ASSESSMENT IN SPECIAL EDUCATION PLACEMENT
educational instruction or social services designed or modified to assist individuals with disabilitiesà a range of services, including social work services and rehabilitative counseling, provided to individuals with disabilities from ages 3-21 through the public school system, including instruction given in the classroom, at home or in institutions (Gale Group, 1998, p. 1).
With the ever-increasing accountability pressure on school districts today regarding the performance of their pupils and a wide variety of interested parties ranging from parents to bureaucrats and legislators, it is extremely important to have in place a reliable system for assessing whether or not students are benefiting from their schooling experiences. This is usually done through a series of evaluations known collectively as æassessmentsÆ. ôAssessment is a process of collecting data for the purpose of making decisions about individuals and groups" (Salvia & Ysseldyke, 2001, p. 5). Within the 1990Æs education was a front-running legislative issue, with three particular acts enacted into law requiring schools to measure the progress of their students: 1) 1994Æs Goals 2000 Educate America Act, 2) the 1996 Improving AmericaÆs Schools Act and 3) the 1997 Individuals with Disabilities Education Act. Since assessment is clearly a leading educational activity, it is imperative that professional school personnel acquire a thorough working knowledge of all the aspects of testing and how they figure into the assessment process, especially with a student population that grows increasingly diverse. Increasingly important is assessment used to identify the child of a diverse ethnic or cultural background as disabled, since educators and parents are aware of the long-term social and work implications.
When we assess students, we measure their competence. Specifically, we measure their progress toward atta...