Assessment of Students' Special Needs

The first school I was worked in Saudi Arabia was a small village far from the city more than an hour and a half. I was general classroom teacher for only four students in the first grade . One of my students did not respond for any oral or written tests. After the first week, I decide to tell the school principal about her poor performance in the classroom comparing to her peers. The principal asked the supervisor at the city education department who suggested that parents should take their girl to the education health center in the city because no specialist available to visit remote school. The principal told her mother that she should take her to diagnose her problem in city. Her mother came to school after few days and she asked for her daughter file because she has learning disability and she will study in special school. Students require precise tests to be classified as students with disabilities or learning difficulties which is called assessment. Assessment is defined as “ the process of gathering information about a student’s abilities or behaviour for the purpose of making decisions about the student” (Elliott, Braden, & White, 2001,p.12). it is used to decide if students with special needs are eligible for special education services and, if eligible, to decide what are these services (Reschly, 1996; Browder, 1991). This essay will briefly discuss the key aspects of assessment, the purposes of assessment for students with disabilities, and the assessment adaptation.

Miller, Linn, and Gronlund (2009) pointed out the general principles of the assessment process. The first principle is the specification of what is to be assessed and of what are the intended goals to be achieved, before the selection of assessment pro...

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...ation for Students with Disabilities , 6 (1), 40-53.

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