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.
© Taylor & Francis 2015
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 criterionreferenced 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.
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