Validity of Curriculum-Based Scales With Young Neurodevelopmentally Disabled Children: Implications for Team Assessment

Recent surveys in early childhood special education and developmental school psychology reveal that criterion-referenced or curriculum-based developmental assessment (CBA) is the primary form of measurement employed by interdisciplinary early intervention teams. Despite their wide use, little technical adequacy data are available on the validity of CBA instruments with specific populations of handicapped preschoolers. This research analyzed the concurrent validity of two norm-based and six curriculum-based scales commonly used within community early intervention programs with a sample of 50 infants and preschool children having diverse neurodevelopmental and neurobehavioral deficits. Results supported the concur- rent validity of CBA measures despite some significant interscale differences. Based on these results, guidelines are offered regarding "best practices" in the use of CBA systems by early intervention teams.     

美国特殊教育课程本位评估及其对我国的启示

课程本位评估在分析特殊儿童的发展性能力、制定个别化教育计划的目标、监控特殊儿童进步情况、评价课程方案以及特殊儿童资格鉴定等方面发挥着重要的作用。在我国特殊教育课程改革的背景下,应该注重以课程为基础的评估方式、加强对教师的相关培训和编制出适合我国的评估工具。     

Nonsocial Play Patterns of Young Children With Communication Disorders: Implications for Behavioral Adaptation

It has been well established that young children with communication disorders (CD) have considerable difficulties interacting socially with peers in free-play settings. The central purpose of this study was to determine whether behavioral adaptations of children with CD could contribute to their peer interaction problems. To accomplish this, the behavioral patterns of reticent, solitary-passive, and solitary-active subtypes of nonsocial play of children with CD were observed in unstructured playgroup settings and compared to the nonsocial play of matched groups of typically developing children. Also examined was whether the associations with peer social interaction measures and child and family characteristics differed among the reticent, solitary-passive, and solitary-active subtypes and whether the context factors of the developmental status and familiarity of peers influenced these patterns. Results revealed that preschool children with CD do not exhibit distinct patterns of nonsocial play and provide no evidence for situation-specific (i.e., with peers) behavioral adaptations despite difficulties interacting with peers. The developmental characteristics of or familiarity with one's peers did not influence these results. Moreover, the peer social interaction patterns corresponding to each subtype, as well as child and family characteristics associated with each subtype, were also similar for both groups of children. Recommendations for preventive intervention programs to minimize future peer interaction problems emphasizing social-information and emotional regulation processes were presented.     

Disabled Children and Residential Schools: The Implications for Local Education Professionals

Jenny Morris, freelance researcher, David Abbott, research associate at the Norah Fry Research Centre at the University of Bristol, and Linda Ward, Director of the Norah Fry Research Centre at the University of Bristol, carried out research to look at whether the current system of legislation and regulation is adequately protecting and promoting the interests of disabled children placed at residential schools. This article summarises some findings from the research which investigated the decision-making processes leading to residential special school placements and explored the involvement of education and social services authorities after placements have been made. The research found that the needs of individual children are not central to these decision-making processes; and that the local authorities who make such placements do not pay sufficient attention to protecting and promoting children's educational or care needs once they have gone away to school. Jenny Morris, David Abbott and Linda Ward indicate some of the ways in which current practice could be improved; make recommendations for future developments; and call for further research into the role of special residential schools in the context of policy on educational and social inclusion.     

