Challenges of Assessing Children
Assessing children across developmental domains can be challenging due to factors such as limited attention span, anxiety, motivation, familiarity with formal testing, variation in reading skills, and inconsistency in performance across days. Assessing preschoolers’ learning can be particularly challenging, as this developmental period is marked by uneven and rapid growth. Most young children have limited attention spans; therefore, there may be wide variations in child performance on any given day. Given these limitations, great care should be taken when making decisions about assessment design and implementation. Furthermore, the technical adequacy of test results, including reliability and validity, often come into question when working with children, especially young children. This is discussed further in the next section. Given various challenges, multiple sources of information and approaches across time and settings are recommended to yield a comprehensive analysis of a child’s strengths and weaknesses.
Assessment of the Whole Child: Formative and Summative Practices
This section provides an overview of contemporary assessment practices used in primary educational settings, including formative and summative assessments. Learning in the classroom can take various forms; therefore, it is important for educators to be familiar with different assessment practices in order to best assess specific learning goals.
Formative Assessment Practices
Teachers in a modern classroom utilize ongoing data collection to inform instruction. Figure 10.1 demonstrates the formative learning cycle (Moss & Brookhart, 2009), which incorporates formative assessment. Formative assessment is “a planned, ongoing process used by all students and teachers during learning and teaching to elicit and use evidence of student learning to improve student understanding of intended disciplinary learning outcomes and support students to become self-directed learners” (Formative Assessment for Students and Teachers State Collaborative on Assessment and Student Standards, 2018).. Assessment is formative when students and teachers use assessment data to figure out where students are in relation to intended learning standards and what they need to do next to make progress. Formative assessment practices have been linked to improved academic outcomes for all
Figure 10.1 Formative Learning Cycle students, including struggling learners (Black, Harrison, Lee, Marshall, & Wiliam, 2003).
Teachers consider three key questions for formative assessment: Where do I want my students to go? Where are they now? What do I need to do next to get students where I want them to be? In order for formative assessment to be effective, clear and meaningful learning goals and criteria for success should be communicated to students. Learning should be evaluated and students should receive immediate feedback related to their performance based on predetermined criteria. Feedback should be directly related to goals, constructive, ongoing, varied, and consistent. Students should have a clear understanding of what they need to do to move closer toward goal attainment. Additionally, evidence and feedback should be used to adjust learning strategies, goals, or instruction as needed. Analyzing student work, checklists, round-robin charts, strategic questioning, three-way summaries, think-pair-share, classroom polls, exit/admit tickets, and one-minute papers are some examples of informal formative assessment types. For the purposes of this chapter, observations and progress monitoring are considered formal methods of formative assessment and are described below.
Observation-based assessment for learning-related behaviors. At times, children display behaviors in the classroom that make learning challenging, such as difficulties with emotion regulation or attention. It may become necessary to establish behavioral goals for students, which can be monitored using observation-based assessment. Additionally, information related to skill acquisition may be assessed through observation. For example, fine motor development may be observed through a child’s ability to use scissors, color in between the lines, and use a fork and spoon independently. Observations can also be helpful in understanding how students respond to transitions, deal with challenging tasks, and respond to limits. Table 10.1 outlines specific behaviors that may be assessed across domains of functioning.
Table 10.1 Behaviors to Assess When Observing Students Across Developmental Domains
|
Cognitive |
Communication |
Social and Emotional |
Sensorimotor |
|
• Attention Span ♦ Planning/ Organization • Problem-Solving Approaches ♦ Type of Play: Symbolic and Representational |
|
|
♦ Muscle Strength ♦ Tone ♦ Reactivity to Sensory Input ♦ Endurance |
|
Eligibility Category |
Main Components of IDEA Definition |
Red Flags |
|
Specific Learning Disability |
A disorder in one or more of the basic psychological processes involved in understanding or in using language, spoken or written, that may manifest itself in the imperfect ability to listen, think, speak, read, write, spell, or to do mathematical calculations, including conditions such as perceptual disabilities, brain injury, minimal brain dysfunction, dyslexia, and developmental aphasia. Specific learning disability does not include learning problems that are primarily the result of visual, hearing, or motor disabilities, intellectual disability, emotional disturbance, or environmental, cultural, or economic disadvantage. |
|
|
Speech and Language Impairment |
A communication disorder, such as stuttering, impaired articulation, a language impairment, or a voice impairment that adversely affects a child’s educational performance. |
|
(Continued)
Table 10.2 Continued
|
Eligibility Category |
Main Components of IDEA Definition |
Red Flags |
|
Other Health Impairment |
Having limited strength, vitality, or alertness, including a heightened alertness to environmental stimuli, that results in limited alertness with respect to the educational environment, that:
|
|
|
Autism |
A developmental disability significantly affecting verbal and nonverbal communication and social interaction, generally evident before age three, that adversely affects a child’s educational performance. Other characteristics often associated with autism are engagement in repetitive activities and stereotyped movements, resistance to environmental change or change in daily routines, and unusual responses to sensory experiences. Autism does not apply if a child’s educational performance is adversely affected primarily because the child has an emotional disturbance. A child who manifests the characteristics of autism after age three could be identified as having autism if the criteria detailed here are satisfied. |
|
232 Arlene Ortiz
Authentic assessment refers to the systematic recording of developmental observations over time related to children’s behaviors and competencies that occur in their natural environments, such as the classroom; familiar and knowledgeable caregivers collect these data in order to provide context to the behaviors observed (Bagnato, Goins, Pretti-Frontczak, & Neisworth, 2014). This type of assessment focuses on data collection of functional skills, which are real behaviors relevant to the child’s current daily functioning. In order to ensure that specific skills are observed as well as to ensure that information collected is reliable, multiple observations across settings are essential. If necessary, the professional may choose to manipulate the environment so that specific skills can be observed.
