NYSESLAT

This report is part of a comprehensive re-evaluation for additional Special Education Services requested by the parent due to concerns with the student’s academic performance. Upon her mother's referral, Melissa was referred to the School Based Support Team to determine whether she would qualify for additional support such as more time to complete daily task, and assistance. According to Ms. Martinez, her daughter requires support with all subjects in school. She reportedly has difficulty completing her classwork and homework. As per Melissa’s mother, she struggles with daily task in the classroom, more with mathematics. Melissa reportedly struggles with mathematics problems that requires various steps. Also, she struggles with reading comprehension and writing. Ms. Yudith Martinez, Melissa’s parent, conducted the interview in Spanish. The home language is listed as Spanish in ATS, and she reported feeling comfortable continuing in Spanish. Comment by Anel Suriel: When? What supports is she asking for? Comment by Anel Suriel: Only one space per APA 7

Melissa is a 15.0-year-old verbal, ambulatory, petite girl of Hispanic descendent with long dark brown eyes and dark brown hair. She was dressed neatly and appropriate. In addition, present at this evaluation was Melissa’s mother, Yudith Martinez. Due to COVID-19 pandemic, this evaluation was conducted via teleconferencing. As per Melissa’s mother, the evaluation via teleconferencing did not affect the intake process. She informed Melissa how important was this evaluation and that she needed to be cooperative and answer the questions. Melissa also was informed the purpose of this evaluation beforehand. Melissa presented with a cooperative and pleasant demeanor. She willingly answered the questions posed to her by this clinician. Melissa’s mother provided the majority of the information obtained for this evaluation. Melissa presented with good receptive and expressive language skills. Melissa’s mother provided the majority of the information obtained for this evaluation. Melissa presented with good receptive and expressive language skills. Comment by Anel Suriel: Do you think this impacts the intake?

Melissa resides in a two-bedroom apartment located in the South Bronx. She has been living there for almost 12 years. Her mother considers the neighborhood to be fairly safe. Melissa has her own bedroom. Also residing there is Melissa's mother, Yudith Martinez (42). Melissa's mother is a social worker for a transitional foster care agency. Being a social worker helped her advocating for her daughter. She was able to connect with resources that support her during this process. She received support from an educational advocate, who connected her with an educational attorney who provide all information needed, and her rights as parent of a student that has presented struggles in school. She is pre-diabetic and was diagnosed with hypothyroidism. Melissa has a close relationship with her mother. Comment by Anel Suriel: Do you think this helps her advocate for her daughter? Comment by Pena Wanda:

Melissa is currently enrolled at Cooke School and Institute. She has been enrolled at this school for about 7 years. She is in a 12:1:1 special education program. According to her IEP dated 10/12/21, she is classified as having "Other Health impairment" She receives speech therapy (individual and group), occupational therapy (individual and group) and counseling (individual and group). She receives hearing education services and has the use of an FM Unit at school. She also use her hearing aids at home.

Melissa attended the Immaculate Conception School (catholic) in the Bronx for kindergarten. She received speech therapy, occupational therapy and SETSS. She remained at this school until she was completed the second grade (which she repeated, due to academic difficulties). She has been attending her present school since the third grade. Melissa was previously enrolled in a catholic school. She was retained due to her inability to keep up with the school curriculum. Her grades were below 65 in all subjects. Melissa’s current school has a proficient level scale to provide students grades. The scale is defined as follows: 0 – Did Not Demonstrate Skill. 1 – Is developing the behavior or skill, 2 – Demonstrates the behavior or skill inconsistently, 3 – Demonstrates the behavior or skill most of the time, 4 – Demonstrates the behavior or skill consistently. 5 – Demonstrated Skill Independently. In addition, Scale: A=Always, U=Usually, S=Sometimes, N=Needs Improvement. These scales are used for all subjects. Melissa’s grades levels are as follows; Counseling (2), Speech, Language and Occupational Therapy (2), English Language Arts (3), Explorations in Mathematics (3), American History (3), Explorations in Sciences (3-4), Technology (4), Gym (4-5), Adaptive skills (5), Movement (A). Melissa is currently doing well academically

During the semester multiple classroom observations was conducted to monitor Melissa’s learning and to provide feedback. It was observed that Melissa works well during class following a checklist of to do things to complete the class. Melissa brings creativity and personal connections into the classroom. She is sometimes willing to participate and engages in class discussion and work though at times she can be seen falling asleep. She works collaboratively with her peers and participates in small group activities. She is able to complete her assignments with little to some support. Comment by Anel Suriel: My previous comment applies here as well.