自闭症及相关发育障碍儿童的教育诊断——PEP量表中文修订版简介

心理教育评定量表中修订版简称（C－PEP），是一种新型的发展量表，最适用于自闭症及相关发育障碍儿童的个别化评估。作为评估工具，它能提供患儿在模仿、知觉等7项功能领域的发展信息；作为诊断工具，它能识别在情感、感觉模式和语言等领域中的病理行为及其程度。此外，从量表中获得的“中间反应”项目还可作为个别化教育计划制订的依据。它所具有的优点及在诊断与教育方面的成效已被世界所公认，相信中版PEP在未来会发挥更大的作用。     

Improving Assessment Validity for Students With Disabilities in Large-Scale Assessment Programs

A test designed with built-in modifications and covering the same grade-level mathematics content provided more precise measurement of mathematics achievement for lower performing students with disabilities. Fourth-grade students with disabilities took a test based on modified state curricular standards for their mandated statewide mathematics assessment. To link the modified test with the general test, a block of items was administered to students with and without disabilities who took the general mathematics assessment. Item difficulty and student mathematics ability parameters were estimated using item response theory (IRT) methodology. Results support the conclusion that a modified test, based on the same curricular objectives but providing a more targeted measurement of expected outcomes for lower achieving students, could be developed for this special population.     

Rater Cognition: Implications for Validity

The scoring process is critical in the validation of tests that rely on constructed responses. Documenting that readers carry out the scoring in ways consistent with the construct and measurement goals is an important aspect of score validity. In this article, rater cognition is approached as a source of support for a validity argument for scores based on constructed responses, whether such scores are to be used on their own or as the basis for other scoring processes, for example, automated scoring.     

Homeless and Disabled: Rights, Responsibilities, and Recommendations for Serving Young Children with Special Needs

Homelessness is a growing social problem in the United States. Especially vulnerable to this phenomenon are young children because homelessness is viewed as a breeding ground for disabilities. Despite federal legislation ensuring educational opportunities, the educational needs of children who are homeless are frequently unfulfilled. This article reviews the educational rights of children who are homeless, including those with disabilities, and offers recommendations and suggestions as to how early childhood programs can help meet the needs of homeless young children with disabilities and their families.

Dynamic Assessment of Young Children: Educational and Intervention Perspectives

Dynamic/interactive assessment (DA) has been motivated by the inadequacy of conventional static tests to provide accurate information about the individual's learning ability, specific deficient functions, change processes, and mediational strategies that are responsible for cognitive modifiability. A growing need for DA with young children has emerged recently because decisions about treatment should be made as early as possible. The objectives of this paper are to review the major criticism of the standardized static testing approach, present the theoretical basis of the DA approach, describe current research on DA of young children within educational and intervention perspectives, and suggest some directions for future research. The theoretical foundations of the presented research derive from Vygotsky's sociocultural theory, specifically the zone of proximal development concept, and Feuerstein's mediated learning experience theory. DA has been applied with different clinical and educational groups and was found to be more accurate in reflecting children's learning potential than static tests, especially with minority and learning disabled children. The mediational strategy is also reported as more effective than other intervention approaches (e.g., graduated prompt). The DA approach was found useful in assessing outcome effects of cognitive education programs aimed at enhancing learning how to learn skills. Crucial issues of cost-effectiveness, training, reliability and validity, and generalization are discussed.     

Predictive Validity of Curriculum-Based Measures for English Learners at Varying English Proficiency Levels

This study examined the predictive validity of curriculum-based measures in reading for Spanish-speaking English learners (ELs) at various levels of English proficiency. Third-grade Spanish-speaking EL students were screened during the fall using DIBELS Oral Reading Fluency (DORF) and Daze. Predictive validity was examined in relation to spring reading outcomes on a statewide assessment. Overall, results revealed that DORF was a stronger predictor of reading outcomes than was Daze. Although Daze was a significant predictor when examined individually, it did not explain significant additional variance beyond DORF. There was not a significant difference in the predictive validity of DORF or Daze for students of varying English proficiency levels. However, the predictive accuracy of DORF and Daze cut-scores varied by English proficiency levels. The results suggest that schools may consider minimizing assessment time by only using DORF when screening.     

