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Chapter 9

Instructional Assessment

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MULTIDIMENSIONAL NATURE

• Functional assessment should focus on skills that lead to the greatest degree of independence. • Age and severity level are important in determining how

best to assess an individual.• Assessment can be used for instructional decision making

and progress monitoring.

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INFORMAL ASSESSMENT:INSTRUCTIONAL DECISION MAKING

• Criterion referenced tests (CRTs) provide specific information about what an individual does and doesn’t know or can or cannot do. • Criterion-referenced tests can be either teacher-made or

commercially prepared. • The first step in developing a criterion-referenced test is to identify

skill areas to measure.• Task analysis is the identification and sequencing of behaviors that

are necessary components of skills required to complete a task; task analysis is useful in developing a criterion-referenced test. • Other steps in developing a criterion-referenced test are

developing the items themselves and determining criteria for mastery.

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INFORMAL ASSESSMENT: INSTRUCTIONAL DECISION MAKING

• Curriculum-based assessment (CBA) is the assessment of a student’s performance in terms of the expected curriculum outcomes.• Criterion-referenced assessment/Curriculum-based

assessment (CRA/CBA) is similar to a criterion-referenced test with the student’s curriculum dictating the content.

• Summary sheets are sometimes used to organize information from a criterion-referenced curriculum-based assessment.

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INFORMAL ASSESSMENT: MONITORING PROGRESS

• Advantages of observation are that it is inexpensive, readily available, and provides direct measurement of target behaviors.

• Observation for progress monitoring uses a four-step model: Identify the target behavior, measure it using the appropriate recording procedure, introduce the intervention, and evaluate its effectiveness using the same recording procedure throughout.

• Event recording involves measuring the number of behaviors that occur within a specific time frame (e.g., frequency).

• Duration recording involves measuring the amount of time an individual engages in a target behavior.

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INFORMAL ASSESSMENT: MONITORING PROGRESS

• Baseline data are collected before a new intervention program is introduced. • Portfolio assessment is the systematic collection of student

work that provides evidence of performance, progress, and achievement.

• A working portfolio includes “typical” examples of student work.

• A show portfolio includes best examples of student work.• Questions to ask in developing a portfolio: What should it

look like? What goes into it? How and when are entries selected? How is it useful? How is it passed on?

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INFORMAL ASSESSMENT: MONITORING PROGRESS

• A rubric is a set of criteria used to provide a more objective evaluation of portfolio entries. • Rubrics are commonly used for assessing CCSS.

• Curriculum-based measurement is a more formalized, standardized type of curriculum-based assessment.

• Trend or progress lines are used in curriculum-based measurement to determine if the student is making appropriate progress toward a goal.

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ACCOMMODATIONS AND ALTERNATE ASSESSMENT

• IDEA requires that all students with disabilities participate in statewide and districtwide assessment programs.

• Appropriate testing accommodations are allowed. • An alternate assessment must be used if participation in the

regular assessment program is inappropriate. • The National Center on Educational Outcomes monitors the

participation of students with disabilities in assessment programs.

• Performance assessment allows individuals to perform a task instead of providing oral or written answers to questions. This is sometimes used as an alternate assessment.

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ASSESSMENT BY FUNCTIONAL SKILL AREA

• Independent Living Skills (ILS) include self-help skills such as eating and dressing.

• Many adaptive behavior scales (e.g., the Vineland Adaptive Behavior Scales) include domains measuring independent living skills.

• Other instruments that measure independent living skills are developmental inventories (e.g., the Battelle) and criterion-referenced inventories (e.g., the Vulpé Assessment Battery-Revised).

• The Vulpé has a unique scoring system that is helpful in evaluating skills of individuals with more severe disabilities.

• Communication skills includes nonverbal, verbal, and written; also expressive and receptive skills.

• Adaptive behavior scales and developmental/criterion-referenced inventories also include domains measuring communication skills.

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ASSESSMENT BY FUNCTIONAL SKILL AREA

• There are specific instruments (e.g., the Test of Language Development) that measure several components of receptive/expressive language.

• Some instruments, such as the Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test, measure primarily only one component of language.

• Instruments are also available that measure written language skills. • Social skills assessment involves areas such as interacting with

others, cooperation, and personal adjustment.• Adaptive behavior scales and developmental inventories have fewer

items measuring social skills.• The Social Skills Improvement Rating System is specifically designed

to measure social skills and includes an intervention guide.

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ASSESSMENT BY FUNCTIONAL SKILL AREA

• Examples of two achievement tests that measure basic academic skills are the Kaufman Test of Educational Achievement and the Wechsler Individual Achievement Test.

• Brigance inventories are a series of criterion-referenced inventories that include grade-based basic and functional academic skill sequences.

• Vocational and employment skills assessment is very important for middle and secondary students.

• IDEA requires transition goals in a student’s IEP by age 16.• Work samples are simulated tasks used to evaluate job

performance. • A career portfolio is used to determine objectives, formulate a job

match, and assist in vocational counseling.

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ASSESSMENT BY FUNCTIONAL SKILL AREA

• Curriculum-based vocational assessment is a curriculum-based assessment technique using a student’s vocational curriculum as the content.• Brigance also has several criterion-referenced inventories designed to measure

vocational skills. • Vocational interest inventories include the Gordon Occupational Checklists and the

Wide Range Interest and Opinion Test.• The Job Observation and Behavior Scale system measures actual on-the-job

performance and the level of support needed to sustain that performance from an external (teacher, job coach, work supervisor) and from a self-determined (student, employee) perspective. The JOBS system has norms for comparison to other students and employees in supported and sheltered employment.

• Community living skills are important to measure outside the classroom environment.

• Fewer instruments are available that measure community living skills; task analysis and direct observation are often required.

• The Supports Intensity Scales focuses more on what individuals need to participate in daily life than on their adaptive skill achievement.