My Philosophy of Assessment

I believe that assessment is an ongoing process, by which, mainstream classroom teachers, special educators, and school psychologists can gather information that will help them to make better decisions about individual students or student populations. Formal and informal assessments are used by educators in order to evaluate student progress and or behavior for placement and eligibility purposes as well as to help plan lessons. Special educators may use assessments to determine the eligibility of students for special education services or to help make decisions to adapt students’ Individualized Education Plans according to the needs identified in the assessment process.

Many assessments have a direct relationship to content standards, which make them an extremely useful tool for educators. For example, a teacher of ELL students can use the results of the W-APT assessment to gage each student’s proficiency in each of the five English Language Proficiency Content Standards. Using the results, the teacher can tailor her lessons to be sure the needs of each individual student will be met. A pull-out teacher, or ESL resource room teacher, knowing the degree of proficiency of each student in five areas will be able to use his/her time with each student to work with them toward proficiency in each area. Assessments like the W-APT directly relate to teachers and help them to better serve their students.

In special education, assessment is an invaluable tool to help serve students with special needs more appropriately. Achievement tests like the Woodcock Johnson can be used to help educators place children into classes in which the learning will take place at a pace that is right for them. If a child has a very low IQ, that child may be placed in a self- contained classroom, in which his or her peers learn at the same, or a similar, rate.

Many types of assessments are used by teachers, and/or school systems, to gather information that can be used to make decisions about each student’s education. Pre-assessment is a useful tool to determine what students know before beginning a lesson, topic or subject. This will help instructors recognize the best way to scaffold or present new information.

Formal assessments are data driven assessments that are based on statistics. These assessments include norm-referenced tests and criterion referenced tests. Formal assessments can be given to students to test their performance against other children in their age group and grade level. They may also be given to identify a student’s strengths and weaknesses in comparison to his peers.

Informal assessments include a teacher’s records of her students’ performance, observations, check lists, and rating scales. These records are ongoing and can direct teacher instruction. Some informal assessments may be in the form of regular classroom activities such as class work, journals, essays, play-based assessment or student participation.

Formative assessments are ongoing assessments such as classroom observations. These are used by teachers to improve instructional strategies in the classroom. This type of assessment may also include periodic quizzes and performance tasks. Summative assessments, on the other hand, are used to evaluate the effectiveness of different academic programs. They can be used to determine whether or not students have mastered specific skills or grasped certain concepts.

I believe that the most important assessments for individual classroom teachers include pre-assessments, which help teachers decide what prior knowledge students have already grasped, what they have questions about relating to the future topic of instruction, and what the general gaps in knowledge are among the students. The results of pre-assessments help teachers to cater their lessons to their specific classes.

While assessment is a necessary tool for education, I think that the cultural bias that can be found in many assessments can do a disservice to certain members of the school-age population. I believe that the results may be skewed, depending upon the stage of the acculturation process a student is in. If the student is in the second stage of acculturation, for example, the student may be angry and not want to take the assessment in general. Also, if a CLD student knows that placement will be determined based on his or her results, he or she may feel very apprehensive about the assessment. A student’s level of excitement, or apathy toward school and assessments can most likely impact the results significantly. I think that a teacher’s knowledge of a student, and her ongoing informal assessments of that student are very valuable in the realm of culturally diverse students.

I definitely believe that intelligence cannot be tested independently of the culture that gives rise to an assessment. I believe that all assessments are geared toward a certain group of people or culture and there is a bias to them. The simplest things can throw a child off and make it hard for them to understand a question on an assessment. For example, if a student were to try to answer a question talking about “hop scotch” and did not grow up in the United States, he or she may not even understand that “hop scotch” is a game commonly played by children. Cultural differences as small as the games children play growing up can have a huge impact on the degree to which they can understand certain questions, stories or situations.

Cultural differences or not, however, I do think assessments should be used for ELL learners upon entering a school to assess how proficient the student is in English and what, if any, supports should be put in place to help that child. Observing an English language learner in the classroom would not be enough to adequately assess that child’s performance or level of English proficiency. This will also help educators to understand whether or not any difficulties in school should be seen as having to do with their lack of proficiency in English or if there may be a greater problem that would require testing for special education eligibility.