High-Stakes Testing Accommodations: Validity Versus Disabled Rights

Traditionally, measurement specialists have provided testing accommodations for examinees with physical disabilities such as blindness or impaired mobility. Following passage of the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990, advocates for the disabled have argued that federal law also requires testing accommodations for mental disabilities such as dyslexia and other learning disabilities. Such requested accommodations have included readers, calculators, word processors, and additional time. But these accommodations may affect test validity, requiring measurement specialists to balance the social goal of integrating the disabled against the measurement goal of accurate test score interpretation. Although the courts have provided some guidance regarding testing accommodation requirements for the disabled, they have not yet addressed the issue of where to draw the line on accommodations for mental disabilities. This article explores the measurement problems associated with granting accommodations for mental disabilities, uses existing case law to construct a legal framework for considering such accommodations, arid discusses the advantages and-disadvantages of alternative strategies for handling testing accommodation requests.     

Mutually Responsive Orientation between Mothers and Their Young Children: Implications for Early Socialization

Parent-child mutually responsive, binding, reciprocal orientation, or a system of reciprocity has been implicated as fundamental in socialization, particularly by Maccoby, but it remains poorly understood. In this study, two posited components of such orientation, mother-child shared cooperation with each other and mother-child shared positive affect, were measured in multiple contexts of daily interactions using a combination of micro and macroscopic behavioral coding systems, subsequently aggregated. Mothers' self reports were also used. Two implications of thus conceptualized mutually responsive orientation were examined: mothers' use of power in disciplinary interactions and children's degree of internalization of maternal rules, both assessed using multiple observational and mother-reported measures. Mothers and children were studied twice, when children were 26–41 months (Time 1, N = 103), and when they were 43–56 months (Time 2, N = 99). In the dyads high on the mutually responsive orientation (particularly those who maintained such orientation throughout early childhood), mothers resorted to less power and children were more internalized regarding maternal values and rules, in the contemporaneous and longitudinal sense. Mothers high on empathic perspective taking were more likely to establish a system of reciprocity with their children. The importance of such systems for social development is discussed.     

Assessment and Accountability for Programs Serving Young Children with Disabilities

States currently are in the process of developing child and family outcome measurement systems for young children with disabilities to meet federal data reporting requirements for the Part C (Infants and Toddlers with Disabilities) and Part B Preschool Grants program supported through the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act. This article reviews issues related to the use of assessments in providing outcome data, discusses challenges raised in conducting valid assessments with young children for accountability purposes, and outlines decisions states must make related to assessment as they design and implement outcome measurement approaches. Considerations related to the standardized or curriculum-based measures are discussed along with other choices related to the use of assessment for accountability.     

Validity of the Differential Aptitude Test for the Assessment of Immigrant Children

This paper addresses the construct as well as the criterion validity of the Differential Aptitude Test (DAT) for the assessment of secondary school minority group students ( N = 111) as compared to majority group students ( N = 318) in The Netherlands. Comparison of the test dimensions with the structural equation modelling program EQS showed that construct validity was good for both groups. With one exception, the subtests of the DAT measured the cognitive abilities of minority and majority group students equally well. The estimate of g as computed with the DAT showed strong predictive validity with little bias for various school subjects and achievement tests for mathematics and Dutch. Although some criteria revealed prediction bias to the disadvantage of the minority group, these differences concerned very small changes in R 2 . Conversely, the predictive value decreased substantially when an estimate of g was used excluding subtests that measure aspects of crystallised intelligence. Spearman's hypothesis tested with DAT subtest scores and criterion scores showed that g explained most of the group differences. Professional test users can safely draw conclusions from the DAT regardless of the students' ethnicity.     

Quality of Life Outcomes for Young Children with Disabilities: Legislative and Service Delivery Implications

Improving the quality of life for people with disabilities through early intervention has been a major focus over the past 20 years. However, much of the direction of intervention has been upon quality of process rather than upon quality of outcome. If early intervention is to have a significant impact upon the lifestyles of people with disabilities, it is important that a longitudinal perspective be adopted and quality of life defined and appropriate measures developed. In this paper a longitudinal perspective on early intervention is discussed along with quality of outcome and programmatic features of quality programs.     

