Academic Achievement
 Definition
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Academic achievement is student performance after instruction
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Includes reading, mathematics, and written expression
 Why Do We Assess Academics…
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To screen students who may have deficits
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To identify students with disabilities
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To determine present levels of academic performance
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To develop IEPs
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To plan instructional programs and develop intervention activities
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To evaluate student progress
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To monitor program effectiveness
 Why…
 Measuring academic learning is a central aspect of teaching students with learning problems.
 Teachers use a diverse array of tools, techniques, and strategies to assess student
achievement.
 Widely used assessments include informal, curriculum-based strategies and formal,
standardized tests.
 Approaches
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Norm-referenced Tests
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Curriculum-Based Strategies
 Curriculum-Based Assessment (CBA)
 Classroom Assessment Techniques (CATs)
 Curriculum-Based Measurement (CBM)
 Norm-Referenced Tests
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Hundreds of available tests including
 Group screening tests and individual diagnostic tests
 Multiple skill (e.g. reading, math, and writing) and single skill (e.g. reading only)
tests
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Common characteristics
 Fixed set of test items
 Standardized administration and scoring protocols
 Norms developed from representative groups of students
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 Norm-Referenced Tests
Group Tests
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Brief screening tests for groups of students
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Results provide an overview of achievement
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Usually machine scored, multiple-choice tests
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May be difficult for students from diverse backgrounds, students with disabilities, and young
children
 Norm-Referenced Tests Individually-Administered, Multiple-Skill Tests
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Frequently used by teachers, diagnosticians, and psychologists with students from
kindergarten through high school
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Widely used tests include the
 Peabody Individual Achievement Test—Revised/Normative Update (PIAT-R/NU)
 Kaufman Test of Educational Achievement, Second Edition (KTEA-II)
 Wechsler Individual Achievement Test, Third Edition (WIAT-II)
 Norm-Referenced Tests
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PIAT-R/NU
 Measures general information, reading recognition, reading comprehension,
mathematics, spelling, and written expression
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KTEA-II
 Measures reading decoding, reading comprehension, spelling, mathematics
computation, and mathematics applications
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WIAT-III
 Measures oral language, reading, written expression, and mathematics
 Reading
Word attack
 Used to derive meaning and/or pronunciation of a word
 Using context clues, structural analysis, or phonics.
Word recognition
 Sight words
 The more exposure a student has to specific words and the more familiar those words
become, the more readily he or she recognizes those words and is able to pronounce
them correctly.
 Reading
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Oral reading
 Omissions: The student skips individual words or groups of words.
 Insertion: The student inserts one or more words into the sentence being orally read.
 Substitution: The student replaces one or more words in the passage by one or more
meaningful words.
 Reading
Reading comprehension
 Literal comprehension: The student reads the paragraph or story and is then asked
questions based on it.
 Inferential comprehension: The student reads a paragraph or story and must interpret
what has been read.
Math
Mathematics refers to the study of numbers and their relationships to time, space, volume, and
geometry.
Arithmetic refers to the operations or computations performed
Math
Three types of classifications are involved in diagnostic math tests. Each classification measures certain
mathematical abilities:
 Content: This consists of numeration, fractions, geometry, and algebra.
 Operations: This consists of counting, computation, and reasoning.
 Applications: This consists of measurement, reading graphs and tables, money and budgeting
time, and problem solving.
Conclusion
 Assessing academic achievement is a vital component of the assessment process.
 Understanding where a child has strengths and needs in academic areas is necessary if you are
going to diagnose a possible disability.
 There are numerous areas professionals can assess when giving an achievement test.
 Regardless of the number of areas, reading, writing, math, and spelling are part of every initial
assessment battery for possible classification and/or placement in special education.
 We always need to know how a child compares academically, relative to the norms of the
population.
 Therefore, all special educators should be able to read scores from achievement tests and, at a
minimum, have a general understanding of what the assessment measures test and the purpose
of the testing.
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 For those who must administer achievement batteries, it is essential that a complete, thorough,
valid, and reliable battery be given.
 Informal, curriculum-based and formal, norm-referenced