The difficulty in assessing culturally and linguistically diverse students has been noted by Jim Cummins in his work on second language instruction. Cummins noted that there are two different types of second language acquisition, basic interpersonal communication skills (BICS) and cognitive academic language proficiency (CALP) (Herrera, 2011, p. 53). BICS are surface language skills, such as listening and speaking, which are rapidly acquired. Many children develop the fluency of a native speaker within two years of being immersed in English (p.53). CALP, on the other hand, is much harder to achieve, taking between five and seven years to master. CALP is essential to fully succeed in school.

I agree with Cummins. When learning a language, it is much easier to form superficial fluency in the language than it is to speak, read and write about subject area content. Cummins’s work in this area teaches teachers to take a closer look when assessing ELL students. Mere observations may be misleading. Teachers must use formal assessments to measure English language learners’ academic language proficiency.

In mainstream classes, general education teachers may use assessments to implement differentiated instruction in their classrooms. Knowing each child’s strengths and weaknesses enable teachers to target lessons and activities toward students’ needs. If a teacher discovers through assessment that one student in her classroom is a predominantly visual learner she may use more visuals in the classroom rather than making the students strictly take notes. If the same teacher discovers that another student is a strong tactile learner, she may implement more hands on activities.

Howard Gardner’s (1983) theory of multiple intelligences argues that students learn in their own ways (Howard Gardner, n.d.). He believes that students learn best when they are in classes with teachers who utilize different methods of teaching and provide students with various opportunities to show what they have learned. I feel that there is a direct relationship between Gardner’s theory and differentiated instruction.

While I see the need and reasoning for formal assessment, I believe that a teacher’s ability to perform ongoing informal assessments of her students is an invaluable tool. I believe that assessment is a necessary tool for placement purposes, whether for special education or for an ELL student, however, I think that informal assessments, such as observations by teachers in the classroom, may shed more light on certain behaviors.

Reference

Howard Gardner, multiple intelligences and education . (n.d.). contents @ the informal education homepage. Retrieved March 16, 2012, from http://www.infed.org/thinkers/gardner.htm

Herrera, S. G. (2011). Mastering ESL and bilingual methods: differentiated instruction for culturally and linguistically diverse (CLD) students (2nd ed.). Boston: Allyn & Bacon.

The language learning theories of Professor J. Cummins. (n.d.). A guide to learning English. Retrieved March 17, 2012, from http://esl.fis.edu/teachers/support/cummin.htm

