Assessment and the Educational Setting

1. Assessment and the Educational Setting Becky Yates, Ph.D, CCC-SLP University of North Texas

2. Lecture objectives: Assessment procedures • Dynamic Assessment • Portfolio Assessment School Specific • Response to Intervention • Cross Battery Assessment

3. Remember A comprehensive assessment is a single snap-shot in the child’s photo album of life.

4. Purpose of A Comprehensive Assessment • Does the child have a speech/language disorder, delay or difference? • Eligibility • Does the child need intervention? • What treatment goals to address?

5. What answers are you seeking? • WNL, delayed, disordered or difference • Etiology • How the client’s brain works • Impact on academics and/or function • Recommendations • Classroom or job accommodations • Therapy intervention • Referral to other professionals • Goals • What does the client need for graduation or vocation?

6. Assessment Battery Selection - Considerations • Will it provide answer to assessment questions? • Age appropriate • Administration and analysis time

7. All Comprehensive Assessments • Case History • Standardized/norm-referenced assessments • Criterion referenced assessments • Address these areas: • Phonology • Language • Voice/resonance/quality • Fluency • Oral structures • Hearing • Test behaviors

8. Considerations • Determine assessment approach based on client’s level of functioning, rather than chronological age.

9. Standard Scores • LA • Language age • MA • Mental age • CA • Chronological age • IQ • Intelligence quotient

10. Norm-referenced Standardized Tests Compares performance to a standard or norm Often uses statistical principals for comparison (normal distribution) Helps clinician’s determine how an individual’s performance compares to expected performance in order to determine if a problem is present

11. Standardized/normed Screening Measures • Standardized administration procedures and normative data • Examples CELF4

12. Standardized Tests • Many states require the student performs below designated level on standardized measure to qualify for special education/SLP services • Texas: 1.25 – 1.5 SD below mean plus other measures (criterion/discourse)

13. Why we DON’T write intervention goals from test scores Too few exemplars Structured or contrived presentation No information about how child/adult responds to intervention

14. Criterion Referenced Assessment • Supports standardized assessment results in comprehensive evaluation • Baselines and targets for intervention • Provides ongoing assessment outside the comprehensive assessment environment • Progress monitoring

15. Criterion Referenced Assessment • May be in commercial form or created by clinician • Allow you to look at specific communication behaviors in depth • Individualizes the assessment for the client • Allows observation of skills across a variety of contexts and environments

16. Criterion based Assessments • Developmental scales / checklists • Language sampling • Narratives • Portfolio assessment • Dynamic assessment

17. Portfolio Assessment • Teacher provided work samples • Oral language sample in classroom • Determine child’s ability to use language in the classroom • Concepts, vocabulary, sentence structures, scripts and pragmatic skills needed for classroom success

18. Portfolio Assessment • Samples work over time and can demonstrate student progress • Student’s classroom writing • Language and narrative samples • Artifact analysis • Onlooker observation (Box 11-17, p. 504)

19. Dynamic Assessment • Based on Vygotsky’s theory of social learning, Zone of Proximal Development - region of sensitivity to learning • Development does not occur until the student can perform the skill independently • Students are active participants in their ZPD

20. Dynamic Assessment • Helps determine levels of support needed • Dynamic assessment uses test-teach-retest format • Does not provide data for disorder/no disorder • Provides information on child’s potential for learning

21. Dynamic Assessment Evaluates how the child/adult performs with and without assistance and instruction The goal of dynamic assessment is to determine if the child/adult’s language skills can be modified, and if so, what modifications are effective Graduated prompting is introduced during teaching

22. Dynamic Assessment Why dynamic assessment is important • Helps distinguish between language difference vs. disorder • “dynamic assessment has been shown to be better than typical static language measures for predicting readiness for change in children with language disorders” (Long & Olswang, 1996) • Guides intervention

23. When to use dynamic assessment? • Over time • During intervention • During comprehensive assessment

24. School Based Assessments • Directed by IDEA and must include all aspects related to educational environment: • Physical and motor • Intellectual • Achievement • Language – English proficiency as well as language abilities • Timelines • 90 days from date of referral

