Educational Evalua-tionOn Student M

Melissa Swan2/5/2013

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A. Student Data

1. Maria

2. March 23, 2004

3. 9 years old

4. Current Placement: General Education 3rd grade classroom, 23 students, age range of

classmates is 8-10, students without exceptionalities is 12, students in special educa-

tion program is 5 but one more student is being identified, students in ALPHA (gifted

program) is 6. The general education teacher is primarily the one teaching. A teacher

Aid (Teachers Aid, T.A. ) is in the classroom to help them get organized and is in and

out throughout day to help out. The Special Ed teacher is in the classroom for 60 min

during ELA. ALPHA(Gifted Ed) Program 1x week for 50 min.

5. Dates of Evaluation:

a. Torrance Tests of Creative Thinking: January 28, 2013

b. Key Math-3 Diagnostic Assessment: January 31, 3013

c. Informal assessments: January 31-Februray 7th various times

B. Referral Information

1. The student has been evaluated as gifted. She is smart and does well in all subjects in

school. She does just enough in ELA to get complete the work that is asked of her.

The teacher would like to see her expand on her thinking and writing.

2. She has been formally identified through the school as being gifted. She sees the AL-

PHA teacher once a week for 50 min.

C. Background Information

1. Family History.

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a. Family composition: Maria’s parents are married and live together. She has

one younger brother who is 4 years old. The father installs pools The father

installs pools and mother is a stay at home mom.

b. Cultural and language background: Maria’s dominant language is English and

does not speak any other language. Her cultural background is primarily Ital-

ian.

c. Family history of exceptionality: There is no known family history of excep-

tionality.

d. Medical background: Maria did have to go to speech when she was in Kinder-

garten. Her speech has improved so she does not require speech anymore.

There is nothing else in her medical history that would affect Maria’s learning.

Maria has been a healthy child.

2. Peer relationships: Maria has many friends in her class. She is social and attempts to

make friends. She is involved in community dance classes. She is not involved in

any school-oriented clubs.

3. Educational History:

a. Attendance record:

Maria has attended a suburban elementary since Kindergarten. She has lived

in the suburbs since she was born. She misses school on average of three days

a year. There is no attendance problem with Maria.

b. Achievement:

Maria is a student to whom school comes easily too. She is smart and under-

stands most things that are presented to her. Her report cards show that she

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has high grades in all her classes and all her subjects. When she is given direc-

tions she starts working and stays on task. She was formally assessed as gifted

using the scientific research of Dr. Joseph Rezulli and the “Three Ring

Model” of Above Average Ability, Creativity and Task Commitment. She was

observed by her classroom teacher as having excellent Task Commitment. Her

intelligence was assessed with TSS Slosson exam and scored at 112, approxi-

mately 115 or higher are considered above average. Her creativity was as-

sessed with the Creativity Assessment Packet where she scored a 75, about 65

is considered average. She is in the ALPHA program once a week for 50 min-

utes, as part of the school’s gifted program.

c. There are no social-emotional factors that are of concern. She is an even-tem-

pered child who deals with her emotions well. She asks an adult if she needs

help with something. She has a positive outlook on life. Her attention level is

above her peers. She adapts well to new situations. She does not need every-

thing to be perfect but she does try her best and does everything that she is

asked.

4. Student Observations and Interview

a. Student Observations:

Maria was observed January 17, 2013 for approximately one hour and twenty min-

utes. One hour was spent in structured classroom room settings and one unstructured

recess setting. In the regular classroom a math lesson was observed. An adapted ob-

servation questionnaire and checklist was used from Spinelli. The group climate was

whole group lesson. The seating arrangements were in rows of fours. Maria sits next

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to two girls and a boy. The lesson being taught was math shapes and 3-D objects. The

teacher first modeled with manipulatives to demonstrate their shapes. She followed

along with what the teacher was saying, and stayed on task. She only needed to be

told once of directions and did her work without help from students or teacher. She

finished before most students. Maria is always prepared, arrives to class on time and

does all her work.

The second setting was 20 minutes of unstructured recess. She socialized with her

friends playing and sharing the stuffed puppy she brought in for share and tell. She

acted appropriately with her peers and followed classroom rules.

Maria is respectful and follows directions. She is a hard working student who

demonstrates positive and productive character traits.

b. Student interview:

Maria says her best subject is math, doing multiplication and division. She

struggles with ELA because it is hard for her to think of new ideas. She is able

to stay focused in class and does not have trouble concentrating in any sub-

jects. She likes to volunteer in class. She dances at Dance Connection outside

of school. She does hip-hop, jazz, tap and ballet. Maria believes she learns

best by reading. She enjoys dancing, swimming and biking. She likes to learn

about horses. One day she hopes to become a vet, a dance teacher or an ele-

mentary teacher.

