Chapter 11: Preschool & Educational Assessment Flashcards
Preschool Period
First five years of life
Public Law 94-142
Mandated the professional evaluation of children age 3 and older suspected of having physical or mental disabilities to determine their special educational needs; also provided federal funds to help states meet those needs
PL 94-142/PL-99-457
Extended downward to birth the obligation of states toward children with disabilities; further mandated that beggining with school year 1990-1991, all disabled children from ages 3 to 5 were to be provided with a free appropriate education
PL 105-17
Intended to give greater attention to diversity issues, especially as a factor in evaluation and assignment of special services; also mandated that infants and toddlers with disabilities must receive services in the home or in other natural settings and that such services were to be continued in preschool programs
Tools of Preschool Assessment
Checklists & Rating Scales
Psychological Tests
Other Measures
Checklist
Questionnaire on which marks are made to indicate the absence or presence of a specified behavior, thought, event, or circumstance; can cover a wide array of item content and still be relatively economical and quick to administer
Rating Scale
A form completed by an evaluator to make a judgment of relative standing with regard to a specified variable or list of variables
Most Commonly Used Checklists and Rating Scales for Children
Achenbach Child Behavior Checklist
Connors Rating Scales-Revised - for ADHD
Syndrome
Defined as a set of co-occuring emotional and behavioral problems
At Risk
Refers to children who have documented difficulties in one or more psychological, social, or academic areas and for whom intervention is or may be required
Psychological Tests for Children
WPPSI-III, SB5 and others
Value of Preschool Tests
Lies in their ability to help identify children who are in a very low range of functioning and in need of intervention
Other Measures for use with Preschoolers
Interviews
Case History Methods
Portfolio Evaluatoin
Role-play methods
Achievement Tests
Designed to measure accomplishment; may be standardized or not; vary widely with respect to psychometric soundness
Specific Learning Disability
Disorder in one or more of the basic psychological processes involved in understanding or in using language, spoken, or written, which disorder may manifest itself in the imprefect ability to listen, think, speak, read, write, spell, or do mathematical calculations
Achievement Batteries
subtests which cover a number of academic areas
Locator/Routing Tests
Pretests administered to determine the level of the actual test most appropriate for administration
Wechsler Individual Achievement Test-Second Edition (WIAT-II)
Features nine subtests that sample content in each of the seven areas listed in a past revision of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act
Cooperative Achievement Test
Consists of a series of separate achievement test in areas as diverse as English, mathematics, literature, social studies, social science, and foreign languages
College Level Examination Program (CLEP)
based on the premise that knowledge may be obtained through independent study and sources other than formal schooling
Proficiency Examination Program
Another service designed to assess achievement and skills learned outside the classroom
Adult Basic Learning Examination (ABLE)
A test intended for use with examinees age 17 and older who have not completed eight years of formalized schooling
Curriculum Based Assessment (CBA)
Term used to refer to assessment of information acquired from teachings at school
Curriculum Based Measurement (CBM)
type of CBA, characterized by the use of standardized measurement procedures to derive local norms to be used in the evaluation of student performance on curriculum-based tasks