Melissa loves spending time with her maternal extended family members. She likes to design dresses. She loves any activities related to arts and crafts. She loves to play with slime. One of Melissa's strengths is that she is friendly and is very social. She is cooperative. She loves to help others, especially younger children. This information is included in her IEP as her strengths, and also to clarify that she does not have any behavioral or emotional disturbance. Comment by Anel Suriel: This is welcomed info. Has it been incorporated into her IEP as she transitions to adulthood?

Melissa is well behaves at home and at school. However, she is immature for her age. She becomes frustrated when she is not able to keep up with her typically developing peers. She responds by crying. At times, she is resistant to wearing her hearing aids because she does not want to look different from her peers. Melissa is verbal. However, her pronunciation is sometimes unclear due to her hearing impairment. Melissa is friendly and enjoys socializing. Due to her immaturity, she tends to prefer socializing with younger children.

Melissa has some issues concerning hand strength and balance. This is due to the side effects from a brain surgery she underwent in July 2011. Melissa has good sleeping habits. Her bedtime is 10:00 PM on school nights and she wakes up at 6:00 AM on school mornings. She sleeps through the night.

Melissa is a very picky eater and tends to prefer unhealthy foods. She eats three meals per day and snacks in between meals. Her favorite foods are McDonalds, and pizza. Melissa can become itchy if she eats food containing red 45 dye. If she eats, an excessive amount of red 45 dye can trigger an eczema outbreak. However, this has not occurred in over 10 years.

Melissa's mother reported that her pregnancy was uneventful for the majority of time. However, she developed preeclampsia during the delivery. Melissa was born via natural childbirth, during the 38th week of gestation, at New York Presbyterian Hospital, Allen Pavilion. She weighed 7.2 pounds. Melissa began crawling when she was 4 months old, sat up on her own when she was 6 months old. Melissa began talkative when she was about 6 months old. She began walking when she was 13 months old. She was fully toilet trained when she was about 3 ½ years old. Melissa was first evaluated when she was 26 months old and was diagnosed with developmental delays. She received early intervention services until she was 3 years old. After this, she stayed home under the supervision of her maternal grandmother and did not attend daycare and/or preschool. When Melissa was 4.5 years old, she was diagnosed with a malignant brain tumor. More details will be provided in the Medical section of this evaluation. Melissa was diagnosed with mild high frequency damage of both ears (because of chemotherapy) when she was almost 5 years old. Due to this issue it has been difficult for her to recognized consonants. Melissa confuses words that sounds the same such as six vs sick. Also, the she hear things at a very low volume with aout hearing aids assistance. Comment by Pena Wanda: Comment by Anel Suriel: Might not be really needed at this point. However, I notice that you haven’t address her languaging abilities and needs—nor academic needs really other than her grades. Comment by Anel Suriel: She is a survivor! So many challenges so young…!

Both of Melissa's parents are of Hispanic descent. Melissa's mother was born in the United States but grew up in the Dominican Republic. Melissa's father, Barbino Genao (42), was born in the Dominican Republic. He resides in Massachusetts. He maintains a positive relationship with Melissa, although they do not have see each other often. Melissa has a 19-year­ old sister by her father. She lives in Massachusetts and has occasional contact with Melissa.

Melissa's maternal grandmother resides in the Bronx and is very involved with Melissa's care. Melissa's maternal grandfather resides in the Dominican Republic. Melissa's paternal grandmother resides in Massachusetts. Melissa's paternal grandfather is deceased. There is a history of high blood pressure and diabetes on the maternal side of Melissa's family. One of Melissa's paternal great aunts was diagnosed with some type of developmental disability. There is no reported history of drug or alcohol abuse on either side of Melissa's family.

