'<>Primarily focused on providing its readers with a practical, step-by-step approach to learning about the complex procedures of the assessment process, Assessing Learners with Special Needs: An Applied Approach, Sixth Edition, will help prepare and qualify educators to accurately assess students within the general education environment who have academic and behavioral challenges. Included are the textbook’s trademark integrated cases featured throughout the material to help facilitate reader comprehension of difficult concepts, followed by practice exercises and portions of assessment instruments and scoring tables.  Written to reflect the recent changes in federal regulations such as Response-to-Intervention, Early Intervening Services, and the discovery of new evidence-based practices, the revision of this widely-used text reflects the most current changes in the assessment process.

The sixth edition is replete with updates including:

• Increased number of case studies throughout the text and inclusion of exercises in the text.
• At regular intervals throughout each chapter are applied exercises for the student to complete to aid in their understanding of chapter content.
• The latest revisions of IDEA 2004, and the regulations that govern our public school systems
• Chapter-by-chapter CEC Knowledge and Skills Standards
• A new emphasis on progress monitoring
• Increased coverage on curriculum-based assessment, functional behavior assessment, and data from norm-referenced assessment
• Special considerations including the assessment of students with Pervasive Development Disorder, Autism Spectrum Disorder, and students from culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds.

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The primary focus of this special education assessment text is to provide readers with a practical approach for learning about the complex procedures of the assessment process. Readers will be presented the complex concepts in a step-by-step manner with exercises for each step. Portions of assessment instruments, protocols, and scoring tables are provided to aid readers in their work with the practice exercises. Additionally, readers with participate in the educational decision-making process using data from classroom observations, curriculum-based assessment, functional behavior assessment, and data from norm-referenced assessment. Divided into four parts: Introduction to Assessment, Technical Prerequisites of Understanding Assessment, Assessing Students, and Interpretation of Assessment for Educational Intervention; Implementation of IDEA 2004 with expanded coverage of key requirements such as RTI and early intervention services; Chapter-by-chapter CEC Knowledge and Skills Standards; Coverage of Autism Diagnostic assessment and techniques-including accurate assessment of Pervasive Development Disorders; Curriculum-based assessment, functional behavior assessment, norm-referenced assessment; Assessing students from culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds; and Progress monitoring. For special education teachers and other education professionals working with students who have special needs. A main text for college courses in Assessment in Special Education.

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PART 1        INTRODUCTION TO ASSESSMENT

 

Chapter 1               An Introduction

CEC Knowledge and Skills Standards

Assessment: A Necessary Part of Teaching

Monitor Your Progress

Historical and Contemporary Models of Assessment

Contemporary Model of Assessment

Evaluating Student Progress in the Classroom

Designing an Assessment Plan

Assessing the Whole Child: Cultural Considerations

Chapter 2               Law, Ethics, and Issues

CEC Knowledge and Skills Standards

The Law: Public Law 94-142 and IDEA

IDEA and Assessment

Evaluating Children with Specific Learning Disabilities

Meeting the Needs of Persons with Attention Disorders

IEP Team Evaluation

Determining Eligibility

Parent Participation

Developing the Individualized Education Program

Transition Services

Due Process

Impartial Due Process Hearing

Section 504

Research and Issues Concerning IDEA

Issues of Nondiscriminatory Assessment

Disproportionality

The Multidisciplinary Team and the Decision-Making Process

Least Restrictive Environment

Impartial Hearings

Ethics and Standards

PART 2        TECHNICAL PREREQUISITES OF UNDERSTANDING ASSESSMENT

 

Chapter 3               Descriptive Statistics

CEC Knowledge and Skills Standards

Why Is Measurement Important?

Getting Meaning from Numbers

Review of Numerical Scales

Descriptive Statistics

Measures of Central Tendency

Average Performance

Measures of Dispersion

Mean Differences

Skewed Distributions

Types of Scores

Chapter 4               Reliability and Validity

CEC Knowledge and Skills Standards

Reliability and Validity in Assessment

Correlation

Methods of Measuring Reliability

Which Type of Reliability Is the Best?

Standard Error of Measurement

Estimated True Scores

Test Validity

Reliability versus Validity

Chapter 5               Introduction to Norm-Referenced Assessment

CEC Knowledge and Skills Standards

How Norm-Referenced Tests are Constructed

Basic Steps in Test Administration

Types of Scores

Groups Testing: High-Stakes Assessment

Part II Progress Monitoring Assessment

PART 3        ASSESSING STUDENTS

 

Chapter 6               Curriculum-Based Assessment and Other Informal Measures

CEC Knowledge and Skills Standards

Curriculum-Based Measurement

Criterion-Referenced Assessment

Task Analysis and Error Analysis

Teacher-Made Tests

Other Informal Methods of Academic Assessment

Informal and Formal Assessment Methods

Problems of Norm-Referenced Assessment

Chapter 7               Academic Assessment

CEC Knowledge and Skills Standards

Achievement Tests

Review of Achievement Tests

Selecting Academic Achievement Tests

Diagnostic Testing

Review of Diagnostic Tests

Other Diagnostic Tests

Assessing Other Language Areas

Selecting Diagnostic Instruments

Research and Issues

Chapter 8               Assessment of Behavior

CEC Knowledge and Skills Standards

Behavior and RTI

Requirements of the 1997 IDEA Amendments

Functional Behavioral Assessments

Structured Classroom Observations

Other Techniques for Assessing Behavior

Projective Assessment Techniques

Computerized Assessment of Attention Disorders

Research and Issues

Chapter 9               Measures of Intelligence and Adaptive Behavior

CEC Knowledge and Skills Standards

Measuring Intelligence

The Meaning of Intelligence Testing

Alternative Views of Intellectual Assessment

Litigation and Intelligence Testing

Use of Intelligence Tests

Review of Intelligence Tests

Research on Intelligence Measures

Assessing Adaptive Behavior

Review of Adaptive Behavior Scales

Intelligence and Adaptive Behavior: Concluding Remarks

Chapter 10             Special Considerations of Assessment in Early Childhood and Transition

 CEC Knowledge and Skills Standards

Legal Guidelines of Early Childhood Education

Infants, Toddlers, and Young Children

Evaluation and Assessment Procedures

Issues and Questions About Serving Infants and Toddlers

Methods of Early Childhood Assessment

Assessment of Infants

Assessments of Toddlers and Young Children

Techniques and Trends in Infant and Early Childhood Assessment

Other Considerations in Assessing Very Young Children

Phonemic Awareness

Assessment for Assistive Technology

Transition and Postsecondary Considerations

Assessing Functional Academics

Research and Issues Related to Transition Planning and Assessment

Part III Progress Monitoring Assessment

PART 4        INTERPRETATION OF ASSESSMENT RESULTS

 

Chapter  11            Interpreting Assessment for Educational Intervention

CEC Knowledge and Skills Standards

Interpreting Test Results for Educational Decisions

The Art of Interpreting Test Results

Writing Test Results

Writing Educational Objectives

Reevaluations

 

Appendix    Key to End-of-Chapter Exercises\n

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