Assessment is still important-even with RTI

Posted by Beth DuBose on Oct 07, 2008

While standardized assessment may not be needed to determine eligibility for special education programs diagnosis of learning disabilities, it can still provide educators with important information for students’ programs, even with the RTI model of eligibility. .

Ann Logsdon gave a great description on how assessments can tell us about how students learn:

First, intelligence testing provides important details on how students process information and how they learn. This information can be used by regular and special education teachers to develop specially designed instruction that truly taps their strengths and encourages skill development in their areas of weakness.

Second, standardized achievement testing can offer a larger view of how the student is learning as compared to others his age across the nation. This serves as critical guidance to ensure students make ongoing progress and move toward their long-term educational and career goals. Achievement testing can also provide diagnostic information that enables teachers to identify specific areas of strength and weakness. This helps teachers refine instructional processes. 

Standardized assessments can provide us with a baseline for each of our students so we can make sure that each and every one of our students moves forward. Without this baseline, we do not know where our students stand, and how we will need to modify instruction to ensure the students make progress. Districts are using numerous universal screening methods to determine where their students are struggling. Progress monitoring methods are determining whether or not students are making gains and if interventions are working. These assessments are crucial to the Response to Intervention process. Because we are moving away from a discrepancy model does not mean that assessments are not important in providing us with important insight into how our students learn. We should not dismiss assessments; we just need to use them as tool in providing information instead of providing a determination of eligibility.