STANDARD 7: ASSESSMENT

Description: This was a PowerPoint presentation I helped create while at Trinity. It is a presentation on The Behavior Assessment System for Children, Second Edition (BASC-2). It is a widely used psychological assessment tool designed to evaluate children and adolescents' behavior and emotional functioning. 

Connection: 7A) understands the purposes, characteristics, and limitations of different types of assessments, including standardized assessments, universal screening, curriculum-based assessment, and progress monitoring tools; IEP data goals provide a clear direction and purpose in helping individuals and organizations stay focused on what they want to achieve. They help prioritize tasks and activities, ensuring that they concentrate on what matters most. Understanding assessments' purposes, characteristics, and limitations like the BASC-2 is essential for educators and related service providers to make informed decisions about student learning and development. It also helps select the most appropriate assessment tools based on specific goals and contexts. Although using standardized assessment tools is beneficial, a comprehensive assessment approach of a combination of tools and other assessments gains a varied and better understanding of an individual's abilities and needs. This test offered various rating scales to be completed by a teacher, parent, and student to get the whole picture of the student from different perspectives. By understanding the purposes, characteristics, and limitations of different types of assessments, you can create a well-maintained system of accurate and useful records of student work and performance, fostering a more effective and informed educational environment. 

Learned:  I learned how to correctly and effectively assess a student using this standardized assessment by completing this PowerPoint. I also learned more about the difference between standardized scores and percentile ranks based on a sample,  allowing for a comparison of an individual's behavior to that of a representative group of children and adolescents. The test also helped me better understand how students function every day, including examining and assessing their behaviors and evaluating their social and academic performance. 

Description: This is an example of a goal sheet I use to conduct discrete trials for my student's IEP goals. In discrete trials, learning is broken down, each with a clear and consistent instructional sequence. Data collection is a critical component of DTT to assess progress and guide instructional decisions.  

Connection: 7M) maintains useful and accurate records of student work and performance: Goals and assessments are crucial components of a student's IEP. It is essential to implement a well-organized and accurate system for record-keeping. By keeping a record of details of assignments, projects, and assessments, you can give feedback and progress on what the student is doing and provide students information that is valuable for the district, parents, and when developing personalized learning plans. It also provides a visual summary of the individual's progress over time. After taking data, we work with BCBA to create graphs to track correct responses and other relevant data points to help identify trends further and make informed decisions about instructional adjustments. 

Learned:  I learned that using discrete trials helps define and implement the target behavior or skill you are teaching. The task or behavior should be specific, observable, and measurable, allowing for consistent data collection. It is also essential for multiple people, such as myself or a Behavior Specialist, to be involved in the data collection process so that data collected can be compared from different observers and perspectives to ensure consistency and reliability.