The paper presents 12 guidelines for special education assessment. Among proposed guidelines are that parents should be involved, that classroom observation should be part of the process, and that all evaluations should be fair and nondiscriminatory. (Author/CL)

Holistic scoring of essays, a writing assessment method in which trained raters make a single overall judgement of the quality of a piece of writing, has acceptable reliability, face validity, and speed of administration. (Author/CL)

Assessment of learning disabilities is traced. Among the critical issues examined are definitions, eligibility criteria, placement bias, and interpretation of P.L. 94-142 (The Education for All Handicapped Children Act) guidelines. Recommendations are offered for an adequate definition and determination of LD. Future directions, including…

Assessment of visually impaired students is traced historically, and current practices in visual functioning, movement and spatial awareness, cognition, tactile performance, and emotional/social development are noted. Federal requirements for assessment are discussed and recommended assessment practices for six major assessment domains are listed.…

Three procedures that help to determine the degree of confidence we can place in any raw score are discussed: computing the standard error of measurement, computing the estimated true score, and constructing confidence intervals. These three procedures are easy to use and require only elementary mathematical skills. (Author/CL)

The changing definitions of mental retardation are reviewed in terms of the implications for assessment, and difficulties in meeting the requirements of federal legislation and court litigation in assessment are considered. Critical issues, including instrumentation and adaptive behavior, are analyzed, and three recommendations for practice are…

An analytic scoring system developed to identify and quantify specific formal features of written language is described. Under the categories of Conventions, Complexity, Fluency, and Organization, the system provides guidelines for determining correct and nonconforming structures and usage, describing clause construction and length, classifying…

Current spelling assessment practices are reviewed. Six individually administered standardized tests presently available to special educators and diagnosticians are examined. Informal procedures (inventories, criterion-referenced tests, and error analysis) are analyzed in terms of advantages and disadvantages. Finally, two particularly promising…

The article presents a critical review of procedures for analyzing coherence in written language samples. The psychological model of referential coherence, linguistic analysis of cohesion, and given/new contract are discussed in terms of research results, psychometric concerns, and writing research. Recommendations concerning their relative…

Curriculum-based measurement (CBM) is defined and described through a case study of a fourth-grade student. CBM is suggested as a system for monitoring goal appropriateness, adjusting instructional programs, and formulating instructional improvements. Potential contributions of CBM to special education practice are outlined, and areas of needed…

Administrators' concerns with special education assessment are addressed from a historical perspective as well as from current practice. Critical issues highlight controversy in special education placement, operational definitions of handicapping conditions, and program evaluation. Future projections are offered, including attention to early…

The paper reviews three main approaches for specifying behavior in a psychological assessment (interview, observation, and client self-report) and examines the place of behavioral assessment in the total field of assessment. (CL)

This article argues for the application of curriculum-based evaluation (CBE) in social skills instruction. A rubric is proposed which combines variables related to social competence and summarizes the status of a student's social skills. The model provides a structure for aligning social skills curriculum, assessment, and instruction. (DB)

Critical issues such as unbiased assessment and expected incidence of students with emotional and behavior disorders are addressed in terms of such issues as unbiased assessment. Recommended practices are described in terms of a five-step process to aid in determining eligibility and making placement decisions. (CL)

Historical highlights in career assessment of exceptional students are followed by an analysis of the current status. Recommended practices are considered in light of definitions, purposes, goals, process and methods, and assessment personnel. (CL)