Alternative Grading Methods for Students with Learning Disabilities

The 1997-updated law under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) affected assessment techniques for students with disabilities. This law requires students with disabilities participate in the general education curriculum to the extent possible. The recent trend towards inclusion has forced educators to develop ways to assess special needs students working in the general education classroom. Brain research tells us that students have different learning styles; therefore, we should have alternative grading methods to meet the needs of students with learning disabilities.

The purposes of assessing special education students are to determine their progress in achieving annual goals and short-term objectives. Assessment also provides diagnostic information for instructional decision making decisions. In recent years, formal and standardized tests have been criticized for their inability to integrate assessment and teaching. Teachers know that the students are learning; however, they do not know the extent of learning. Standardized tests typically measure a small amount of grade-level skills. Also, standardized tests stress factual information; thereby, forcing teachers to teach to the test. For example, they evaluate writing skills by asking grammar questions rather than having the students write a story. Since standardized tests, do not measure an individual student’s knowledge, the impact on students with exceptional needs can be harmful. This dissatisfaction has forced educators to look at different forms of assessment in order to provide information about student learning and achievement.

Informal assessments provide the most useful, practical information about the learning processes of a student. Informal as...

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...lf-evaluations, accomplishments, and experiences. Teachers can include descriptions and comments about the student’s learning style, attitude, effort, and growth. Student portfolios can include samples of written work, collaborative projects, list of books read, performance documentation, running records of oral readings, or audio- and videotaped presentations.

Aaron is a fourth-grade student diagnosed with Attention Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD), Oppositional Defiant Disorder (ODD), and Specific Learning Disability (SLD). He loves math, but he dislikes reading and writing. He is extremely independent and does not like a lot of help. Aaron is conscious of the fact that others perceive him as “different”. His writing consists of disorganized thoughts, run on sentences, and lacks punctuation and capitalization. We began collecting writing samples for his portfolio.