To meet the high-stakes requirements of IDEA's Indicator 13, professionals need proven and practical ways to support successful transitions for young adults with significant disabilities. Now there's a single guidebook to help them meet that critical goal--straight from David Test, one of today's most highly respected authorities on transitions to…

A great reading conference only takes five minutes, but its impact can last a lifetime. That is because conferences are the critical, one-to-one teaching that forms the backbone of reading instruction. This book shows teachers how to confer well and demonstrates why a few moments with students every week can put them on the path to becoming…

Proposes that decisions about the type, frequency, and content of assessment are of key importance in long-range planning, short-range planning, and daily classroom instruction. (MKR)

The paper examines several basic grading procedures, noting the advantages and disadvantages of each procedure for handicapped students. Eight alternatives to grading are mentioned; of these, four are considered: (1) contract grading, (2) pass-fail grading, (3) the mastery learning approach, and (4) written evaluations (including checklists). It…

Describes a study done by the Middle School Math through Applications project (MMAP) on informal assessment. Discusses some valuable techniques that MMAP teachers and researchers developed for organizing informal assessment so that it produces a coherent story of student progress, helps students make more progress with greater focus, and…

Based on questions asked by teachers in classes, workshops, and conference sessions, this paper provides brief answers to eight of the most frequently asked questions about portfolio assessment. The questions answered in the paper are: (1) What is a portfolio?; (2) What should be put in the portfolio?; (3) How much should be put in the portfolio?;…

A three-stage procedure for formulating and monitoring individualized objectives for learning disabled high school students includes: (1) surveying global writing successes and failures; (2) analyzing reliable patterns of selected writing features; and (3) selecting instructional priorities through ongoing negotiation between instructors and…

For special education teachers dealing with slow learners or learning disabled students, the paper describes teacher-made diagnostic tasks and settings for addition, subtraction, multiplication and division. Remediation techniques and strategies for common error patterns and misunderstandings are discussed for each of the major parts of the…

Since engagement in physical activity is now identified as an important outcome for students, teachers need to assess their students in ways that measure that behavior. Assessment serves many purposes in an educational setting. It can provide feedback, drive instructional needs, and evaluate outcomes of both students and programs. If done…

The paper describes a "mini-assessment" designed to help teachers understand the nature and extent of students' learning problems. A distinction is made between children with reading problems due to neurological differences and those with problems due to emotional, educational, or cultural factors. The importance of identifying and referring the…

Evaluation and grading are individual and unique components of the formal learning/teaching process. Both acts embrace moral as well as ethical concerns which demand thorough, reflective attention. As teachers, we must admit to the subjectivity of both and use that subjectivity in a positive striving toward fairness. Our concern should be with the…

Four brief articles look at aspects of curriculum based measurement (CBM) for academically handicapped students including procedures of CBM with examples, different approaches to graphing student performance, and solutions to the problem of making time to measure student progress frequently. (DB)

A variety of techniques for incorporating writing--the writing of letters, the keeping of logs, the devising of word problems--into the mathematics curriculum are discussed. The benefits from using an integrated approach are indicated. (DG)

Presents a checklist of core behaviors for use in assessing students' strengths, weaknesses, and changes in thinking skills. Lists persistence, decreased impulsivity, flexibility, metacognition, checking for accuracy, problem posing, drawing on past knowledge and experience, transfer of skills to new situations, precision of language, and…

Listening is an integral element of the curricular goals of all modern foreign language classrooms because it is: (1) a motivator and facilitator, (2) a reliable predictor of language learning success, and (3) a skill contributing to success in many endeavors in life. A variety of classroom teaching and testing procedures based on listening skills…