Chapter 1
Questions to consider
Dr. Maria Hunt the special education supervisor
What are the facts of the case?
Jake has been having learning disability over time. However, his teacher, Ms. Rose Weiss has been teaching him to overcome the learning challenge. Jake was making progress. As of September when Jake joined the learning disability class, he could not read three-letter words. After receiving one-hour instructions in a day with a focus on reading and presented with one hundred basic sight words, Jake could read them with an eighty percent accuracy. When given twenty single syllable nonsense words, he could also pronounce them with an eighty percent accuracy.
The reading test improved from 2.4 to 2.9 over the five month period. Rose set up a new target for Jake at 3.5 in reading based on the Peabody Individual Achievement Test-Revised by April of that year. The instructional time to remain one hour per day. Jake’s mother was pleased with the progress.
Whose Opinions are apparent, and what are those opinions?
Ms. Rose Weiss views were apparent in the meeting. According to her, Jake made significant progress. She gave data in an attempt to support her assertions. She was quite assertive that a one-hour instructions in the disability class would improve his reading abilities. She presumed that the improvement witnessed resulted from the one-hour instructions. She projected Jakes improvement to 3.5 based on the Peabody Individual Achievement Test-Revised by April without factoring for any eventuality that may hinder achieving the set goals.
General Assessment Issues
What legal decision and/or classroom decision were made in this case?
Paula to stay in the general classroom in the 6th grade for social studies, math, and science.
Paula would receive accommodation by rereading social studies and science assignments in the special education classroom, get extended time to complete assignments using a guideline developed by Mr. Brooks.
What procedure illustrated best practice? What procedure illustrated less than best practice?
First, it was best practice to set goals to achieve within a specified time. Objectives and targets direct the action of the people involved and allow the professional to evaluate regularly progress towards achieving the goals. Secondly, collaboration is paramount in dealing with children with disability. It is evident that Mr. Brooks was working in collaborations with Paula’s mother Ms. McKee, and classroom teacher Ms. Jacobson. Third, there is a clear record of progress using graphs.
However, there is little discussion on the challenges that Paula faces. From this point of View, Dr. Maria Hunt failed to offer leadership in the discussion that would bring out the hindrance to achieving the same goals within a shorter time. It indicates that the concerned parties may not improve on the weakness because they identified none in the reports.
Was the assessment consistent with appropriate ethical conduct expected from the professionals? Explain.
Yes. Paula’s assessment was clear, accurate, and involved the mother entirely. There was no breach of confidence and harassment of any kind reported.
Test interpretations issues
Describe the assessment used to track Jake’s progress report. Was this test interpreted appropriately? Explain.
Jake’s special disability teacher Ms. Rose Weiss did the Peabody Individual Achievement Test-Revised in two intervals and noted that there was an improvement from 2.4 to 2.9 in five months. Whereas this was accurate, it is not appropriate to credit the change to the one-hour instructions offered to Jake. There was a need for more follow-up to assess the Jake’s abilities. Besides, the Peabody Individual Achievement Test-Revised is best suited for assessment in a research setting that is not apparent in Ms. Rose Weiss class (Peabody Individual Achievement Test – Revised, n.d).
Describe the assessment used to track Paula’s progress. Was the assessment interpretation appropriate? Explain.
How was each assessment connected to each student IEP?
Jakes measure progress in reading the words and the same case applied to Paula.
Other Assessment issues
Discuss appropriate use for curriculum-based measurement
Professionals can use them for early reading measurements, fluency and comprehension, math and science, and overall judgment on the student’s progress.
Describe appropriate use for generals standardized achievement test like the Peabody Individual Achievement Test-Revised.
They provide general information about the student the students
Enable professional assess the students’ weaknesses and strengths.
Measures the progress towards achieving set goals and objectives.
Why is important to track student’s progress?
Why is it important to connect the assessment to the IEP goals?
Questions to consider
A reporter
What are the facts of the case?
Damian had a learning disability. He was due to graduate on condition that he passed his exams.
Whose opinions are apparent and what are those opinions?
Damian’s mother, Tamika, was almost certain that he would graduate at last and join college.
General assessment issues
What legal decision and/or classroom decision were made in the case?
Damian had a recommendation graduate from the IEP team.
He failed to pass State Exist Exam, and therefore, the principal, according to to the new regulation reverse the IEP committee’s recommendation.
What procedures illustrated best practice? What procedures illustrated less than the best practice?
It was best practice to review the performance of Damian regularly and make recommendations. However; the board could not issue their recommendation based on previous results other than the State Exit Exams results.
Was the assessment consistent with appropriate ethical conduct expected from the professionals? Explain.
It was unethical to make Damian, and his mother confused. The committee now faces the dilemma of how to deal with the case, and the repercussions such demotivation.
Test interpretation issues
How would you interpret Damian’s Peabody Individual Achievement Test-Revised score?
He achieved all the set goals
How could these test scores connected to the IEP?
He performed well in all of them.
Define other assessment used to determine if Damian met IEP goal.
Was placed for part time work and evaluated by the customers and the manager i.e. informal assessment.
Other assessment issues
Should Damian be in attendance in this meeting? Why or why not?
Yes, the committee is discussing his graduation, and it would be prudent to have him attend the meeting.
Who is accountable for Damian’s education program?
The parent and the IEP disability board.
Will Damian be allowed to graduate? Why or why not?
No. He did not meet all the minimum requirement for graduation.
Will Damian receive a high school diploma or certificate of attendance?
The fact that he was not eligible for graduation means that he may not get the certificate yet.