Melissa is dependent on her mother to meet her needs. Melissa’s mother receives a lot of support from her extended family and friends. She does not receive any funded services or government benefits. Melissa's mother would like her to receive care management and community habilitation services. She would like Melissa to attend extracurricular activities.

Melissa is verbal and ambulatory. Sometimes, she requires verbal prompting about bathing and brushing her teeth, appropriate clothing. She is independent concerning dressing herself. Melissa is able to tell time with a digital clock. She is not able to tell time with an analog clock. She reads on an early elementary school level. Melissa is dependent about traveling via bus or subway. She understands the function of money. She requires verbal prompting to check for the correct change. Melissa rarely uses the stove and requires supervision when she does so. She can make Ramen Noodles. She is independent with regards to using the microwave oven. She is independent with regards to making a simple snack or a sandwich. Melissa requires verbal prompting about making her bed. She is dependent with regards to washing dishes, cleaning her room and doing her laundry.y.

Melissa speaks English and limited Spanish. Unfortunately, her school does not provide any classes in Spanish. Melissa get expose to the language informally only when a staff interacts with her outside of the classroom. Melissa’s mom has informed the Hispanic staff to feel free to talk to her in Spanish as much as they can. Melissa disabilities does not inhibit her bilingualism, Melissa’s mother stated that educational setting does due to not been exposed to the language. Her educational experiences are not supporting her languaging needs in terms of the Spanish language. However, her educational needs are been met when we talked about her hearing disability. In the wasy that they are, been met is thru speech and hearing therapies.

Knowledge of Student	3/3	Richly described
Description of Diagnostic Assessments and Needs	3/3	Rchly described
Language Learning Needs	0/3	Not addressed
Grammar and Readability	1/1

PART II

The test tool used to assess Melissa’s educational abilities is the Stanford-Binet Intelligence Scales- 51h Edition (SB-V). According to Stanford-Binet Intelligence Scales- 51h, Edition (SB-V), it is used to provide the cognitive and intellectual abilities of the person under high and reliable assessments (Gibbons & Warne., 2019). Deviations from the standard assessments were employed to allow for remote testing (Peterson et al.,2020). The testing for Melissa was done strictly in English. Proration of the non-verbal domain due to the visual-spatial processing (form board) and working memory (block tapping).

Melissa was assessed using The Vineland Adaptive Behavior Scales, 3n1 Ed. (Vineland-3) on the psychological side. Melissa's adaptive behavior was measured using the Vineland-3 Domain-Level Parent/Caregiver Form utilizing her mother as the primary informant through the Zoom audio-video feed (Farmer et al., 2020). The Vineland Adaptive Behavior Scales, 3n1 Ed. (Vineland-3) is a standardized assessment of adaptive behavior, or the activities people engage in to operate in their daily lives (Farmer et al., 2019). Unlike the ability measures, which identity what a person can perform under evaluation, Vineland-3 measures what the person under assessment does in their daily lives. Because vineland-3 is a non-biased tool, the findings are compared to those of persons the same age as the person being evaluated. The total scores for Daily Living Skills, communications, motor skills, and specializations are provided by the Vineland-3 (optional). It also gives the individual a composite score that sums up their performance across all categories.

The SB-V verbal scale assesses the ability to think, visualize, recall key information and solve problems provided in words and phrases (Apollonsky et al.,2020). It is based on the verbal subtests of five component index scales, which examine the capacity to coherently articulate verbal replies, offer a basic explanation for alternative responses, generates short narrative, and explain spatial linkages. The SB-non-verbal V's scale assesses the capacity to think, solve problems, envision, and recall knowledge in pictorial, figural, and symbolic form rather than information delivered in words and phrases. Melissa performed adequately on the fluid reasoning subtest, which required her to recognize and continue patterns. She fared similarly on the knowledge subtest. She had to demonstrate non-verbally what items in pictures are used for and had only minor difficulty on the quantitative reasoning subset, which required her to demonstrate non-verbally how many items were being asked of her to select.

