This document discusses assessment of children with special needs. It defines assessment as the process of collecting educational data to make decisions about students or schools. Assessment aims to help teachers understand each student's level and determine next steps to improve learning. Testing is a form of assessment using specific problems to evaluate students' knowledge, intelligence or abilities. The main legal bases for assessment of individuals with disabilities are the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA), which ensures publicly funded special education, and the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB), which requires stronger accountability and testing standards.

1. A s s e s s m e n
t o f
C h i l d r e n
w i t h
S p e c i a l
N e e d s
A p r i l 2 6 , 2 0 2 1

2. Topics
• Assessment in Special Education
• Testing
• Difference between Assessment
and Testing
• Legal Bases of Assessment for
Individuals with Disabilities
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3. Introduction
This topic discusses the importance of
assessment in the field of Special
Education. Knowing its importance will
enable to better understand what the
students have learned and then decide
what steps they will take to improve the
learning environment. Assessment also
allows teachers to recognize student’s
difficulties in school and their
advancement toward goals. In this way,
teachers are able to modify their teaching
methods to aid the students to become
successful.
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4. A S S E S S M E N
T
A S S E S S M E N T I S T H E
P R O C E S S O F
C O L L E C T I N G D ATA F O R
T H E P U R P O S E O F
M A K I N G D E C I S I O N S
A B O U T S T U D E N T S O R
S C H O O L . I T A I M S TO
A I D T E A C H E R S I N
U N D E R S TA N D I N G T H E
L E V E L O F E V E RY
S T U D E N T A N D D E C I D E
T H E N E X T S T E P S TO B E
U T I L I Z E D I N O R D E R TO
E N S U R E P R O P E R
L E A R N I N G . ( S A LV I A ,
Y S S E L D Y K E , A N D B O LT,
2 0 1 0 )

5. Assessment in
Special Education
In the discipline of Special
Education, assessment can be
defined as “the systematic process
of gathering educational relevant
information to make legal and
instructional decisions about the
provision of special
services”(McLoughlin and Lewis,
2008).
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6. Assessment in
Special Education
Assessment in Special Education should be
considered as continuous. To note,
assessment should be an ideally ongoing
process. Assessment should also be done
systematically to answer important
questions that are educationally relevant.
Therefore, it should serve a definite
purpose of catering highly individualized
instructional plans for the student with
disability. In other words, each program is
designed to fulfill a specific purpose of
addressing the needs of the student with
disability.
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7. Testing
Testing is a form of assessment where
students are presented with different
specific problems for them to answer and as
a result, they are expected to gain a specific
score. Test is also considered a procedure
for evaluation by means of determining the
presence, quality, or truth of something. A
test may consist of series of questions,
problems, or physical responses designed
to determine knowledge, intelligence, or
ability. Thus, it is considered as a reliable
basis for evaluation or judgement that gives
teachers quantitative data.
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8. Difference
between
Assessment
and Testing
Knowing the difference between
assessment and testing is
important with regard to student’s
learning behavior. In testing,
assessment normally results to
labeling. The result of test
determines the service that the
students need. Hence, the teacher
should not be too quick to assess
his student. In Special Education,
students who have difficulty in
reading are not readily labeled as
dyslexic; rather, they are
diagnosed to have reading
difficulties.
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9. L e g a l B a s e s
o f
A s s e s s m e n t
f o r
I n d i v i d u a l s
w i t h
D i s a b i l i t i e s
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10. Individuals
with
Disabilities
Act (IDEA)
The Individuals with Disabilities Act (IDEA)
was previously patterned after the Public Law
94-142 or the Education for All Handicapped
Children Act. The specific purposes of the law
includes the following: (1) to insure publicly
funded Special education and related services
for all handicapped children no later than
1978; (2) to insure the rights of handicapped
children and their parents and guardians; (3)
to relieve the Special Education financial
burden of state and local governments; and
(4) to assess and insure the effectiveness of
efforts to educate handicapped children.
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11. No Child
Left Behind
(NCLB)
This requires stronger accountability for
results by specifying that schools must have
challenging educational standards, test
children starting grade 3 every year, and
specify progress objectives that ensure
proficiency of every child. (Salvia et al., 2012)
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12. T H A N K
Y O U
E S T E B A N B .
C A S A U AY
p r o f e s s o r
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