Defining and Using Various Assessments

Imagine attempting to pilot an aircraft through heavy fog with only a final destination in mind, but no instruments to read your current altitude or heading. You would only know if you succeeded when you either arrived safely or crashed. In the special education classroom, instruction without continuous, varied measurement is exactly like flying blind. We do not assess students simply to generate a grade or satisfy a bureaucratic requirement; we assess them to locate exactly where they are in their cognitive development and to determine precisely what micro-adjustments are necessary to move them forward. Assessment is the feedback loop that makes teaching an empirical science rather than a series of hopeful guesses.

For the special education teacher managing mild to moderate disabilities, mastering the taxonomy of assessment—knowing exactly when to use a standardized metric versus an observational checklist—is the most critical mechanism for fulfilling the promises made in an Individualized Education Program (IEP).