This article presents a review of the Five Factor Personality Inventory-Children (FFPI-C), a quick and easily administered personality assessment for children and adolescents with clear and straightforward scoring and interpretation procedures. The FFPI-C is based on a theoretical model of personality developed through the work of Allport (Allport…

Much of the literature on reading development focuses on measures of early literacy skills (e.g., phonological awareness, phonics, fluency). Elementary educators interested in improving students' skills in these areas can draw on a wealth of research studies. However, many studies of early literacy skills have not addressed comprehension,…

High-quality formative assessment data are critical to the successful application of any problem-solving model (e.g., response to intervention). Formative data available for a wide variety of outcomes (academic, behavior) and targets (individual, class, school) facilitate effective decisions about needed intervention supports and responsiveness to…

To make valid decisions about intervention effectiveness in a tiered intervention system, it is essential to formatively assess treatment integrity along with student outcomes. Despite significant advances in technologies for ongoing assessment of student outcomes, research regarding treatment integrity assessment has not shared the same progress…

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…

Rubrics are an integral part of many writing programs, and they represent elements of good writing in essays, stories, poems, as well as other genres and forms of text. Although it is possible to use rubrics to teach students about the processes underlying effective writing, a more common practice is to use rubrics as a means of assessment, after…

Accurate spelling is a complex act that requires cognitive and linguistic knowledge of the phonological, morphological, syntactical, and semantic principles of our language. Students with disabilities frequently exhibit spelling difficulties related to language learning disorders and inefficient cognitive processing. These difficulties often are…

This study focuses on an examination of the learning-to-learn strategies of seventh-grade students as they highlight, take notes, plan, organize, and write expository texts. Participants consist of 125 students, 41 with disabilities and 84 without disabilities. The results reveal that the students with disabilities have more difficulties in using…

Written language is a complex set of skills that facilitate communication and that are developed in a predictable sequence. It is therefore possible to analyze current skills, identify deficits, plan interventions, and determine the effectiveness of the intervention. To effectively accomplish these tasks, educators need to choose appropriate…

In this study, the authors analyzed 2,056 spelling errors produced by 130 young adults (65 with dyslexia, 65 typically achieving), which came from two sources: a standardized spelling test and an impromptu essay-writing task. Students with dyslexia exhibited higher spelling error rates across both tasks. To characterize the inaccurate spelling…

Despite the central role of assessment in special education, there is a paucity of current research on instruments and methods used in schools. Special education directors (N = 164) in five northeastern states responded to an electronic survey related to the use of assessment instruments and methods in their districts. Data are presented regarding…

The intervention validity of cognitive assessment batteries is considered within an historical context to identify what the evidence supports (knowns), what cannot be known (unknowables), and what is not yet known (unknowns). Two ways cognitive batteries could inform intervention are identified: a disordinal (i.e., aptitude-treatment interaction)…

Although numerous English language proficiency (ELP) measures currently exist, many were developed prior to the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 (NCLB). These pre-NCLB measures typically focused on social language proficiency, whereas post-NCLB measures are linked to ELP standards and focus on academic language proficiency (ALP). ELP measures are…

The current study examines the technical adequacy of four Early Numeracy Curriculum-Based Measurement (EN-CBM) screening tasks: "Oral Counting" (OC), "Number Identification" (NI), "Quantity Discrimination" (QD), and "Missing Number" (MN). Results from 59 kindergarten students assessed in the fall and spring reveal moderate to high test-retest and…

The purpose of this study was to investigate the concurrent validity of curriculum-based measurement (CBM) for students with emotional and behavioral disorders (EBD) in middle school using the Maze (MAZE); Oral Reading Fluency (ORF); and the "Woodcock-Johnson, Third Edition" (WJ-III), Passage Comprehension (WJ-PC) and Reading Fluency (WJ-RF)…