Assessment of At-Risk and Special Needs Children

This text is ideal for upper level students in Special Education, School Psychology, and School Counseling. The text provides a comprehensive examination of testing and the assessment process for evaluation of children ages three through eighteen. The text is based on the assumption that when a child is referred for assessment, the goal is to solve the child’s problem by developing appropriate academic or social interventions. The emphasis throughout is on functional assessment (i.e., assessment to help the child function better), not merely to classify; the focus is on what the child is expected to do (e.g., read, spell, etc.) versus what the child has (e.g., a learning disability). Goals are to describe how assessment data can be obtained and used by individuals engaged in the problem-solving process within educational settings and to integrate the assessment process typically used in schools with test instruments. Application has also been stressed through the frequent discussion of actual case-studies, examples, and special sections that show ‘real’ people dealing with ‘real’ problems. The revision has an expanded breadth of coverage so that age ranges and spectrum of disabilities are more thoroughly covered. The new, additional coverage of portfolio, performance and authentic assessment as related to children with exceptionalities gives students the specialized knowledge they need to use the best assessment tools in their own classrooms. The second edition features improved pedagogy to help students: new glossary of terms, boldfaced terms, more figures/graphics to enhance concepts, and an appendix listing major tests and publishers.

Stephen N. Elliott received his doctorate at Arizona State University in 1980 and is currently a Professor of Educational Psychology and a Senior Research Associate in the Wisconsin Center for Education Research at the University of Wisconsin, Madison. He is a faculty member in the School Psychology Program and teaches courses in Professional Issues and Practices, Educational Psychology, and Research Methods and Technical Writing. He currently co-directs two federal grants concerning the effectiveness and the use of testing accommodations and performance assessments with students with disabilities. He is a productive scholar authoring over 85 journal articles, 14 books and 2 widely used behavior rating scales. His work has focused on the assessment of children’s social skills and related problem behaviors and the development of alternative assessment methods for evaluating academic performance. He also has a program of research focusing on the design and evaluation of school-based interventions.