The IDEA states that a single test score cannot be used to identify a child has a disability. How does this principle relate to this situation?
The fact that Damian would not graduate because of failing in one test score places him in a dilemma because he had passed all the other test.
Chapter 2
Questions to consider
Who is telling this story?
A reporter
What are the facts of the case?
Ida’s mother experience in the school was not pleasant when she insisted that Ida’s be labeled as with hearing disability other than mental impairment. In a new School, she managed to convince the team to agree and labeled Ida as with learning disability.
Whose opinions are apparent and what are those opinions?
Ramona Keeker’s were apparent. She assumed that the test on Ida were not correct initially and that because she had nasty experience initially, she would receive the same this time round.
General assessment issues
What legal decision and/or classroom decision were made in this case?
The board members agreed that Ida had a mental challenge and would be placed in a special class. Although Ramon Keeker objected, she was at liberty to pursue the due process for hearing.
What procedures illustrated best practice? What procedures illustrated less than the best practice?
It was best practice the board members at the Rieve school district to remain objective and refused unethical persuasion to overlook the weaknesses in Ida. Besides, the committee also kept the professional evaluation as the true state of the matter and even advised Ramon Keeker to follow the due process hearing. It was not a best practice for the new school district that Ramon Keeker moved to compromise Ida’s case and change the professional recommendations, and classified Ida as having learning disability.
Was the assessment consistent with appropriate ethical conduct expected from the professionals? Explain.
The board at the Rieve School was ethical and maintained professional ethics of telling the truth. The board also maintained the same stand from the reports even when the new district had changed the report deal.
Test interpretation issues
Based on the assessments, describe Ida’s overall aptitude.
She is below average.
Based on the assessment, describe Ida’s overall level of adaptive behavior.
Ida’s overall adaptive behavior was above average.
Based on the assessment, describe Ida’s learning characteristics, learning disability, or mental impairment?
Ida has difficulties in all learning area because her score was below average in all of them. She has disabilities in reading, writing, comprehension and recalling among others. As a result, her score places her in the category of a student with a mental incapacity.
Other assessment issues
Who must attend an IEP meeting? Were all participants necessary in Ida’s meeting?
The parent/guardian
Disability teacher
The regional disability officer
Counselors
And other concerned parties.
Yes, all the required board members were necessary due to the complicated nature of the case.
How could Ida be labeled mentally impaired in one district and learning disabled in another? What evidence supports these label?
Her mother’s persuasion forced the new district to label her as with learning disability. The evidence is that she even refused for the second time the board decision in the Rieve School claiming that her daughter was not mentally impaired, and the fact that the new district agreed to classify Ida has to have a learning disability.
Based on the assessment, where do you think Ida should be placed?
As a mentally impaired child. All the score in the test indicates that she has mental impairments.
Based on the assessment, what skills should IEP address?
Reading, comprehension, writing, math, science, adaptation, among others.
As the mother of the child, she is an integral member, and her opinion has weight because she has to support the child overcome the disability. Besides, she enters into consent on behalf of the child.
Does disability diagnosis determine placements? Why or why not?
Yes. Placement diagnosis is a scientific way of determining the student with a disability, and therefore, it is critical for placement.
Questions to consider
Who is telling the story?
A reporter
What are the facts of the case?
Esther has learning disability attributable to earlier years’ experience.
Esther’s teacher was not in a position to help much.
Whose opinion as apparent, and what are those opinion?
The view of the Mrs. Juanita on the fact that she seems sure that Esther needed special care. She was not also in a position to help much.
General assessment issues
What legal decision and/or classroom decision were made in this case?
The committee decided to place Esther in the disability class full time after classification as a mentally impaired learner.
What procedures illustrated best practice? What procedures illustrated less than best practice?
The test and evaluation of Esther background, and the administration of tests was a best practice. On the contrary, it is evident that it took quite long before the teacher recommended for the investigations.
Was the assessment consistent with appropriate ethical conduct expected from the professionals? Explain.
Yes, there is no violation of the privacy since the mother gave an informed consent for the test and evaluation.
Test interpretation issues
Is it acceptable practice to administers formal assessment to a child who has been in the United States for one year and who did not attend school in Mexico? Why or why not?
It is applicable if there are not alternative means of testing the child. If the child meets the minimum criteria that necessities the test, then it is permissible.
Are the current assessment biased by Esther’s cultural background and/or original language? How do u know?
No. she has no strong weakness on verbal communication.
Based on the assessment information, describe Esther’s current level of functioning.
Her functioning is below average in most of the test scores.
Does Esther have the disability of mental impairment? If so, what evidence supports this conclusion? If not, why not?
Yes. She has an intelligent quotient of 47, on a full-scale and performance intelligent quotient of 51. Besides that, her reading was less than forty-six, spelling less than forty-seven, and an arithmetic score of forty-nine, among other serious deficiencies.
Other assessment
Describe what you know about Esther’s original cultural and language background.
Her mother tongue was not English, and she could not also speak Spanish fluently. Therefore, her language development did not take place as expected. She also suffered neglect in her previous culture.
Describe what you know about Esther’s assimilation into the adopted culture and language.
She had to learn new concepts in new language and environment. However, as stated in the letter to the parents, she was doing well in socialization.
How does Ester’s regular education 3rd-grade teacher feel about teaching Esther’s? Why?
She feels that Esther was not responding well in her class. That was because she needed a lot of contact time to make her understand concepts.
Reference
Peabody Individual Achievement Test – Revised. (n.d). Retrieved on January 24, 2016 from http://cps.nova.edu/~cpphelp/PIAT-R.html