Melissa's fundamental literacy and her ability to listen and comprehend are assessed in the communication domain. Melissa follows specific directives, expresses basic needs adequately, speaks in complete sentences, and asks appropriate questions to obtain relevant information. However, Melissa has difficulty following multi-step directives, relating detailed experiences, or saying something in a different way to clarify what she means. Melissa's performance on practical, everyday chores of living that are acceptable for her chronological age is assessed in the daily living skills area. Melissa is independent in basic AOL areas. She can help herself with cold cereal in the morning or make a sandwich for lunch. Comment by Anel Suriel: This level of description is helpful for teachers because it allows me to see what she can do well, independently and what she will struggle and need my support with.

Melissa received a prorated full-scale I.Q. of 85 on the Stanford-Binet Intelligence Scale, in the typical low range and the 16th percentile. Her genuine I.Q. The score is likely to be between 82 and 88. She succeeded more in perceptual reasoning tasks than those requiring verbal comprehension. Deficits in the area of speech and language are contributory. Melissa achieved a Verbal I.Q. A score of 80 is considered lower than the average and marked at the 9th percentile. Melissa achieved a prorated Nonverbal I.Q. A score of 92 is considered average and at the 30th percentile. Melissa’s overall level of adaptive functioning is moderately low, corresponding with a standard score of 76, which is ranked at the 5th percentile. In communication, Melissa's standard score of 75 is moderately low and ranked at the 5th percentile. In the area of Daily Living Skills, Melissa’s standard score of 81 is moderately low and ranked at the 10th percentile. In socialization, Melissa's standard score of 79 is moderately low and ranked at the 8th percentile. Comment by Anel Suriel: Explain these as you did above. What does this mean with regard to what she can and cannot do in the classroom? Or life skills maybe.

The recommendations and decisions made after Melissa's assessment were for her to continue to participate in special education programming with supportive therapies. Melissa should be offered psychological counseling to address low self-esteem and social skills deficits. Melissa should have a comfortable community habilitation to improve self-sufficiency, travel skills, and safety awareness. Melissa's need for after-school/recreational programming is also indicated. Finally, coordination of services through care management. There were no disagreements from either the parents or the guardians.

Identification of Test Tools	3/3	Succinct. Was there any reasoning behind the selection of these tools v. others?
PUMI Review of Tests	2/3	Very brief but to the point. What info do they give for classroom instruction?
Interpretation of Results	2/3	The IQ results could use some elaboration as you did with the psychoed. testing and results.
Decision and Acceptance	1/1
Grammar and Readability	1/1

PART III

Reliability refers to the consistency of a measure. Ideally, a test is only regarded as being reliable if it can offer the same results over and over again. When a test is designed to determine a trait, the results are supposed to be approximately the same each time the test is administered to the subject. Although it is almost impossible to calculate exact values of reliability, the number can always be approximated to the closest possible value. Test-Retest reliability is the measure of the consistency of a psychological assessment or test (Atmojo, 2021). The method is utilized when the things to be measured are stable over time. The test-retest reliability is administered twice at two different points in time. However, the method assumes that there is no more change in the quality and the construct that is being measured. Inter-rater reliability is assessed by having more than one independent judge scoring for the test. In the end, these scores are then compared among the people scoring them. The length of time taken in undertaking a test is a disadvantage because the longer the duration the higher chances of getting contaminating the responses. Comment by Anel Suriel: Be sure to engage the readings from class that look at language learners too.

Test validity on the other is an essential issue in selecting a test. “Validity refers to what characteristic the test measures and how well the test measures that characteristic.” The purpose of validity is to tell more about the character that is being determined. Validity gives a better meaning to the test scores. According to, validity will indicate that there exists a linkage between test performance and job performance (Atmojo, 2021). Validity can predict the solutions that people ought to get. The first factor impacting validity negatively is replication. There comes a time when experiments require cross-validation at various stages so that the results generated can be interpreted theoretically.

