The paper describes principles and procedures of naturalistic assessment as practiced in the Schaumberg Early Education Center (SEEC), a preschool setting for handicapped children. It is explained that a multidisciplinary team observes and interacts with students in an environment that encourages play and spontaneity. The SEEC screening procedure…

Presented is a checklist developed by the Austin Early Childhood Special Education Program to help teachers evaluate children's classroom behavior and coping skills. It is explained that results of the checklist should provide information on such factors as possible underlying problems experienced by a student, situations in which a student…

The APMI (Assessment, Placement, and Monitoring Index) is a non-categorical placement procedure designed to facilitate objective assessment, placement, and monitoring of exceptional children (ages 4 and up). The purpose of the APMI is to offer an "alternative" model for determining "severity" that (1) describes the needs of the…

Based on the experiences of the Neshaminy School District (Pennsylvania) in developing and providing inservice training for regular and special education teachers involved with mainstreaming gifted and handicapped children, the manual presents a general guide for setting up and providing specific materials and activities for mainstreaming…

Assessment of the adaptive behavior of public school children being considered for placement in the special education programs for the mentally handicapped in the Corpus Christi (Texas) Independent School District (CCISD) is discussed. Formal and informal assessment procedures are used, with a team of two associate school psychologists having the…

Educators are more interested in instruction and learning than in testing per se. If evaluation, the process of gathering information for instructional improvement, could be accomplished without the quantitative, formal processes of measurement and testing, there would be no need for them. Unfortunately, informal processes are more inefficient,…

The guide provides information on procedures used in the Portage Model, an early home intervention program for rural preschool children with all types of handicapping conditions as well as children functioning within the normal range. Following an introduction (which presents the rationale for parent involvement, rationale for home based programs,…

The purpose of this study was to determine the incidence of behavior disordered children in selected elementary classrooms as perceived by the regular classroom teacher. Two hundred four elementary teachers categorized students according to their perceptions of the students' needs for special services. The categories were defined as mild,…

Described is a cooperative preschool program for 20 handicapped children on a rural Michigan setting. It is explained that the program involved screening procedures in a naturalistic environment, weekly parent training sessions, and diagnostic prescriptive teaching. Included in three appendixes are examples of news releases about the program,…

Presented for classroom teachers and parents is an overview of information on learning disabilities. Covered are the following topics (with subtopics in parenthesis): defining the problem (causes, incidence, characteristics); assessment (physical assessment, intellectual potential, academic achievement, channels of learning); and informal…

A nationwide survey of preschool programs (N=178) serving handicapped children revealed that approximately half had formal written exit criteria, the most common of which was chronological age. Other factors included formal test results, team staffing decisions, and the child's developmental skill level. Formal written exit criteria differed…

Maintains that decisions regarding evaluation should be made in relationship to learning principles based on a developmental perspective. Using these principles as a basis, teachers are better able to select appropriate formal and informal evaluation procedures. Each procedure is defined and its limitations are discussed in terms of effectiveness.…

Public school speech-language clinicians (n=266) in California were surveyed regarding methods for assessing the language of children ages 4-9. Results are discussed in terms of formal and informal expressive and receptive language assessment and ways in which new assessment tools are identified and incorporated. (Author/JDD)

Examines differences between tests and assessments, two incompatible models of education. Performance assessments make different demands on students than tests, with active application of knowledge and skill to problems. Assessment systems develop students' intellectual, social, and emotional abilities. They require a change in purpose and…

Oral paraphrase is presented as an informal and versatile strategy for assessing and enhancing listening comprehension in mainstreamed students with language/learning disabilities. Approaches to assessing the listening comprehension demands of individual classrooms and using various dimensions of paraphrasing to enhance language comprehension and…