Examination of the Disproportionate Rate of Minorities in Special Education

The assessment and placement of minority students and culturally and linguistically diverse students in special education, in the United States, has been a major topic of controversy since 1968 (Rhodes, Ochoa & Ortiz, 15). In 1968, Lloyd Dunn published, “Special Education for the Mildly Retarded—Is Much of It Justifiable?” in the September issue of Exceptional Children. Dunn presented one of the first discussions of the disproportionate representation of minorities in classes containing children with mental retardation and intellectual disabilities (Gentry, 2009, p.7).
Public Law 94-142 otherwise known as the Education for All Handicapped Children Act of 1975 required that students must be assessed in their native language, when possible, and without bias. The revisions made to this law put forth in the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) of 1990 and 1997 continued to push for these rights (Rhodes et.al., 2005, p.15). Despite these efforts, however, the existence of disproportionate representation in special education is still a growing problem. In the reauthorization of IDEA in 1997, Congress required states to:
(a) report, annually, the extent of minority representation by disability category; (b) determine if significant disproportionality exists, and (c) if observed, review and revise policies, practices, and procedures in identification or placement to ensure that minority children are not inappropriately identified or served in more restrictive settings (Rhodes et.al., 2005, p.17).
Under the Education of All Handicapped Children Act, the evaluation process for students who may be eligible for special education services must not be discriminatory. All tests must be given in, and reports written in, the native language (Pierangelo & Guiliani, 2009, p.23). That means that tests must be given in the student’s native language, and reports sent home must be written in the student’s parent’s native language.
Special education, when provided properly to those who need it, can be very effective; however, it can be detrimental to a student that has been misidentified as having a disability. According to Ruben Gentry (2009), disproportionality can be defined as “the representation of a group in a category that exceeds expectations for that group, or differs substantially from the representation of others in that category” (p. 5).
In Ruben Gentry’s paper “Disproportionate Representation of Minorities in Special Education—How Bad?”, he states that African Americans are overrepresented in overall special education service, as well as intellectual disability and emotional disturbance (Gentry, 2009, p.6). American Indian and Alaska Native students, however, are overrepresented in learning disabilities. Furthermore, African American students are suspended more often than other students and have higher rates of office referrals, corporal punishment and school expulsion p.7). Overall, higher proportions of males and students of color are part of special education programs (Gay, 2002, p.613).
Some of the possible causes of the disproportionate representation include: “test bias, socio-demographic factors, unequal opportunity in general education, teacher ethnicity, and special education eligibility” (Gentry, 2009, p.6). Some professionals believe that overrepresentation is caused in part by family and community issues, school pressure such as high stakes assessments and mandated curriculum, classroom management and instruction, intrinsic characteristics of the students, and teacher perception and attitudes (p.8). Others believe that educators misinterpret the behavior of minority students as behavior problems that may simply be cultural differences (p.9).
Furthermore, the qualifications for special education services vary from state to state. This may be one reason why the occurrence or degree of severity of overrepresentation varies from state to state. Some states use a discrepancy method in order for a student to be eligible for service or qualify a student as LD; each state’s definition of significant discrepancy, however, varies (Rhodes et.al., 2005, p.23).
Unfortunately a student’s spoken language has not been greatly considered in research on disproportionality in special education. Currently, there is no research that examines the influence of language and ethnicity on special education placement (Rhodes et.al., 2005, p.19). The question still remains unanswered: whether or not special education representation varies depending upon an ethnically diverse student’s proficiency in English. The little information that has been collected on this topic does not distinguish between different languages, rather it lumps all language subgroups together (p.19).
Socioeconomic status is also linked to school success. Children of poor socioeconomic status are more likely to have poor educational outcomes. There is a higher chance of poverty for students of minorities. Poverty lends itself to many factors that increase a child’s risk of problems in school—for families and women of low social economic status, prenatal care may be too costly. Furthermore, low socio-economic status significantly lessens the options a family has regarding childcare. For example, for a family that is upper middle class, childcare is not a very big issue, there are many options to choose from, including daycare, nannies, or even a parent staying home full time to be with their child. All of these options include generally healthy environments filled with stimulation for a growing baby’s/child’s brain.
According to an article by Clancy Blair and Keith Scott entitled, “Proportion of LD Placements Associated with Low Socioeconomic Status”, many factors influence a child’s risk of developing a learning disability. These factors include the amount of his mother’s education, whether or not his mother was married at the time of his birth, the trimester in which prenatal care was initiated, and his weight at the time of his birth (Blair & Scott). In their research, linking birth and school record data in Florida, they found that learning disabilities were most likely to occur in students whose birth records showed: a maternal education of less than 12 years, the mother was not married at time of child’s birth, prenatal care did not start until after the first trimester of pregnancy, or the child was born with a low birth weight (Blair & Scott). Blair and Scott found that if any of these conditions existed, children were between 1.2 and 3.4 times more likely to have a learning disability placement by their early teenage years (Blair & Scott). Minorities have a greater chance of identifying with one or more of these risk factors.
Immigrant children are affected by many social-emotional factors that non-immigrant children are not faced with. Concerning education, every nation and group of people look differently toward, and put a difference emphasis on, education and formal schooling. In Mexico, at age ten children may have a different understanding of math and geography than a ten year old American child may have. When coming to the United States, an immigrant child may have faced a period with no schooling at all; whether that period is long or short, it can still affect the student adversely. Some countries teach students both their native language and English, others do not. All of these factors can affect an immigrant child’s achievement in school. Immigrant children may often feel overwhelmed with the demands of American schools because the workload may be far more demanding than schools in their native country.
Parents of minority students must also be considered. Many immigrant parents may be less involved in their children’s school because of language barriers. Not all schools can afford translators at school events, but, it may help increase involvement to have translators present. Schools can try to increase parental involvement by implementing some of the following: the use of translators for all school functions, a separate “back to school night” for parents new to the school, especially for those who need translation services, parent buddies—parents who are very active in the school may volunteer to be “buddies” of those parents who are new to the school, and multicultural nights which would bring families together and help parents and students achieve a better understanding of other people in their communities. The new services will encourage immigrant and culturally and linguistically diverse families to get involved and make them feel like they, and their culture, are important.
Many students are placed in special education classes because teachers misinterpret cultural differences as characteristics of learning disabilities. Teachers have a propensity to identify European and Asian-Americans as having higher intelligence and academic abilities, and see them as being less disruptive in classes, as opposed to African, Native and Latino Americans (Gay, 2002, p.615). According to Geneva Gay (2002), in her article “Culturally responsive teaching in special education for ethnically diverse students: setting the stage”, the way in which African Americans move and interject motion, implement emotional energy into their thinking, communicate and relate socially may be misinterpreted as “hyperactivity, attention deficit, irritability, attention-seeking, disruption, and being quarrelsome” (p.616). In addition, latino students are more culturally socialized in cooperative groups and are, therefore, reluctant to engage in individual activities, which can be seen as a lack of motivation (p.616).
Asian-American students who are disengaged and do not want to participate in conversations and activities with peers and instructors may be considered to have a social disability because their actions may be perceived as being unfriendly, withdrawn, reclusive, insecure and self-conscious (Gay, 2002, p.617). Furthermore, Native American students are often taught through demonstration, therefore they learn best by observing, so, in certain classroom situations they may be seen as lacking interest or motivation and having other characteristics of learning disabilities (p.17).
In addition, when students are of low economic status they sometime have dialects that mainstream society perceives as being characteristic of linguistic deficits. This stigma may go so far as to have people thinking that these students have less intellectual ability, because of their speech style. Some people believe that the way someone speaks is indicative of his intelligence (Gay, 2002, p.617).
Being mistakenly assigned to special education services has many consequences, present and future. There is a stigma that goes along with the label “special education student”. This stigma can follow them throughout their lives, influencing how teachers and classmates treat them and may give them a poor self-image and affect their self esteem (Gay, 2002, p.615).
One recommendation is that classroom teachers implement culturally responsive teaching. Teachers would be able to acknowledge and better understand the influence that race, culture and ethnicity has on instruction and learning. They could integrate cultural experiences, perspectives, traits and contributions of different ethnicities into their lessons and use them as tools for teaching diverse students (Gay, 2002, p.619). Teachers learning about their students’ backgrounds, cultures and upbringings will help them to understand which behaviors are normal and which require taking a closer look. If a teacher truly understands the behavior of different cultures—that certain students are culturally prone to acting hyper while others are more apt to be withdrawn— she will be able to better serve her students because she will recognize the true warning signs of disabilities.
Culturally responsive teaching and the achievement of students of color are directly related. When one increases so does the other. Therefore, if culturally responsive teaching increases, academic performance, social adjustment, school satisfaction, student confidence and self-concept all increase (Gay, 2002, p.627). If teachers implement this style of teaching and become more culturally aware, the misplacement of minorities in special education will decrease significantly.
Along with culturally responsive teaching, implementing differentiated instruction would help students and teachers alike. Differentiated instruction would allow students to display their strengths which would give teachers a better idea of each student’s progress. Teachers would be able to assess students through observation. Because the learning styles of groups of people vary across cultures, differentiated instruction will help the minorities in class learn in their own way and demonstrate what they have learned more effectively.
Disproportionality in special education is not a new problem. Despite efforts of teachers, school districts, Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) and the Education of All Handicapped Children Act, minorities, unfortunately, are still overrepresented in special education and underrepresented in gifted and talented programs. Teachers need to be made aware of cultural differences so that overrepresentation does not continue.

