School Function Assessment

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School Function Assessment

• Emily Gannon
• Jenny Hasler

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Purpose

• The School Function Assessment was designed to
  help identify a students strengths and
  limitations while performing school related
  functional tasks.
• This information helps identify the areas where
  intervention is needed and aids in developing
  program planning for students with different
  types of disabling conditions.

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What is School Function?

• Nonacademic Aspects of a School Program
• Manipulating books and tools for writing
• Moving around classroom or school
• Interacting with peers during learning tasks

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Three Parts of Test

• Part I- Participation examines the students
  participation levels during six major school
  activities
• - Regular or special education classroom
• - Playground or recess
• - Transportation to and from school
• - Bathroom and toileting activities
• - Transitions to and from classroom
• - Mealtime or snack time

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Three Parts of Test

• Part II- Task Supports examines types of
  supports the student is provided with when he/she
  performs school-related functional tasks.
• Two types of Task Supports
• Assistance (adult help)
• Adaptations (wheelchair, etc.)

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Three Parts of Test

• Part III- Activity Performance examines how the
  student performs during specific school-related
  functional activities
• Physical Activity Performance
• Cognitive/Behavioral Activity Performance

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Example Question

• Maintaining and Changing Positions
• Maintains adequate posture for at least ½ hour
  during classroom instruction.
• 1Does not Perform
• 2Partial Performance
• 3Inconsistent Performance
• 4 Consistent Performance

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SFA

• Item type Likert Scale
• Level of measurement Ordinal- levels of function
  are arranged in order, but intervals between
  levels are not of equal size.
• children are graded against peers, not against a
  norm for that age/grade.

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Directions for taking SFA

• The test is administered to 1 or more school
  officials that know the student well.
• ( teacher, aide, OT, PT, SLP, or other school
  persons.)
• Only some sections must be completedbut every
  question in those sections must have an answer.

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Scoring

• Part I Participation scale
• 1- Participation extremely limited.
• 2- Participation in a few activities
• 3- Participation in all aspects with constant
  supervision
• 4- Participation in all aspects with occasional
  assistance
• 5- Modified participation
• 6- Full participation

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Scoring

• Part II Task Supports
• (Scale for assistance)
• 1-Extensive assistance
• 2-Moderate Assistance
• 3-Minimal Assistance
• 4-No Assistance

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Scoring

• Part II Task Supports
• (Scale for Adaptations)
• 1-Extensive adaptations
• 2-Moderate adaptations
• 3-Minimal adaptations
• 4-No adaptations.

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Scoring

• Part III Activity Performance
• Scale for activity performance
• 1-Does not perform
• 2-Partial performance
• 3-Inconsistent Performance
• 4-Consistent performance

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More Scoring

• Add numbers in each section to get Raw Score
• Scoring tables are in the back of the
  manualCriterion and Standard Error Scores are
  looked up using the Raw Score.

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Safety Issues

• Stress
• Time/Change over time
• No Unanswered Questions

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Reliability

• Reliability is consistency or dependability of
  scores across different occasions or examiners
  for assessments
• Internal Consistency reflect the extent to which
  items within a scale are related to one another.
• Test- Retest provides a measure that the
  students performance is constant across
  different testing occasions.

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Reliability

• The Internal Consistency for the SFA is 0.92-0.98
  
• Test-Retest- is .82-.98
• (the closer to 1.0 the higher the reliability)

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Validity

• Content Validity
• Items effectively sample the universe of content.
• Construct Validity
• Measures what the testers are looking for and how
  valid it is.

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Validity

• Two content validity studies were completed.
• -First one rated the comprehensiveness and
  relevance of the items
• -Second provided and evaluation of the
  relevance, comprehensiveness, and usefulness of
  the items and rating scales.
• Construct Validity was tested and was found to
  have excellent predictive and discriminative
  power

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SFA

• Practicality Costs 175
• Includes User's Manual, 25 Record Forms, and 3-8
• page Rating Scale Guides
• Utility
• Expensive
• Training

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References

• Law, Mary, Baum, Carolyn, and Dunn, Winnie.
  Measuring Occupational Performance. 2nd Edition.
  Slack Incorporated, 2005.
• Coster, W., Deeney, T., Haltinger, J., Haley,
  S. (1998). School Function Assessment
  Users Manual. San Antonio, Texas The
  Psychological Corporation