Authenticity is the wide variety of instructional techniques which are focused on connecting what learners have been taught vs what is available in the real world. The instructional approach that learners follow is said to be authentic if it allows the learners to explore and discuss the concepts that they have been given in a meaningful way. They work on the relationship just to ensure that successful concepts and relationships have been established. Several factors that impact authenticity include the negative past experiences that the learners might have gone through because they make them even more vulnerable (Atmojo, 2021). The fear of taking any risk in building trust with others also makes people go slow on matters to do with authenticity. Paying more focus on other issues apart from the preset one also plays an essential role in questioning the authenticity of the learners. The focus should only remain on the present moment because those are the current affairs affecting the people.

Washback is a common concept that is applied in linguistics. This refers to “the extent to which the introduction and use of a test influences language teachers and learners to do things they would not otherwise do that promote or inhibit language learning.” Validity and washback go handily when it comes to language testing. Validity and washback are all about logical interpretations as well as the decisions that have been made based on the scores generated from the assessment (Morales & Fernández, 2019). The negative effects that might attack washback as far as assessment and testing are concerned include but are not limited to the mismatch between instructional goals and focus assessment. When there is a mismatch between the objective that is being set and the focus of the assessment, some of the instructions might be abandoned during the testing process. This however can be addressed by having the right preparations before what is to be covered.

The learner's abilities identified in the tests above are the ability to focus, the ability to divide attention, and the ability to discriminate. With the ability to focus, learners were able to coordinate their attention to one issue. This is a strength because they can excel in whatever they are engaged in. The ability to discriminate allows the learners to be in a better position to distinguish between what is wrong and what is right. To divide attention simply means being in a position to solve more than one issue at a go. That is learners were able to perform more than one task simultaneously. The major need identified is maintaining the attention for quite along. The focus was lost after a while. Thus, the data obtained communicates a realistic picture of the learner's abilities and needs.

There exist several strategies through which equity in tests can be upheld. The first strategy is transparency. This is an advantage because of the employer and employee relationships upon the mutual understanding as well as trust. Having the right and complete knowledge makes employees or employers feel empowered due to knowledge. Besides, transparency increases the chances of being blindsided. The second strategy for upholding equity is embracing standardized performance and promotional processes (Hashemi & Daneshfar, 2018). This collectively creates a success metric for the employee which later serves as a measure of their contribution. A clear definition of the role, levels, and expectations is another important strategy. This tactic aids in standing in for underrepresented groups which draw a roadmap to career development and promotion. The last strategy is paying equity audits. When employees feel that they are treated equally, then they gain higher confidence. This further makes them feel motivated and work harder. Comment by Anel Suriel: Up until now you have unpacked the four aspects without referring to the tests. Be sure that you are discussing the tests here under these lenses.

There are three strategies on how the test results can best be explained. The first one is assembling the information needed systematically. This helps in finding out what is needed and what is not required as per the given time (Hashemi & Daneshfar, 2018). The second finding is developing the findings and trying to compare them with the test data that have been collected. This will ensure that the comparisons being made are genuine and reflect the actual results. The last strategy is having to develop recommendations in line with the test data that has been collected.

The following are the common recommendations through which a test on a multicultural platform can be administered. The first technique is overcoming the cultural and language barrier which might be in place. Each member of the team might have a different language. There is a need to harmonize the team members and ensure that they have a common language that all members can be able to understand. Another language can be brought in just after the preferred language has been selected. The second recommendation is to take into consideration diverse cultural communication styles. It is worth understanding that every culture has its unique communication style. For instance, speaking patterns and verbal and non-verbal communication. These comprise different gestures and facial expressions. The third strategy is working in different time zones. There can be times when teams are carrying out their activities virtually, then the element of time zone is important. The last strategy is organizing cross-cultural training aimed at improving the morale and happiness in workplaces. With the training, overcoming the challenges at the office. It is through this way that people in a multicultural setup will have to have a better understanding of each other and also understand the cultural beliefs.

Psychometrics	/3
Impact on ELLs	/3
Recommendations	/3
Grammar and Readability	/1

You explain the components but never apply to the test.