Assessment and Planning

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Assessment and Planning
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Special Education

• The term special education means specially
  designed instruction, at no cost to parents, to
  meet the unique needs of a child with a
  disability (Sec. 1400)
• Services are provided in response to childs
  needs, not categorically

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Special Education is problem-solving

• Special education exists because all general
  education programs fail to educate effectively
  some portion of students assigned to those
  classrooms (Deno, 1989).
• Special education seeks to solve the problem of
  students who fail to succeed in the mainstream.

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Special Education Underlying Assumptions

• Special education programs are a problem-solving
  component of the school system whose function is
  to identify and serve individuals whose
  performance is significantly discrepant from
  their peers. (Stan Deno)

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Disabilities as Performance Discrepancies

• One way to define disabilities is to specify the
  difference between the performance required of
  the individual in a given situation and the
  performance actually achieved.

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Disabilities as Performance Discrepancies

• Performance discrepancies are the disabilities
  that must be overcome if an individual is to be
  perceived as successful.

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What do teachers control?
Instruction/ Curriculum
Goals and Objectives
Assessment
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aSSESSMENT
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Defining Assessment

• Within the context of the problem-solving model,
  assessment becomes
• A tool for improving educational outcomes for
  children because it provides us with the
  information to modify instruction and set
  appropriate goals.

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Assessment Activities in Math

• Initial Math Assessment
• determining placement and appropriate instruction
• Progress Monitoring
• determining growth toward goals
• Mastery
• determining mastery of skills as move through
  scope and sequence
• Instructional Error Analysis
• determining error patterns during instruction and
  remediating

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Initial Math Assessment

• Referenced to a typical or specific curriculum
• Survey-level tests
• Determine approximate developmental level of
  skills
• Conduct initial error analysis
• Diagnostic or Specific-level tests
• Focus on determining placement into scope and
  sequence
• Fact pretests
• Focus on determining specific fact weaknesses and
  placement into fact program

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Survey-Level Tests

• Use placement test from program, design your own
  based on grade level, or use placement tests from
  DI Math text (2nd ed.)
• Administer test to group.
• Decision rules
• If any student got 80 or higher on the level
  test, give the entire group the next higher level
  test.
• If more than one student got 60 or less on the
  level test, give the entire group the next lower
  level test.

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Survey Level Tests

• Summarize group performance using data sheet
• Evaluate errors and identify skill areas where
  students are having trouble
• If necessary, administer another survey-level
  test
• Design diagnostic test to gather more information.

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Diagnostic Tests

• Using data from survey level test, determine
  students current functioning across several
  skills
• Use the following decision rules for deciding
  which items to put on Diagnostic Assessment

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Decision Rules

• Did the student do her/his best work on the level
  test? Were there distractions in the testing
  environment or was the student unwilling to try
  hard for you (i.e., are the errors on the test
  "can't" or "won't" errors)?
• If you believe the results of the level test
  represent the student's best effort, then
  identify the error type (i.e., fact, component,
  or strategy).

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Decision Rules

• If student made component or strategy errors on a
  problem type, plan on including that problem type
  on your diagnostic test.
• For each problem type you decide to put on the
  diagnostic test,
• go to the scope and sequence chart in the DI Math
  text and select at least two previous skills
  which students should have mastered, and
• two later skills you believe the student has not
  mastered (for goal setting).

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Decision Rules

• Identify any unique preskills that you believe
  the student may not have mastered and include
  these on the diagnostic assessment.
• Design three questions for each of the skills you
  have decided to test. You may select questions
  directly from the DI Math text.
• Write the questions on the math summary chart.

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Diagnostic Assessment

• Design your diagnostic assessment using the math
  summary chart.
• If students are young, most of your questions
  will be oral
• If questions are oral, you will need to design a
  data recording sheet
• Administer record data conduct an error analysis

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Fact Pretests

• Students may start at various sets. Students who
  know few facts would start at set A. Students
  who know more facts would begin at later points.
• In order to determine the set at which students
  might begin, administer a written pretest that
  includes the 100 basic facts
• (available online at the course website)

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Fact Pretests

• Allow students 2 minutes, instructing them to
  work as many problems as they can. Use the
  following guidelines to place students into the
  sequence
• 20 or more facts answered correctly can start at
  Set G.
• 30 or more facts answered correctly can start at
  Set M.
• 45 or more facts answered correctly can start at
  Set R.
• 60 or more facts correctly in the 2 minute
  pretest probably need not be placed in a fact
  program for that type of fact

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Suggestions for administration

• Day One
• Administer Survey Level tests
• Day Two
• Analyze Survey Level test and develop Diagnostic
  test
• Administer Fact Pretest
• Day Three
• Administer Diagnostic test

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Guidelines for a Structured Assessment Situation

• Have materials organized and ready to use.
• Ask the child to sit next to you on your right,
  if right handed, on your left, if left handed.
• Put the student(s) at ease before testing.
• Provide motivation for working hard (free time,
  stickers, stars, etc.)