Various observation methods can be utilized to collect information related to student behavior, such as ABC charts (event sampling), time sampling, checklists, and behavior rating scales. An ABC chart is a direct observation tool that can be used to collect information about events occurring within a student’s environment. “A” refers to the antecedent (event or activity) that immediately precedes a target behavior. The “B” refers to the observed target behavior, and “C” refers to the consequence, the event that immediately follows a response. Table 10.3 provides an example of an ABC chart. Time sampling, shown in Table 10.4, is a method of collecting data in which a student is observed for a specific amount of time and whether or not a target behavior or activity took place is recorded. Rating scales can be used to evaluate performance by rating the frequency with which target behaviors occur across multiple criteria, which are then added together. For example, a teacher may rate the frequency a child raises their hand during class instruction as Never
Table 10.3 ABC Chart
|
Date |
Time |
Antecedent |
Behavior |
Consequence |
Possible Function |
|
Description: |
□ Attention |
||||
|
□ Reinforcing |
□ Escape |
||||
|
□ Not Reinforcing |
□ Sensory □ Tangible Object |
||||
|
Description: |
□ Attention |
||||
|
□ Reinforcing |
□ Escape |
||||
|
□ Not Reinforcing |
□ Sensory □ Tangible Object |
||||
|
Description: |
□ Attention |
||||
|
□ Reinforcing |
□ Escape |
||||
|
□ Not Reinforcing |
□ Sensory □ Tangible Object |
Table 10.4 Time Sampling Chart
|
Date |
Time |
Length of Each Interval |
Interval Number |
||||
|
1 |
2 |
3 |
4 |
5 |
|||
Instructions: Mark an X if behavior occurred based on the method of time sampling selected.
Method of Time Sampling: □ Whole Interval Recording □ Partial Interval Recording □ Momentary Time Sampling
Table 10.5 Rating Scale of Classroom Behaviors
|
Date |
Activity/ Lesson |
Rate the Frequency of Each Behavior |
Total |
||
|
Raises Hand Quietly |
Waits to be Called on Before Speaking |
Eyes on Teacher or Materials |
|||
|
e.g., math |
0 1 2 |
0 1 2 |
0 1 2 |
||
|
0 1 2 |
0 1 2 |
0 1 2 |
|||
Instructions: Please rate the frequency the student engages in each behavior during whole-class instructional periods using the following scale: 0 = Never, I = Sometimes, 2 = Often.
(0 points), Sometimes (1 point), or Often (2 points). This method may be less time consuming for teachers to assess the frequency of behaviors, but is also more subjective (see Table 10.5).
Box 10.2 Promoting Social-Emotional Competence
Spotlight on New York Public Schools: Using Positive Behavioral Intervention and Supports to Monitor Social-Emotional Well-Being
Positive Behavioral Intervention and Supports (PBIS) is a multi-tiered system of supports to create and maintain positive school climates.
PBIS emphasizes the prevention of behavioral and school discipline problems by teaching, modeling, and recognizing appropriate behavior in schools. PBIS is a systems framework that guides the selection and implementation of evidence-based practices for improving behavioral and social-emotional outcomes for all students. Each school in New York sets three to five behavioral expectations for all students and staff across settings. These expectations are taught to students and school personnel so that everyone knows what those expectations are. Students are consistently acknowledged for meeting expectations and provided with positive corrective feedback when expectations are not followed. Students may also receive additional support to encourage and/or teach the expected, positive behavior. PBIS can be a part of a multi-tier system of supports model, which is explained in detail on this page.
Screening and progress monitoring to inform instruction. Multi-Tier System of Supports (MTSS) is a service delivery model supported by IDEIA that incorporates the use of universal screening tools to identify students at risk for academic and behavioral difficulties who may benefit from additional specialized interventions (Fuchs & Fuchs, 2006). A screener is a brief and low- cost procedure used to obtain preliminary information about a wide range of behaviors for large groups of children (Gridley, Mucha, & Hatfield, 1995), and may be helpful at identifying children who may be at risk or who may require additional support to meet specific goals. An example of a screener used to assess literacy skills is the Dynamic Indicators of Basic Early Literacy Skills (DIBELS), currently in its eighth edition. DIBELS assesses for key areas of early literacy known to be predictive of reading challenges, such as reading rate and accuracy. The screener is designed to be administered three times during the school year as a way to monitor progress. Each period of assessment has established benchmark criteria to help the professional determine which children may require additional support in reading. Children identified as at-risk and needing additional support should be monitored closely through continuous progress monitoring. Progress monitoring is used to quantify a student’s rate of improvement or responsiveness to instruction and to evaluate the effectiveness of instruction.
