Categorias: Todos - evaluation - assessment - medical - instruction

por Kaori Handa 1 ano atrás

90

Identification, Assessment, and Evaluation

Determining whether a student qualifies for special education involves several steps, including assessment and evaluation. Although a medical diagnosis can contribute to the eligibility determination, it is not solely sufficient to establish the existence of a disability.

Identification, Assessment, and Evaluation

Identification, Assessment, and Evaluation

Protection in Evaluation Procedures

Non-Discriminatory Evaluation
Crawford vs Honig (1994)

According to Gorn (1996), IQ tests can be valuable part of the evaluation process as long as they are paid, are not racially or culturally discriminatory, and are not used as the sole criterion for placement.

Parents in Action on Special Education vs Hannon (1980)

The court further held that they could be used in the special education placements of African American children.

The court also found that the school district had not used the IQ tests as the sole basis for special education placement, thereby complying with the IDEA.

Larry P. vs Riles (1979)

A federal district court in California banned the use of standardized IQ instruments to evaluate African American student for placement in classes for students with educable mental retardation.

In 1986, the Larry P. ban was expanded to include IQ testing of African American students for all special education placements.

The court ruled that such tests contained racial and cultural bias and discriminated against students from racial minorities.

Special Rules for Eligibility Determination
2. Team members should certify in writing whether the report reflects their conclusions. If it does not, the dissenting member must be submit a separate statement.
1. The MDT should prepare a written report of the evaluation results consisting of:

whether environmental, cultural, or economic disadvantage affects the child's ability to learn.

whether there is a severe discrepancy between achievement and ability that is not correctable without special education

whether educationally relevant medical findings apply

what relevant behavior was noted during the observation

what the basis for making the determination is

whether the students has a specific learning disability

Evaluation Materials and Procedures
The student is assessed in all areas of suspected disability.
Decisions are made by a multidisciplinary team, including one person knowledgeable in the area of suspected disability.
No single procedure is used as the sole criterion to determine FAPE.
The evaluation must be designed to reflect the student's aptitude or achievement level rather than reflecting the student's disabilities unless intended to so.
The evaluation must be tailored to assess specific areas of educational needs.
Test and other evaluation materials must be:

administered by trained personnel in conformity with instructors.

validated for the specific purpose for which they are used.

provided and administered in the student's native language or mode of communication unless not feasible to do so.

Qualification of Evaluations
The evaluation is conducted by the MDT members, it should have at least one teacher or specialist in the area of the child's suspected disability.
Comprehensiveness of the Evaluation
Evaluator should collect:

classroom-based assessments and observations from teachers and related services providers.

Information relating to allowing a student to access and progress in general education.

Information from the student's parents.

Relevant functional and developmental information.

Purpose of the evaluation:

Determine the content of the child's special education program.

To determine whether a child has a disability covered under the IDEA and if he or she needs special education

Preplacement Evaluation
IDEA (2004) established a timeframe of 60 days to complete an evaluation after receiving parental consent.
Pre-referral Evaluation
They are conducted in the general education program to attempt to ameliorate or remediate the problem prior to referral to special education.
Parental Consent
School should:

Obtain their consent to proceed.

Notifiy the parents in writing of their intent to conduct an evaluation.

Child Find
They should include:

Coordinate activities with local service agencies

Television and radio advertisements

Mailings to parents

Public awareness programs

the students are:

located

evaluated

identified

All states must ensure that all the students with disabilities, from birth to age of 21, has to state either they need special education and related services or are suspected of having disabilities.

Interpreting Evaluation Data

Medical Diagnosis and Eligibility Determination
A medical diagnosis of disability, therefore, is not enough to determine the existence of a disability.
A medical diagnosis is not required as part of the evaluation but if the MDT team feels it necessary , it should be provided at public expense.
MDT may use a medical diagnosis as part of the eligibility determination, when appropriate.
Informed parents consent is required for a school to conduct a reevaluation.
It should be conducted to determine how to teach the students in the most appropriate manner.
Usually is similar to the original pre-placement evaluation, and it must meet the procedural requirements.
It is a comprehensive evaluation conducted on a student already in special education.
Needs to be done every three years.

Independent Educational Evaluations

If the school district officials go to hearing and their evaluation is found to be appropriate, the parents still have a right to an IEE, but not at a public expense.
Parents have the right to request one if they disagree with the school's results.
I find this very interesting because where I am from in Peru. Usually, the school would not provide any IEE, not in the private or public schools because they think it should be outside of the school entity. Although, I say that in Peru the schools do not care about Special Education and the parents have to be the ones that are taking care of it, and not having the school support at all. It is really sad.
The school district must provide information about where the IEE can be obtained.