5. Analysis of Student Work Samples.

a. Writing Sample

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This writing sample is about setting New Year’s Resolution. Maria was able

to write complete sentences. She did not spell flexibility correctly and missed

a comma. She was able to write a complete paragraph with few mistakes.

Maria’s writing ability is above her peers. She is able to write a paragraph

with few mechanical errors.

b. Paragraph

The students read the book “Nasreen’s Secret School: A True Story from

Afghanistan” and then were asked to write a paragraph about it. The students

then had time to plan what they wanted to write. Maria was able to write

complete sentences well and had few mechanical errors. Her ideas made sense

but were a little out of order. Her word choice did have some variety but was

not correctly placed at times, such as “First, However”. Overall Maria did a

great job writing her paper.

6. Teacher Interview:

a. The teacher says Maria is a smart and gifted student. She does well in all her

subjects. Maria is an excellent student to have in class; she is a respectful, re-

sponsible and a helpful student. Her strengths are her ability to stay focused,

her intrinsic motivation, above average study skills, writes well and above her

peers in math. She has trouble with expanding her thoughts when she writes.

She writes what she needs to pass the assignment but can give more. She

works well by herself or with others. Maria is organized and has a lot family

support.

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7. Testing Needs:

Maria should be tested in academic areas of math and reading/writing. She does well

in math but should be assessed to see how she compares to her peers. Her reading/

writing should be tested to see how she writes compared to her peers and how to im-

prove on it. Her creativity should also be tested to see how creative she is since she

likes to draw.

8. Assessment Plan:

a. Formal Assessments:

i. Torrance Tests of Creative Thinking:

This assessment will measure Maria’s creative thinking. TTCT has

lines and shapes where the student is asked to add to it and come up

with a title. She will be assess Maria’s creativity by fluency, original-

ity, abstractive of titles and elaboration. The predictive validity of this

assessment was found with a.51 correlation of students who took this

in high school to their adult creative achievements twelve years later.

This is not a high correlation, but creativity is difficult to measure.

There are two forms to this assessment so results can be reliably com-

pared so this assessment has reliability: Alternate/Parallel forms. The

construct of this assessment is kept valid by giving the students a time

limit to work and having a script of what is to be said. The criterion of

this assessment is valid because it assesses different aspects of creativ-

ity such as: fluency, flexibility, originality and elaboration. This as-

sessment can be tested on students from K- graduate school, depend-

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ing on the testing situations. The younger students should be tested by

themselves but older students can be tested as a group. When giving

the assessment, it is important to follow this rule and make sure you

follow the script. This assessment was found to be adequate and valid.

ii. Key Math 3 Diagnostic Assessment:

Maria excels in math. This assessment will determine her present level

of performance. KeyMath-3 is a comprehensive, individually adminis-

tered measure of essential mathematical concepts and skills (Connolly,

2007). It includes 10 subtests that represent three general areas: Basic

Concepts, Operations, and Applications. The reliability of this assess-

ment was drawn from alternate form and split-half reliabilities, which

was found to have an average coefficient of .90 which is a strong cor-

relation therefore very reliable. Test-Retest Reliability study was con-

ducted with 103 examinees with about half taking Form A and the

other taking Form B; the reliability of the Total Test score was found

to be .97. The validity was measured using content and construct va-

lidity of correlation of .80 to other Math assessments. There are two

forms of this assessment they are matched statistically and by content.

The basal set is the three consecutive correct responses immediately

preceding the first incorrect response, and the basal item is the lowest

numbered item in the basal set. The ceiling set is four consecutive in-

correct responses, and the ceiling item is the highest numbered item in

the ceiling set. Key Math is reliable and valid assessment.

