Academic Assessment

The assessment of academic skills is an essential and critical component of the life of all schools. Like the assessment of other areas of functioning, assessment of academic skills needs to include multiple methods, multiple modalities, and multiple perspectives to obtain a comprehensive understanding of the nature of the problem. The process of assessment needs to cut across the range of direct and indirect approaches in order to capture a complete viewpoint of the academic skill problems that the student is experiencing. Included in the chapter are brief reviews of direct assessment methods built on observation, curriculum-based assessment, normative or criterion-referenced standardized tests, permanent product or portfolio review, as well as indirect methods built upon rating scales and interviews with teachers and students.