic Assessment in order to determine where a student falls within their developmental group or grade. This method alone does not produce information that will lead to intervention or remediation planning because the information does not identify the specific weak underlying processing skills.



Multi-dimensional: A Functional Academic Assessment should look at variables that can affect the student’s  achievement and learning. Examination of the use of multiple tasks such as distractibility, speed of completion of work, need for reward or motivation, balance, and memory.



Interventional: The assessment should allow the examiner to create a plan of remediation after identifying the specific processing skills deficits and academic skill deficiencies. The results should also identify potential modification or accommodations that may be necessary in order for a student to experience success.










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If you are the parent of a child with special needs or a learning disability then you know how difficult it can be to get answers to your questions. For many of us we have been disappointed when we were unable to find others who could help identify causes and solutions that help. This can be a lonely journey and that is why we are here. Our desire is that this would be a source of information, hope and humor for those of you who are struggling on the same path.
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