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b. Informal Assessments:

i. Math Curriculum-Based Exam: This will be an exam that will measure

what she knows of the 3rd grade math curriculum. The questions being

asked on the exam were pulled from her math textbook. Maria is does

well in math, this assessment will show what she knows from the cur-

riculum she has been taught so far this year, some questions were

above grade level to see if she can answer them correctly.

ii. Writing Sample: The student will be asked to write a paragraph about

what she thinks of school. She will be graded on a rubric of 1-4, 1

needs work to 4 very strong on: organization, voice, word choice, sen-

tence fluency, conventions and presentation/expansion. The teacher,

Mrs. Amoia, uses this rubric so the student has seen and knows what is

being asked of her. This assessment will demonstrate the student’s

writing abilities. The teacher would like to see her expand her writing,

and this assessment will help show where her writing is and what she

needs to improve on.

c. Process used in selecting informal assessment:

i. The Curriculum Based Assessment will assess what she knows from

the curriculum she has been taught from. Some of the questions were

above her grade level to see if she could answer them correctly. Her

textbook was used to create the exam.

ii. Maria’s writing skills such as: organization, voice, word choice, sen-

tence fluency, conventions and presentation/expansion will be as-

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sessed. The rubric is one the teacher uses the student has seen it before.

The student is at school most of her day and week, so school will be

something easy to discus and talk about.

d. Testing Sessions: listed in order planed to be assessed.

1. Torrance Tests of Creative Thinking: A half an hour will be

planned in a quiet, well-lit room with just the student.

2. Key Math-3 Diagnostic Assessment: Forty minutes will be

planned in a quiet, well-lit room with just the student.

3. Math Exam: A half an hour will be planned, in a quiet place

where the student will not be disturbed.

4. Writing Sample: A half an hour will be planned, in a quiet

place where the student will not be disturbed.

II. Part two

A. Test Behavior and Results

1. Test Behavior & Results:

a. Attentiveness: The student was attentive and not easily distracted. She was excited

to begin the assessments. The length of test sessions was done well, she did not

become impatient.

b. Degree of cooperation: The student was willing to work and do her best. She

started to show frustration when questions started to get harder. The student fol-

lowed directions quickly.

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c. Quality of rapport developed with examiner: The rapport established between the

student and examiner is very high. The student shows excitement when working

with examiner.

d. Factors that might lower student’s scores: None

2. Results of Individual Assessments, organized by domain/subject area.

a. Formal assessments

1. KeyMath-3 Diagnostic Assessment

i. Score: KeyMath-3 Diagnostic Assessment is a comprehensive assessment of a stu-

dent’s understanding and application of important mathematic concepts and skills.

The test was administered February 5th, 2013. Maria’s overall performance on the

Keymath Basic Concepts area suggests that she is functioning on average range of

ability. In the Basic Concepts area, Maria achieved a standard score of 100 and a

percentile rank of 50. She scored at the same level as 50% of her peers.

ii. Item Analysis: In the areas of geometry, algebra and data analysis the student

demonstrates above average ability. Strength is apparent in measurement. A less

than average weakness is evident in numeration such as: which two numbers

round to 80, how many 10’s in 130, 2 hundreds + 3 tens + 16 ones and 3 stacks to

make 9 cubes.

iii.Estimated Accuracy of Results: The test results should be considered an accurate

estimate of the student’s abilities, the student tried her best, showed confidence,

paid attention and showed good conscientiousness. The ceiling was found in each

section of the assessment. The assessment was found reliable and valid.

iv.Score sheet attached in Appendix

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2. Torrance Tests of Creative Thinking

i. Torrance Tests of Creative thinking was used to assess Maria in the area of creativ-

ity in the areas of fluency, originality, abstractness of titles, elaboration and resistance

to premature closure. Maria’s overall performance on the Torrance Tests suggests that

she is not always as creative as her peers but she shows high originality. Her overall

creativity index she achieved a standard score of 85, and a national percentile rank of

17.

ii. Item Analysis: In the fluency area, Maria achieved a standard score of 141 and a

percentile rank of 97. In the originality area, Maria achieved a standard score of 150

and a percentile rank of 99. These are her strengths; she scored 97 and 99% more than

her peers. In the abstractness of titles area, Maria achieved a standard score of 73 and

a percentile rank of 13. In the area of elaboration, Maria achieved a standard score of

61 and a percentile rank of 5. In the area of resistance to premature closure, Maria did

not receive points. Maria’s creative weakness is in elaboration and abstractness which

also shows true in her writing.

iii. Estimated Accuracy of Results: The test results should be considered an accurate

estimate of the student’s abilities. The student showed excitement, and tried her best.

