The Third Edition provides up-to-date information on assessment approaches, research-based practices, and federal mandates related to assessment of students with disabilities, ages 3 - 20. Incorporating formal, informal, and performance-based assessment tools, critical topics are linked to school-based examples. Assessment of Children and Youth offers future and experienced educators and other professionals a fundamental understanding of widely used tests and measures and contemporary perspectives on assessment. Each chapter contains an “Overview” section which discusses theories, perspectives, and conceptual frameworks. Throughout the chapters, the reader will find references to the knowledge and skills that beginning special education teachers need to know about assessment. This edition incorporates best practices and use of technology in assessment practices. Major topics covered IDEA 2004, No Child Left Behind, research-based practices, formal and informal assessments and testing practices, observation techniques, functional behavioral assessment, curriculum-based assessment, criterion-referenced assessment, performance-based assessments, standardized instruments, contemporary approaches to the assessment of literacy and mathematics, interpreting tests, writing reports, and program evaluation.
I appreciated all of the outlines that this text provided for the various forms of testing available. It is a college text, so it is a bit dry and cumbersome to read. The chapters do tend to repeat some information, but most of the sections offer enough examples of specific tests that it is a pretty informative read.
This was an alright text to peruse for my class. I definitely felt it was the most concise to date in the last year and a half on special education (history of and delineation, etc.).