Student Evaluation and Testing

In this week's reading, we read about evaluating students with special needs. Personally, I have never been a great test taker. At times I can do well on tests, but at times I can know the material but still do horrible on a test. Because of this, I have never been a huge fan of grades and grades determining our knowledge and how "smart" we are or how much we know. I feel that especially for kids with special needs, it is good to evaluate them in different ways than just giving them a test and then a letter grade. That does not reflect what they know at all. Some get anxiety when taking tests and can't remember what they spent hours studying. However, I do recognize that it also takes effort and hard work to get those good grades, and those who don't put in the work (which was me some of the time) won't receive as good of a grade. 

Some things that it talked about was preparing the students well prior to the test by giving them study guides and tools to study and remember what they have learned. Then during the test, giving them time and materials to help them be successful. There are also many different types of tests that we can give them that will accurately reflect their accomplishments and what they have learned. For example there are hands on assessments, portfolio assessments, and a few more. Then after the test it is good to figure out how to grade them. I feel like it's good praise them on their accomplishments and let them know their competence rather than just a letter grade. Especially for young students with disabilities, the letter grade may not be helpful at all because they don't know what that means. It may confuse parents as well.

Therefore, it is important that we accommodate each student individually and assess/grade them accordingly. It is legal to change grading and tests if the student has a disability and an IEP requirement that they are set to meet.