A primary focus of recent educational policymaking has been on improving measures of teaching effectiveness, attributable in part to recent federal policies such as the Race to the Top initiative and Investing in Innovation. To date, neither researchers nor practitioners have arrived at a consensus on the best methods for evaluating special…

Teachers' perceptions of their classroom practices were examined within the framework of a year-long mentorship experience in a K-12 public school district. A total of 43 mentors and 41 newly hired mentees completed an online survey developed by the authors that focused on teacher perceptions of classroom decisions and practices during one school…

Assessment permeates many aspects of our educational society. With the passage of federal legislation (i.e., No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 and Individuals With Disabilities Education Improvement Act of 2004), assessment in the form of accountability is ever present in our K-12 educational system. Current assessment practices should be used in…

The purpose of this study was to provide preliminary analysis of reliability and validity of scores on the "Self-Efficacy Self-Report Scale", which was designed to assess general self-efficacy in students aged 10 to 17 years. Confirmatory factor analysis on cross-validated samples was conducted revealing a marginal fit of the data to the 19-item…

The authors claim that assessing spelling in Grades 3-12 has utility. They base their claim on data from 875,040 students in Grades 3-12 in 52,923 classes in 840 Florida schools who took the Reading Comprehension, Maze, and Word Analysis spelling portions of the "Florida Assessments for Instruction in Reading" during the 2009-2010 school year. The…

While formal, standardized assessment instruments provide valuable and necessary information about students' various abilities and skills, the use of informal and qualitative assessment approaches has the benefit of leading directly to instruction based squarely on an individual student's needs, strengths, and existing skills. This article…

This article provides a brief history of curriculum-based measurement (CBM), clarifies its relationship to curriculum-based assessment, summarizes the primary features of CBM, and gives a rationale for its design. Extensions of CBM to new research domains are identified, and a perspective is provided in the place of CBM in the broader context of…

This article describes recent efforts to develop a reading diagnostic analysis to be used in conjunction with curriculum-based measurement for informing teachers how to refocus their instruction to address individual needs. A detailed example with data charts and student reports shows application in one second grade class. (Contains references.)…

This article first examines problems in developing individualized education programs (IEPs) for students with disabilities by focusing on violations of the IEP process. It then discusses the three major components of the IEP, assessment, program development, and monitoring student progress. A case study illustrates use of curriculum-based…

This article provides a template to assist policymakers in developing and refining reliable large-scale alternate assessments for students with significant disabilities unable to participate in general state and district assessments. It also discusses Kentucky's 10-year experience with its alternate assessment and experiences of other states…

After identification of an alternative model of the School Social Behavior Scales, the invariance of the new model was tested with half of the original standardization sample (n=2,047). Both scales performed well and resulted in models very similar to those originally proposed by the author of the instrument. (Contains references.) (Author/CR)

This review highlights issues in functional outcome assessment and describes educationally based functional outcome measures applicable to students with severe disabilities. Specific norm-referenced and criterion-referenced instruments are reviewed for their usefulness in describing functional independence and functional challenges across…

Teaching professionals (n=29) who shared the same classroom for a minimum of one hour per day provided independent ratings of the same child (ages 7-17) on the Adjustment Scales for Children and Adolescents (ASCA). Results indicated that statistically significant interrater agreement was achieved across all 22 syndromic profile classification…

This article discusses the Council for Educational Diagnostic Services' (CEDS) position on the Professionally Recognized Special Educator certificate in educational diagnosis (PRSE-ED), prior efforts to resolve the examination issue, and the need for continuation of the PRSE-ED. It concludes with a recommendation for a cost-effective,…

This article discusses techniques and instruments that are used when conducting a behavioral, social, and emotional assessment of students with autistic spectrum disorders. Functional assessment methods are described, including indirect methods, direct observation, and experimental manipulation. Instruments used to assess depression and…