Chapter 4:

Components of Special and

Inclusive Education
Assessment
A. Assessment Purposes
• Used to decide on child’s educational placement and to
plan instructional programs for a child identified to
have additional needs.
• To determine how effective programs are to assist the
inclusive teacher and the special education teacher.
• Variety of assessment methods:
Interviews
Observations
Checklists or Rating Scales
Tests
B. Methods of Assessment
1. TESTS - by definition test is something (such as a series of questions or
exercises) for measuring the skill, knowledge, intelligence, capacities, or
aptitudes of an individual or group.
NORM-REFERENCED TESTS
• Standardized assessments that
compare a child’s performance with
a representative sample of students
of the same chronological age.
• Results are reported as percentile
ranks and age & grade equivalent
scores w/c makes it easier to
professionals to determine class &
individual performance.
• Examples: Intelligence and
Achievement Tests
CRITERION-REFERENCED
TESTS
• compare a child’s performance
based on established standards &
competencies & can be used to
describe student performance
(Jennings et al. 2006)
• Results are reported as simple
numerical scores, percentage of
correct responses, letter grades or
graphic score reports.
• Provide specific skills a child has
mastered and those that need
additional instruction (Gargiulo
2012)
2. Informal Assessment
• Non-standardized assessments
• curriculum based or performance based, such as the teacher-made instruments used
in classroom and portfolio assessment.
3. Authentic Assessment
• Highly recommended by professionals
• Provide students the opportunity to apply knowledge and skills in meaningful, real-
world settings rather than in an artificial and contrived setting (Dennis et al. 2013)
• Identified essential information to be included in a running record:
Date and time of the observation
Names of children involved
Location of the incident
Verbatim recording of what the children said
Actual events that occurred
 C. Assessment Principles

Child and Team-based

Family-Centered Approach Application Use of Genuine
Practices of Individualization and Meaningful
and Communication
Appropriate that Adhere to
Process Ethical and Legal
Practices
 Chapter 4:
Components of Special and
Inclusive Education
Accommodations and Curricular
Modifications
A. Accommodations
• supports provided to students to help gain full
access to class content and instruction, without
altering the curriculum standards and
competencies expected and to demonstrate
accurately what they know.
• barriers are removed from accessing education.

• may be provided both during assessment and

instruction, depending on the learning profile
and needs of child and may vary in terms of
presentation, response, setting, and scheduling
(Beech 2010).
 1. Presentation Accommodations

LEARNING NEEDS EXAMPLES OF ACCOMMODATIONS

VISUAL SUPPORT MINIMIZE VISUAL DISTRACTION
VISUAL CUES
USE OF LARGER PRINT MATERIALS
USE OF SIGN LANGUAGE
VIDEOS WITH CLOSED CAPTIONING

AUDITORY AND READ ALOUD BY A PEER

COMPREHENSIVE SUPPORT AUDIO BOOKS
DIGITAL TEXTS THAT READ ALOUD
TEXT-TO-SPEECH SOFTWARE
ADVANCE ORGANIZER OR STORY GUIDE
HIGHLIGHTING OR COLOR CODINGa

LISTENING AND FOCUSING ADVANCE ORGANIZER

EXPLICIT VERBAL CUES
REPEAT DIRECTIONS
NOTE-TAKING SUPPORT
COPY OF DIRECTIONS
2. Response Accommodations

• Allow them to access learning experiences as other students in general education

classroom.
LEARNING NEEDS EXAMPLES OF ACCOMMODATIONS
WRITING DIFFICULTY DIFFERENTIAT SIZE OF PENCIL/PEN
PENCIL OR PEN GRIP
SCRIBE TO RECORD
FINGER SPACER
HANDWRITING TEMPLATE
VISUAL CUES ON PAPER
DIFFERENT TYPES/SIZE OF PAPER
WRITTEN EXPRESSION DICTIONARY WITH SPELL CHECK
DIFFICULTY ONLINE DICTIONARY
WORD PROCESSOR
WRITING CUE CARDS
LIST OF SIGHT WORDS
TEMPLATES, OUTLINES
MATH DIFFICULTY CALCULATOR
CONCRETE MODELS
VISUAL REPRESENTATION
PROBLEM-SOLVING GUIDES
ORGANIZER
3. Setting Accommodations
Allow a child who gets easily distracted to work in quiet corner of
the classroom in his own study carrel so that he will not be
sidetracked by environmental stimuli.

4. Scheduling Accommodations
Changing time allotment, schedule of tasks and assessments, and
management of time are some types of scheduling accommodations.
Examples: extending time for assignments; providing breaks in
between tasks; providing a visual schedule or checklist of individual
responsibilities; providing predictable routines and procedures;
providing an electronic device w/ alarms and cues.
B. Modifications
• Curriculum modifications are provided for students with
significant or severe disabilities where content
expectations are altered, and the performance outcomes
are changed in relation to what are expected of typically
developing students of the same age (DEC 2007).
• Curricular modifications include changes in instructional
level, content and performance criteria, as well as the
breadth and depth of content being learned by students.
• Educational teams responsible for instructional planning
may indicate curricular modifications in the student’s
Individual Educational Plan (IEP). Such modifications
are needed so that students also have access to the
general education curriculum .