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Guidelines for a Structured Assessment Situation

• Describe the purpose for testing (to determine
  what the student knows, what they need to learn).
• Give clear directions, then give the child the
  test.
• Record student responses so that student doesn't
  see.
• Follow the testing procedures accurately.
• Reinforce good effort, even when student is
  performing poorly.

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Guidelines for a Structured Assessment Situation

• Do not allow facial gestures or verbal comments
  that will tell the student he/she gave a wrong
  answer.
• Do not tell answers or give hints you are
  testing, not teaching.
• If the student is unable to read the story
  problems you may read the words to her/him.

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Guidelines for a Structured Assessment Situation

• You may give prompts after recording the
  student's initial response to get more
  information about conditions under which the
  student can perform the task.
• Record as much information as possible record
  data accurately.

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Guidelines for a Structured Assessment Situation

• Stop when the student becomes obviously
  frustrated.
• Thank the student for working with you and give
  the student a sticker, verbal praise, or whatever
  you set up earlier.

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Planning Instructional Adaptations
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Adaptations

• Special education involves making many different
  kinds of adaptations to general education
• Instructional
• Behavioral

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What are instructional adaptations?
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Question

• Are instructional adaptations made in the context
  of the general education curriculum or the
  special education curriculum?

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Yes
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Another way to think about it
Require additional support and services
Successful in the general curriculum
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IDEA and access to the general curriculum

• "the education of children with disabilities can
  be made more effective by . . . having high
  expectations for such children and ensuring their
  access to the general curriculum to the maximum
  extent possible (20 U.S.C.  1400 )

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IDEA and access to the general curriculum

• "The IEP requirements emphasize the importance of
  three core concepts (1) involvement in and
  progress of each child with a disability in the
  general curriculum including addressing the
  unique needs that arise out of the child's
  disability . . ."

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So, what might you change?
Instructional Environment
Instruction
Goals and Objectives
Assessment
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What might you change?

• Learning environment
• Instructional materials
• Instructional activities
• Teaching strategies
• Student performance requirements
• Alternate learning and assessment tasks

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Lesson Planning

• Write goals and objectives
• Identify preskills
• Determine order of lesson
• Develop or select instructional formats and
  materials
• Design data collection and evaluation strategies

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Lesson Planning

• Goals and Objectives
• Write instructional objectives for each strand
  you are teaching

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Objectives

• Must include the following components
• The materials available to students. (e.g., tens
  sticks, dimes and pennies, pencil and paper)
• The assistance provided students (i.e., levels of
  structure--structured board - independent
  practice)
• The student's name or the group's name.
• The behavior (e.g., one digit divisor and one
  digit quotient no remainder)
• An accuracy criterion (e.g., correct, number
  correct out of total, rate)
• A retention criterion (e.g., number of problems,
  number of days)

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Objectives

• Given an oral direction to state the 7 facts,
  Jesse will orally tell answers to 70 to 79
  problems independently, with 100 accuracy within
  30 seconds for two days.
• Given Set M of Carnine Subtraction Facts, Sam
  will independently answer 28 out of 30 facts in 1
  minute for three consecutive days.
• Given an independent worksheet, Sarah will
  multiply 2-digit numbers by one digit numbers
  with renaming on 9 out of 10 problems for 3
  consecutive days.

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Lesson Planning

• Preskills
• Identify what student must know and be able to
  before s/he can learn the new task

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Lesson Planning

• Determine order of lesson for each strand
• Move through different levels of structure
  (scaffolding)
• Warm-up
• Review of yesterdays skills
• Presentation of new material
• Guided Practice on newly learned and previously
  learned material
• Independent seatwork with teacher supervision
• Workcheck (teacher corrects student work with
  students and provides corrective feedback)

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Lesson Planning

• Formats/Activities
• Identify instructional formats and materials for
  each skill to be learned or practiced
• What will the teacher say and what will students
  do?
• What level of support will the teacher provide on
  each skill
• How will the teacher provide scaffolding?
• What preparation must teacher do before
  implementing the lesson?

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Lesson Planning

• Evaluation
• Identify data collection techniques
• How will you record students progress?
• Identify correction procedures
• What will you do if students make mistakes?