Exceptionalities Assessment: Methods, Tools, and Situational Analysis

This report delves into the assessment of students with exceptionalities, outlining various methods and tools used in the evaluation process. It begins by defining assessment and its importance in determining student progress, strengths, and weaknesses. The report then explores several assessment tools, including the Wechsler Individual Achievement Test (WIAT), Kaufman Assessment Battery, Gray Oral Reading Tests (GORT), and Test of Written Language (TOWL). The core of the report involves applying these tools to specific situations, such as students struggling with information retention, reading fluency, and writing skills. The report suggests which tools are most appropriate for each scenario and provides guidance on how to interpret the results to enhance student performance. The conclusion emphasizes the overlapping nature of these methods and the importance of using assessment findings to develop tailored interventions and support student success.

Running head: ASSESSMENT OF EXCEPTIONALITIES
Assessment of Exceptionalities
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author Note

1ASSESSMENT OF EXCEPTIONALITIES
Introduction
Assessment of students who are pursuing their educational career at an educational
institution refers to an empirical process involving the collection of the data and reports with
regard to the performance of the students and thereby determining whether the student is either
progressing or deteriorating (Suskie 2018). In simple words, assessment refers to the task of
arriving at conclusions about the performance of a student which shall be quantifiable and
measureable. The basic reasons behind conducting an assessment are aimed at determining the
level of progress of a student. Assessment enables the school authorities, the teachers, the
parents, to get an idea of the strength and weaknesses of the students, alongside the interest areas
which fascinate the student (Attali & Arieli-Attali 2015). Assessment also enables the school
authorities, the teachers, the parents of the student to take adequate steps to help the student
strengthen and equip the student with the necessary skills and guidance for the sake of
performance enhancement (Mislevy et al. 2017). With regard to performance, the reading,
writing, linguistic, comprehension, grammar, physical fitness and mathematical skills of the
students are taken up for consideration, on a general basis. These have been agreed upon as the
standard benchmarks for assessing the overall. Assessment is however not an adequate method to
determine the capability of the students, especially when it seeks only to judge how much right
or wrong the student is (Bruhn et al. 2016). It is not an astonishing factor that some students do
not fit into the mainstream system of education hence their assessment cannot be ideally done
with the generic system.

2ASSESSMENT OF EXCEPTIONALITIES
Tools of Assessment
In this particular section some standard methods employed in the assessment of students
shall be discussed.
The Wechsler Individual Achievement Test (WIAT) is quite similar to the Intelligence
Quotient Test. The test has been designed to be applicable for both children and adults, and can
be used to assess the intelligence of people falling between the age bracket of four to eighty five.
The test is applied on school students to determine their respective strengths and weakness. It can
be administered individually for assessing the verbal, written and mathematical skills of school
students. Apart from that, the method is also used in private clinics and residential treatment
facilities to assess the development of the patients (Klingner, Vaughn & Boardman 2015).
Kaufman Assessment Battery is used to diagnose the psychological state of the children
to determine the cognitive development. This particular tool of assessment uses both
psychological and statistical readings in order to determine the results which account for its
scientificality, and thereby contributes to its accuracy. The functional aspect of this particular
method is same as that of the Wechsler Individual Achievement Test method, which is for
assessing the verbal, written and mathematical skills of school students (Kaufman 2018).
The Gray Oral Reading Tests (GORT) is one of the most widely used assessment tools
used in the United States of America for determining the verbal fluency and the comprehension
skills of the students. This particular model of assessment is made up of a series of tests, sixteen
of which are concerned about testing the reading skills, and five are concerned about
comprehension skill testing (Beck et al. 2015).

3ASSESSMENT OF EXCEPTIONALITIES
The Test of Written Language (TOWL) is a diagnostic assessment tool which seeks to
identify the particular problems which a student faces with regard to the expressive faculty in
terms of composition skills. It is also quite beneficial in segregating the good writers from the
poor ones. This particular method might seem quite similar to the Gray Oral Reading Tests
method, with regard to assessing the comprehension skills of students, but it is different in the
sense that Test of Written Language is concerned about the writing skills more (Dockrell et al.
2015).
Having provided an overview of certain chosen tools of assessment, the discussion shall
be proceeding to assess its applicability in the situations provided.
Situation 1
This particular situation demands that Wechsler Individual Achievement Test and the
Kaufman Assessment Battery be employed to diagnose the situation of the student who is
suffering from the problem of retaining the information and even grasping the required materials.
The WIAT shall be helpful in finding the respective strengths and weaknesses of the student
which is needed to find the necessary solution to help the student to overcome the weakness and
work more of the strong areas. The Kaufman Assessment Battery must be implemented to find
out the reason behind the cognitive disorder of the students and thereby reach at the reason
behind the poor performance of the student. With proper counselling and specialized pedagogic
techniques which are care oriented, the student’s performance can be enhanced. Precautions must
be taken to ensure that the student is not made to do something undesirable and that causes the
student to lose interest in the things which he or she likes.

4ASSESSMENT OF EXCEPTIONALITIES
Situation 2
For this particular situation, firstly the Gray Oral Reading Tests must be conducted to
assess the level of difficulty faced by the student. On the basis of the readings derived from the
test, the student must be made to undergo practice reading sessions whereby the texts shall be
highlighted, and goals shall be set. It is very necessary that the personal touch does not goes
missing.
Situation 3
The most worthy alternative to Wechsler Individual Achievement Test is the application
of the Kaufman Assessment Battery. The aims of both the methods are the same, and the
Kaufman Assessment Battery by virtue of the fact that it includes both scientific and
psychological parameters to make a situational analysis of the student and reach at some
conclusion to find out a necessary solution for improving the verbal, written and mathematical
skills of the student.
Situation 4
For this particular student both the GORT and the TOWL test must be conducted to
diagnose the actual problem which the student is facing. Thereby, the necessary solution shall be
to counsel the child to perform better. A little personal touch in tutoring the student shall be quite
beneficial in enhancing the learning skills, which shall bring about positive results from the
assessment.
Conclusion
It is quite evident that the methods mentioned do overlap with each other and the
advantage that lies in it is that of substitution of one method by the other in case it is difficult to

5ASSESSMENT OF EXCEPTIONALITIES
resort to one method. These methods are only for the sake of diagnosing the problem of the
student, and not solutions, hence the adequate steps must be taken on the basis of the readings to
eradicate the problems of the student.

6ASSESSMENT OF EXCEPTIONALITIES
References
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performance?. Computers & Education, 83, 57-63.
Beck, S. W., Llosa, L., Black, K., & Trzeszkowski‐Giese, A. (2015). Beyond the Rubric.
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Bruhn, A. L., Kaldenberg, E., Tan Bappe, K., Brandsmeier, B., Rila, A., Lanphier, L., ... &
Slater, A. (2016). Examining the effects of functional assessment-based interventions
with high school students. Preventing School Failure: Alternative Education for
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Dockrell, J. E., Connelly, V., Walter, K., & Critten, S. (2015). Assessing children's writing
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centered assessment design. In Assessing Model-Based Reasoning using Evidence-
Centered Design (pp. 19-24). Springer, Cham.
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