This study was conducted to determine the most common contemporary evaluation methods used by kindergarten teachers to assess kindergarten children. The study sample consisted of 527 kindergarten teachers. A scale was developed in order to achieve the study's purposes. The results indicated that the Teacher's Practices in the Evaluation Process…

This study investigated the Individual Learning Plans of eighty-eight students who were deaf and hard of hearing attending facilities and schools for the deaf in Victoria Australia. The students' assessment and planning portfolios were scrutinised for evidence of formal and informal assessment used to generate goals for the Individual Learning…

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…

Minnesota Adult Basic Education (ABE) providers are mandated to use CASAS (Comprehensive Adult Student Assessment System) Reading or Math or TABE (Tests for Adult Basic Education) Reading or Math. This issue of "NetNews" introduces the Test Bank: a variety of informal reading, spelling, and writing assessments available for Minnesota ABE…

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…

"Classroom Assessment in Action" clarifies the multi-faceted roles of measurement and assessment and their applications in a classroom setting. Comprehensive in scope, Shermis and Di Vesta explain basic measurement concepts and show students how to interpret the results of standardized tests. From these basic concepts, the authors then…

Suggests that, to better gauge children's learning progress, teachers and schools should put less emphasis on standardized tests and more emphasis on continuous classroom assessment of students. (MDM)

A study involving 12 elementary age Hispanic children identified as gifted and placed in a creative arts program investigated the issue of identifying gifted minority group children. Ss were administered the System of Multicultural Pluralistic Assessment (SOMPA) and the Cartoon Conservation Scales (CCS). Comparisons were made between teacher…

The literature review identifies information regarding the emergence of mobility skills in infants and young handicapped children, including rolling, crawling, creeping, and walking. Sections discuss the following topics: assessment instruments relevant to mobility, the identification of developmental milestones in mobility, and a hierarchy of the…

The results from two informal measures (a cloze test and a group reading inventory and a standardized reading test were compared in a study of instruments available for measuring adult reading performance. The three instruments were administered to 158 undergraduates enrolled in reading improvement classes. From this group, 75 subjects were…

Existing research indicates that there is a disproportionate number of students with cultural and linguistic differences, English Language Learners (ELL), who are misidentified as learning disabled when their problems are due to cultural and/or linguistic differences. As a consequence, these students do not receive appropriate services. With the…

This article explains characteristics associated with the use and evaluation of criterion-referenced measures by speech language clinicians, in contrast to norm-referenced measures. Guidelines are offered for the evaluation and selection of standardized criterion-referenced measures and for the development and ongoing evaluation of informal…

The goal of this research project was to create a guide on the effective use of assessment instruments and methodologies, related resources, and guidelines for measuring adult learners' attainment of basic skills and competencies to document educational gains and demonstrate program quality. The project focused on confirming current use of…

Given the controversy over the use of standardized tests that rely heavily on multiple-choice items reflecting the language, culture, and/or learning style of the middle class majority, arguments are advanced for the use of alternative, supplemental forms of assessment. Informal assessment is defined as techniques that can easily be incorporated…

This study compared teacher-rated classroom ability groupings with total reading scores reported on standardized tests. Kindergarten teachers divided their students into three groups according to how well they had mastered a set of criteria which the teachers felt represented the successful reader and writer at the end of kindergarten. Results…