Quality of Life Outcomes for Young Children with Disabilities: Legislative and Service Delivery Implications

Improving the quality of life for people with disabilities through early intervention has been a major focus over the past 20 years. However, much of the direction of intervention has been upon quality of process rather than upon quality of outcome. If early intervention is to have a significant impact upon the lifestyles of people with disabilities, it is important that a longitudinal perspective be adopted and quality of life defined and appropriate measures developed. In this paper a longitudinal perspective on early intervention is discussed along with quality of outcome and programmatic features of quality programs.     

Engaged Participation: A Sociocultural Model of Motivation With Implications for Educational Assessment

This article considers issues in educational reform, particularly accountability-oriented policies, and student motivation. We argue that prominent theories of motivation derived from cognitive traits/states are antithetical to the assumptions underlying conventional assessment formats and accountability-oriented reforms. We advance an alternative perspective that emerges from sociocultural assumptions. In this perspective, the values and beliefs that motivate engagement in learning reside alongside the practices that characterize knowledge communities and, together, constitute a model of practice. We therefore explore the complex issue of reconciliation between the activities of individuals and social contexts and how "dialectical" reconciliation addresses tensions between classroom assessment and external testing, and between formative and summative functions of assessment. Data and conclusions from a program of research in science education illustrate and warrant these considerations.     

Experiences of Counselor Education Doctoral Student Mothers With Young Children

We explored the mothering experiences of 11 counselor education doctoral student mothers who have at least one young child under the age of 5. Six themes emerged from the study, including ambivalence, increased use of coping mechanisms, striving for balance, “superwoman syndrome,” indistinguishable roles, and leading by example.     

Social Responsivity: Judging Signals of Young Children With and Without Developmental Delays

This was an experimental study of the ability of adults to detect 1 social signal that is important in social interactions, children's glances or looks at their social partners. Adult judges were either parents of children with developmental delays, parents of nondelayed children, or nonparents with little experience with children. Each participant viewed 120 videotaped episodes in which very young children's looks (of 2 types, either a focus on parent's face or nonface focus) occurred or no looking occurred. Half the episodes featured children with documented developmental delays and half featured nondelayed children. Participants made judgments about the occurrence of a look in each episode and rated their confidence in each judgment. Participants made more accurate and quicker responses to social looks by children without than those with developmental delays. Accuracy effects were qualified by interactions with type of look. Participants were more confident of their judgments of looks for nondelayed toddlers than those with delays. Signal detection statistics indicated that looks of delayed toddlers were harder to identify and that judges set a more stringent criterion for responding to those looks. No effects of judges' level of experience with delayed or nondelayed children were found. Implications of these findings for social interaction involving individuals with developmental delays are discussed.     

Changing Minds With the Story of Adaptation: Strategies for Teaching Young Children About Natural Selection

Research Findings: Educational guidelines recommend a delayed, piecemeal approach to instruction on adaptation by natural selection. This approach is questionable given suggestions that older students’ pervasive misunderstandings about adaptation are rooted in cognitive biases that develop early. In response to this, Kelemen et al. (2014) recently showed that young children can learn a basic yet comprehensive explanation of adaptation by natural selection from a picture storybook intervention. However, this research was conducted in a laboratory-based setting with children from middle and higher socioeconomic backgrounds. To further explore the intervention’s efficacy, this investigation examined whether Kelemen et al.’s (2014, Experiment 2) findings extend to a more diverse sample of children tested in a more naturalistic setting, namely, after-school programs. After a 10-min picture storybook reading that described adaptation within a fictitious but realistic mammal species, 5- to 6- and 7- to 8-year-old children’s learning of adaptation was examined. Results revealed that younger and older children benefitted from the intervention; however, older children displayed pronounced learning and generalization. Practice or Policy: Findings confirm that children are capable of learning complex biological ideas and that comprehensive storybook interventions are simple but powerful teaching tools. Implications for instruction on natural selection are discussed.