It's that time of year again! Time to assess the kids and see what progress has been made since the last progress monitoring.
Well- isn't it ALWAYS that time of year in the world of SPED?
Assessments are crucial to knowing where students are functioning, their strengths/weaknesses and the areas in which they have progressed since the last assessment.
Doing assessments in the beginning of the year was always easy for me; I wanted to get an idea of where to start each student. I found keeping up with the assessment during the year a harder task for me when I was trying to intertwine assessment administration with ongoing instruction.
HOW FREQUENTLY DO YOU TEST?
I found it best to assess frequently throughout the year. I usually assessed several types of assessments each grading period. This gave me a good basis for progress report parent conferences and reassessment of instructional skills for each grading period.
The assessments were short easy to administer tests. This made it easy to have my paraprofessionals run the the normal schedule helped as much of a regular schedule as possible since disruptions and deviations from the norm were often difficult to handle for some students.
I assessed one student at a time while the remainder of the class worked as normal a schedule as possible.
WHAT TO ASSESS?
I usually gave a basic sight word assessment depending on what was being worked on. Sometimes it was a Dolch sight word test or Fry words and phrases test. Other times it was a recognition test based on sight words from our county lists. Even when teaching SPED self contained classes, I tried to stay as close to what general education is doing as possible.
Keep in mind your student's abilities, however and as always make sure your your assessments match what you are teaching.
In Math I usually used basic skills test as benchmark assessments or post tests from the math curriculum. Key Math, an individual assessment tool, was a common test I used, but often I also used a self made math skills test.
Make sure the assessment fits the student, adheres to your school system's directives and that you use the same assessment to accurately track beginning and ending data.
TRACKING
Keeping track of the data you get from your assessments is imperative. I use an easy Excel spreadsheet to track my results from the beginning of the school year to the end. Excel makes it easy to create graphs and charts to show strength and weaknesses to parents and colleagues
ORGANIZING THE DATA
Keeping track of the data you get from the assessments can be an overwhelming task. I found if I got it organized from the first of the year, it helped me greatly.
I like to use binders, one for each child. In the binders, I kept a copy of the IEP, personal information about the child, charts and graphs of assessment results and work samples. This system helped to have everything in one place when meetings such IEPs or parent conferences came up suddenly.
Spring is the perfect time to get those assessments organized if you haven't done so already. It's nearing the end of the year and those year end meetings are close by.
Already have yours organized?
How do you keep your assessments organized? Share your organization ideas in the comments below.
HOW FREQUENTLY DO YOU TEST?
I found it best to assess frequently throughout the year. I usually assessed several types of assessments each grading period. This gave me a good basis for progress report parent conferences and reassessment of instructional skills for each grading period.
The assessments were short easy to administer tests. This made it easy to have my paraprofessionals run the the normal schedule helped as much of a regular schedule as possible since disruptions and deviations from the norm were often difficult to handle for some students.
I assessed one student at a time while the remainder of the class worked as normal a schedule as possible.
WHAT TO ASSESS?
I usually gave a basic sight word assessment depending on what was being worked on. Sometimes it was a Dolch sight word test or Fry words and phrases test. Other times it was a recognition test based on sight words from our county lists. Even when teaching SPED self contained classes, I tried to stay as close to what general education is doing as possible.
Keep in mind your student's abilities, however and as always make sure your your assessments match what you are teaching.
In Math I usually used basic skills test as benchmark assessments or post tests from the math curriculum. Key Math, an individual assessment tool, was a common test I used, but often I also used a self made math skills test.
Make sure the assessment fits the student, adheres to your school system's directives and that you use the same assessment to accurately track beginning and ending data.
TRACKING
Keeping track of the data you get from your assessments is imperative. I use an easy Excel spreadsheet to track my results from the beginning of the school year to the end. Excel makes it easy to create graphs and charts to show strength and weaknesses to parents and colleagues
ORGANIZING THE DATA
Keeping track of the data you get from the assessments can be an overwhelming task. I found if I got it organized from the first of the year, it helped me greatly.
I like to use binders, one for each child. In the binders, I kept a copy of the IEP, personal information about the child, charts and graphs of assessment results and work samples. This system helped to have everything in one place when meetings such IEPs or parent conferences came up suddenly.
Spring is the perfect time to get those assessments organized if you haven't done so already. It's nearing the end of the year and those year end meetings are close by.
Already have yours organized?
How do you keep your assessments organized? Share your organization ideas in the comments below.