25. IDEA Eligibility Categories • Auditory Impairment (AI) • Autism (AU) • Specific Learning Disability (LD) • Mental Retardation (MR) (ID) • Orthopedically handicapped (OH) • Other health impairment (OHI) • Speech Impairment (SI) • Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI) • Visual impairment (VI)

26. Teacher Referral • In public schools: A rule-governed process based on protections of IDEA • IDEA now requires evidence of RTI program in which child has not shown adequate progress before a referral for assessment • Must fail to respond to intervention (RTI) • For those students who may have a specific learning disability • May need to provide information for teachers on the role of language skills in academic success • Checklist or specific criteria for concern – data collection • Pragmatically oriented discourse analysis to be used as teacher referral form • Classroom communication checklist

27. RTI – Response to Intervention • Avoids “wait to fail” with having to have “gap” • Multi-tiered program, includes • Universal screening • Progress monitoring • High quality instruction • Further assessment/intervention based on response • Schools may use up to 15% of federal funds for children who are not categorized as special education

28. IDEA: Response to Intervention • Must demonstrate child has not shown positive response to intervention prior to making a referral for special education. • Tiers of intervention: (settings) • Tier I: classroom instruction • Tier II: small group, focused intensive instruction • Tier III: one-on-one instruction, referral to special education

29. RTI and Assessment Progress monitoring assessed through: • Dynamic assessment • Portfolio assessment

30. What happens after RTI? • When child fails to show adequate response to intervention at level II, referral can be made to special education for determination of existence of a disability.

31. IDEA – Individual with Disabilities Education Act • Mandates eligibility for services only if: • Child must demonstrate a disability • Child must have educational need – each LEA (Local Education Agency) has criteria • Must need specialized services of SLP • TEA Eligibility Manual • Developed to provide consistency across districts

35. IDEA Definition According to Texas State Board of Education rules a student with a learning disability is one who: • Has been determined through a variety of assessment tools and strategies to meet criteria for a specific learning disability as stated in CFR 34 • Does not achieve adequately for the child’s age or meet state approved grade-level standards in: • Oral expression • Listening comprehension • Written expression • Basic reading skill • Reading fluency skills

36. IDEA continued • Reading comprehension • Mathematics calculation • Mathematics problem solving When provided appropriate instruction, as indicated by performance on multiple measures or a process based on the child’s response to scientific , research based intervention, does make sufficient progress Exhibits a pattern of strengths and weaknesses in performance, achievement, or both relative to age, grade-level standards, or intellectual ability

37. DSM-IV Definition • Individual’s achievement on individually administered standardized tests in reading, mathematics, or written expression is substantially below that expected for age, schooling and level of intelligence. The learning problems significantly interfere with academic achievement or activities of daily living that require reading, mathematical, or writing skills. • Substantially below – more than 2 standard deviations • Reading disorder, mathematics disorder, disorder of written expression, learning disorder NOS

38. Learning Disabilities • 50% to 80% of SLP caseload • Approximately half of children diagnosed with LD have language and language-related disability • Reading • Spelling • Usually listed as SI • Oral comprehension • Oral expression

39. Learning Disabilities • 50% to 80% of SLP caseload • Approximately half of children diagnosed with LD have language and language-related disability • Reading • Spelling • Usually listed as SI • Oral comprehension • Oral expression

40. Cross Battery Assessment Plan • A method of analyzing test data across domains • Integration of information • Based on Cattell-Horn theory of intelligence • Consistent with best practice • Requires more in-depth process than previous assessment models

41. Continued • Child is assessed in all areas related to suspected disability • Evaluation is sufficiently comprehensive • ARD committee determines eligibility • For LD, must include classroom observation by someone other than teacher and must have had RTI

42. Cross-battery Assessment“Looking at the G’s” • Fluid intelligence – Gf • Quantitative Knowledge – Gq • Crystallized Intelligence – Gc • Reading and Writing – Grw • Short-term Memory – Gsm • Visual Processing – Gv • Auditory Processing – Ga • Long-term storage & retrieval – Glr • Processing Speed – Gs • Decision/reaction Time/Speed - Gt