focus question
CHAPTER 9:
Assessment of Reading, Writing, and Mathematics
Assessment in Special Education
Raymond H. Witte
Jane E. Bogan
Michael F. Woodin
Witte, Bogan, Woodin, Assessment in Special Education. © 2015 by Pearson Education, Inc. All Rights Reserved
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Reading
Assessing the 5 components of reading:
- Phonemic awareness: focus on understanding the smallest meaningful part of the spoken word
- Blending phonemes
- Segmenting phonemes
- Rhyming phonemes
- Phonics: understanding the relationship between phonemes & graphemes
- Letter-sound identification
- Decoding skills
- Fluency: reading with appropriate rate, accuracy, and prosody
- Words read correctly per minute
- Use of appropriate expression and rhythm during oral reading
Witte, Bogan, Woodin, Assessment in Special Education. © 2015 by Pearson Education, Inc. All Rights Reserved
1-*
Reading
Assessing the 5 components of reading con’t:
- Vocabulary: understanding the meaning of words
- Definitions
- Relationship of morphemes to word meanings
- Comprehension: understanding the meaning of text
- Literal & inferential questions
- Identification of main idea & supporting details
- Recalling details from text
- Using metacognitive strategies
Witte, Bogan, Woodin, Assessment in Special Education. © 2015 by Pearson Education, Inc. All Rights Reserved
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Reading
Screening instruments
- Used to identify students who seems to be struggling with reading in general
- Do not provide specific information about strengths and weaknesses
- Short administration time
- Evaluation criteria:
- Does it evaluate early literacy skills?
- Is it sensitive enough to discriminate between students who are and are not having problems with reading?
- Is it efficient and easily administered?
- Is it technically adequate?
Witte, Bogan, Woodin, Assessment in Special Education. © 2015 by Pearson Education, Inc. All Rights Reserved
1-*
Reading
Diagnostic instruments
- Used to identify specific strengths and weaknesses of the performances of at-risk students
- Data can be used to create homogeneous reading groups, develop IEP goals and objectives, & drive instruction through lessons that meet students where they are currently performing.
- Types:
- Informal reading inventory
- Standardized diagnostic reading assessments
Witte, Bogan, Woodin, Assessment in Special Education. © 2015 by Pearson Education, Inc. All Rights Reserved
1-*
Informal reading inventories
How to choose which one to use:
- Examine the content of the IRI – what skills are assessed? Does it meet the needs of LEP students?
- Examine the passages included – what is the source of the passages? Are they narrative or expository? Are they sensitive to cultural & linguistic diversity?
- Examine the ease of administration – how much and what kind of data are collected? Are there parallel forms? How does it determine independent, instructional, & frustration levels?
- Examine the ease of data interpretation – is there enough data to make decisions?
Witte, Bogan, Woodin, Assessment in Special Education. © 2015 by Pearson Education, Inc. All Rights Reserved
1-*
Reading
Progress Monitoring Tools:
- Used to help teachers adapt their instruction to meet the individualized levels & needs of the students in the class
- Choosing a tool:
- Must be sensitive to student change
- Must be educationally meaningful
- Must be cost effective
- Tools:
- Curriculum-based measurement (CBM)
- Maze assessment
- Word recognition
Witte, Bogan, Woodin, Assessment in Special Education. © 2015 by Pearson Education, Inc. All Rights Reserved
1-*
Mathematics
Screening instruments: measure the fluency of early numeracy skills and critical foundational skills that lead to future success in mathematics
Diagnostic instruments: used to determine the specific strengths and weaknesses of an at-risk student
- Types
- Response analysis
- Error analysis
- Evaluation of students’ mathematical language ability
Witte, Bogan, Woodin, Assessment in Special Education. © 2015 by Pearson Education, Inc. All Rights Reserved
1-*
Mathematics
Progress monitoring
- Curriculum-based measurement helps fulfill requirements of the IEP
- Probes with a variety of problem types can be used to determine progress made in learning skills to be taught in a specific period of time
- CBM graphs that include baseline, goal line, and trend-line are useful in making instructional decisions
Witte, Bogan, Woodin, Assessment in Special Education. © 2015 by Pearson Education, Inc. All Rights Reserved
1-*
Writing
Holistic scoring: asks scorer to rank writing in relationship to other student’s work
- Similar to a screening instrument because it does not provide specific data about student knowledge
Primary trait scoring: asks scorer to rank writing in relationship to a predetermined set of criteria
- Involves using a rubric that adjusts to the writing purpose
Analytic scoring: similar to primary trait scoring except rubric is the same for all writing purposes
Witte, Bogan, Woodin, Assessment in Special Education. © 2015 by Pearson Education, Inc. All Rights Reserved
1-*
Writing
Portfolio Assessment: scoring based on a collection of student work
- Determine purpose for portfolio
- Establish what should be included in the portfolio
- Establish who will choose what is included
- Allow students to see the rubric from the beginning of the collection process
Curriculum-based measurement: use timed probe or story starter to collect a sample of student writing
- Can be evaluated on number of complete sentences written, number of words spelled correctly, & number of correct word sequences
Witte, Bogan, Woodin, Assessment in Special Education. © 2015 by Pearson Education, Inc. All Rights Reserved
1-*
Comprehensive Instruments
Comprehensive instruments measure achievement in all academic areas.
- Often used in the comprehensive evaluation process to determine eligibility for special education and services
- Typically normed from very young children through adults
- Nearly all are individually administered.