Intellectual Disability: Support Found Online

I googled the term “intellectual disability” and the first thing website that came up was the National Dissemination Center for Children with Disabilities (NICHCY). This organization’s website is very informative. Various pages found on the website include: the definition of intellectual disability, the various causes of intellectual disability, the signs of intellectual disability, how intellectual disabilities are diagnosed, the definition under IDEA, resources for babies and toddlers with intellectual disabilities, and educational considerations. According to NICHCY, an intellectual disability is used “when a person has certain limitations in mental functioning and in skills such as communicating, taking care of him or herself, and social skills. These limitations will cause a child to learn and develop more slowly than a typical child” (NICHCY, 2012).
The next website that I am brought to when searching “intellectual disability” is the Center for Disease Control PDF Intellectual Disability Fact Sheet. This PDF provides a definition of intellectual disability, some signs of intellectual disability, as well as a section titled, “what can I do if I think my child may have intellectual disability?” This fact sheet is available in both English and Spanish.
The third website that I am brought to is the American Association of Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities (AAIDD), this site contains the same type of information as the National Dissemination center for Children with Disabilities and the Center for Disease Control. Both NICHCY and AAIDD contain sections containing publications. These publications include journals and newsletters. The AAIDD website also includes a virtual bookstore so that people can purchase informational books on intellectual disabilities.
I am happy that if someone is concerned about their child having an intellectual disability or is simply trying to research this condition, he or she will be brought to helpful, informational websites that will serve them well, rather than sites that may be disheartening with inaccurate information.