Lessons from Litigation and Legislation

Conduct relevant and meaningful assessments that will help the IEP team plan student's special education programs.
Accountability Efforts and Students with Disabilities
Use a variety of assessment instruments to allow the team to determine eligibility
Involve a student's parents in the assessment process
Don't use a school wide MTSS or RTI program or pre-referral interventions to delay or deny special education evaluation
Ensure that administrators, special education teachers, general education teachers, and evaluation personnel understand the importance of the identification/assessment/evaluation process:

The Assessment/Evaluation Process

The IDEA mandates:
Substantive Requirements

Data collection

The student's progress toward his or her goals must be assessed, and the results of the assessment must be reported to parents at least as often as students in general education receive report cards.

When I was in school, I just had to have almost every other week's report to present to my parents about my grades and how I was doing with school. Also, the parents had a reunion twice a month to see the progress that the students were making but also to ensure that they were all progressing, to avoid class failing or even not understanding the concepts. I think it is important to first have a good relationship between the parents and teachers to also have better communication about the student's progress.

The IEP must include data collection methods that can be used to determine if a student is making progress toward meeting his or her goals.

Link between assessment and intervention

The areas of need identified in the assessment must be addressed in the student's IEP though the goals, special education services, or both.

The results of the assessment must lead directly to intervention.

Team decision making

The parents of a child with disabilities being evaluated must be allowed to participate in the process.

The team makes the decisions about the process and results of the assessment.

The assessment team must include professionals with expertise in the student's disability area and the student's parents.

Full and individualized assessment

The assessment should assist the IEP team in planning a student's program of special education, related services, and supplementary aids and services.

The school must conduct a full and individualized assessment to determine whether a student has a disability under the IDEA and to determine the student's educational needs.

Procedural Requirements

Reevaluation

The team determines that no additional data are needed to assess continued eligibility. The school does not rot conduct a new assessment, unless the parents request it.

The assessment data must be reviewed every 3 years.

IEP team

The IEP team must include someone qualified to interpret the instructional implications of the assessment results.

Statewide assessments

Testing accommodations and alternative assessments, if needed, must be provided to students with disabilities.

The students in special education programs must participate in statewide and districtwide assessments of achievement.

Assessment process

The assessment must provide information that directly assists the team in determining the educational needs of the student.

The assessment must be sufficiently comprehensive to identify all of the student's educational needs, regardless of disability.

The student must be assessed in all areas of the suspected disability.

Standardized Tests

The tests must be administered in accordance with the instructions provided by the producer of the test.

The tests must be administered by trained personnel.

The tests must have been validated for the specific purpose for which they are intended.

Assessment Tools

Tests must be administered in the student's native language or mode of communication, unless it is not feasible to do so.

The test must be nondiscriminatory.

This semester I am taking a class called Assistive Technology. And one of my projects was to provide ways where the students with visual impairment could participate. So while I was doing my research I noticed the importance of providing all the reading material, even the test in Braille which is a great implementation of a nondiscriminatory test. I got excited because I was able to do a test about plants with braille.

The team may may not use a single procedure as the sole criterion for determining eligibility or planning educational programs.

The assessment team might use technically sound instruments that assess students in all areas go the suspected disability, including cognitive, behavioral physical, and developmental factors.

The school is required to use a variety of assessment tools to gather relevant, academic, and functional information about the student, including information provided by the parents.

Parent Participation

The student's parents may participate in the reevaluation process.

The school must include parents in the initial assessment.

Consent

The school may use mediation or due process procedures to secure permission to evaluate, if the parents refuse consent.

The school must obtain consent for the initial assessment and for any reevaluations conducted.

Define of Assessment

Accountability/Outcome Decisions
Whether any modification are needed to a student's IEP
Whether a student continues to need special education services
Student's present levels of performance
Student's educational needs
Does a student continues have a disability?
Programming Decisions
The assessment gives little direction to the IEP team in planning a student's specialized instruction.

Monitoring student's progress

Determining special education services to be provided

Writing goals

Planning Individualized instruction

Entitlement Decisions
Identification and Classification decisions:

based on the individualized assessment, that are used to identify students as having disabilities and to determine if they are requiring special education and related services.

Eligibility decisions under entitlement decisions

identification and classification decisions, based on the assessments.

I remember that in the first block of this semester during my practicum, I was able to see how the students were getting evaluated by the tests of Idaho Literacy Standard. The teacher explained that some of the students were not scoring high enough as their peers. And that they were going to get evaluated again to see if they needed special education intervention or maybe they just had a bad day. I wonder if that is something that we should always be careful about.

Referral

they involve a determination by a teacher or parent that a student may need special education.

Screening

is the process of collecting data to determine if is necessary to have a more intensive assessment.

Pre-referral Decisions
Adjust the intensity and nature of the interventions depending on a student's responsiveness to instruction.
Provide evidence-based interventions.
Monitor student's progress.
Identify students who are at risk for poor learning outcomes.
Is essential for the student's IEP!
It purpose is to determine if the student is eligible for special education and related services.