Definition of Intellectual Disability AAIDD. (n.d.). AAIDD. Retrieved February 1, 2012, from http://www.aaidd.org/content_100.cfm?navID=21

Intellectual Disability Fact Sheet. (n.d.). Center for Disease Control. Retrieved February 1, 2012, from www.cdc.gov/ncbddd/actearly/pdf/parents

Prenatal Care

I think that there is a very strong connection between social economic status and prenatal care. With that being said, for families/ women of low social economic status prenatal care can be too costly. Furthermore, many of the foods and vitamins that are best for pregnant women to use to nourish their bodies are expensive and out of the question. General, the cheapest foods are the least nutritious. For many families, these low cost, high calorie foods are the only option, or may seem like the only option.

Furthermore, low socio-economic status significantly lessens the options a family has regarding childcare. For example, for a family that is upper middle class, childcare is not a very big issue, there are many options to choose from, including daycare, nannies, or even a parent staying home full time to be with their child. All of these options include generally healthy environments filled with stimulation for a growing baby’s/child’s brain.

According to an article by Clancy Blair and Keith Scott entitled, “Proportion of LD Placements Associated with Low Socioeconomic Status” many factors influence a child’s risk of developing a learning disability. These factors include the amount of his mother’s education, whether or not his mother was married at the time of his birth, the trimester in which prenatal care was initiated, and his weight at the time of his birth (Blair & Scott). In their research, linking birth and school record data in Florida, they found that learning disabilities were most likely to occur if birth records showed a maternal education of less than 12 years, the mother was not married at time of child’s birth, prenatal care did not start until after the first trimester of pregnancy, or the child was born with a low birth weight (Blair & Scott). Blair and Scott found that if any of these conditions existed, children were between 1.2 and 3.4 times more likely to be born with a learning disability placement by their early teenage years (Blair & Scott).

After reading this article, I think the key to preventing learning disabilities starts with great prenatal care. Prenatal care in the first trimester and throughout a pregnancy is key, this will also prevent a low birth weight.

Blair, C., & Scott, K. (n.d.). Proportion of LD Placements Associated with Low Socioeconomic Status . The Journal of Special Education . Retrieved January 26, 2012, from http://sed.sagepub.com/content/36/1/14.short

W-APT

WIDA-ACCESS Placement Test

What is the relationship between the WIDA-ACCESS Placement Test (W-APT) and the English Language Proficiency (ELP) Standards and why is this relationship so valuable to teachers of English Language Learning (ELL) students?

The Assessment & It’s Relationship to the ELP Standards

The W-APT is designed to test the English Language Proficiency (ELP) Standards for English Language Learners in Kindergarten through Grade 12 of the multi-state WIDA Consortium and therefore, each test and test item is constructed to align with the five ELP Standards. The W-APT tests students’ speaking, reading, listening and writing proficiency in the areas of Social & Instructional Language, Language of Language Arts, Language of Mathematics, Language of Science, and Language of Social Studies. The W-APT is used to examine and determine what services each English Language Learner would benefit from.

The W-APT is aligned with the Following 5 ELP Standards:

English language learners communicate…

· in English for Social and Instructional purposes within the school setting

· information, ideas, and concepts necessary for academic success in the content area of Language Arts.

· communicate information, ideas, and concepts necessary for academic success in the content area of Mathematics

· information, ideas, and concepts necessary for academic success in the content area of Science

· information, ideas

Importance in the Classroom

A teacher of ELL students can use the results of this assessment to gage each student’s proficiency in each of the five English Language Proficiency Content Standards. Using the results, the teacher can tailor her lessons to be sure the needs of each individual student will be met. A pull-out teacher or ESL resource room teacher will know the degree to which each student is proficient in each of the five areas and thus will be able to use his/her time with each student to work with them toward proficiency in each area.

References

Kenyon, D., MacGregor, D., Ryu, J., Cho, B., & Louguit, M. (2006, December 4). Annual Technical Report for ACCESS for ELLs® English Language Proficiency Test, Series 100, 2004-2005 Administratio. WIDA Consortium. Retrieved February 18, 2012, from www.wida.us/assessment/ACCESS/TechReports/1%20Tech%20Rpt%201%20Series%20100.pdf