The test was found reliable and valid.

iv.Score sheet attached in Appendix

b. Informal assessments

1. Curriculum-based math assessment:

i. Results: The student was assessed on items from the curriculum she has

been taught and some questions being more advanced. The student re-

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ceived an 85% with 17 out of 20 questions correct. The student is at above

grade-level expectations. She is performing just above her peers.

ii. Analyzes of responses: She forgot to answer one of the questions, which

was not counted against her score. The student is able to solve math sub-

traction, multiplication and division equations. She was able to round and

complete numerical patterns. She knew her math figures and was able to

tell how many faces the math figures have. The student shows that she un-

derstands the 3rd grade curriculum questions. She could not remember in-

tersecting lines, which was newer material. Maria was not able to write the

numbers in expanded form correctly.

iii.Attached is the graded assessment

2. Writing Paragraph

i. The writing sample was assessed in the areas of organization, voice, word

choice, sentence fluency/elaboration, conventions and presentation. The

student was asked to write a paragraph about school. She achieved a score

of 89%. The student’s writing is just above her peers but she can still use

improvements

ii. The student demonstrates many different ideas, shows strong transitions,

and has strong purpose, strong sentence fluency and overall nice presenta-

tion. The student needs to improve her word choice for example she wrote

“I mean fun by like music, art and stuff like that.” The student could write

more and expanding her thinking but she writes enough to answer the

question.

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iii.Attached is the writing sample and rubric used to assess her writing.

D. Evaluation Summary:

1. Summary Statement: Maria is a bright student who works hard and does her best. The

student has a lot of family support to make sure she excels in all her subjects in school.

She shows strengths in math above her peers. She was recommended to improve her

elaboration in writing. In both her writing sample and the Torrance Creativity Test show

she struggles with elaboration. She demonstrates strengths in creativity in originality.

2. Instructional levels, strengths/needs, instructional implications

a. Student’s Instructional Level

i. Writing: She writes at an advanced 3rd grade level. She is performing

above her grade level peers.

ii. Mathematics: Math is one of Maria’s strengths. She is performing at 3.8

grade level. She is above her peers.

b. Specific Strengths and Needs

i. Writing: Maria shows a higher writing ability than her peers. She demon-

strates strong ability of forming ideas, organization, voice, fluency and pre-

sentation. She is able to introduce a paragraph through a topic sentence and

support the topic sentence in a paragraph. The student shows weakness and

word choice and expanding her thinking. She needs to work on her revision

skills and reading her work aloud to herself to help her with her word choice

and elaboration.

ii. Mathematics: Math is one of Maria’s strengths. She shows great strengths in

geometry, measurement, algebra and data analysis and probability. She

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demonstrates some weakness in expanded form and perpendicular lines. She

had difficulty with the newer material as she did not practice the concepts

enough yet.

c. Instructional implications:

The main focus for Maria is to make sure she does not become bored as she is

above her peers in writing and math. Her writing ability is above her peers but can

improve. She struggles with expanding on her ideas. Providing research-based in-

struction strategies can benefit her tremendously. It is important to continue to

monitor her progress so she can continue to improve. In math her grades should

be tracked to make sure she is not doing so well that she does not become bored

and not wanting to work.

E. Recommendations:

1. Recommended Supports

a. Modifications: It is recommended the student read more advanced level books.

She should be asked more involved questions to make her think more in-depth, to

enrich her thinking. It is recommended she reread her work for mistakes or incor-

rect wording, to help her improve her writing. Maria’s math scores should be

tracked to make sure she does not become bored.

b. Additional Testing Needs: none

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c. Supports for Staff: The student receives a lot of support in the classroom and out

of the classroom.

d. Other recommendations: none

2. Suggested Instructional Goals:

a. Given a writing assignment the student will achieve a score of 4 out of 4 in word

choice in four out of five trials.

i. Rationale: It is important that the student is challenged and improve her writing

skills. The student is able to get her ideas across but should work toward improving

her word choice to better allow her readers to understand.

b. Given a persuasive writing prompt the student will be able to write 6-7 persuasive

details, two out of three trials.

i. Rationale: Writing persuasively asks students to work at higher-level thinking skills

and will increase attention to audience (Burkhalter, 1995). The student would benefit

writing persuasively to help improve her higher-level thinking and her descriptive

language. Asking the student to give 6-7 details will help the student to expand her

ideas.

c. Given a 4th grade creative writing assignment, the student will be able to write a re-

sponse using descriptive language with 4 or fewer grammatical errors.

3. Research-based Instructional Strategies:

i. Persuasive writing

a. It is recommended the student write persuasive pieces to help the student achieve

higher-level thinking and increase her attention to audience (Burkhalter, 1995). To

do this: first, the students are shown what a persuasive piece is and looks like. Then,

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the students are to develop arguments and anticipate a readers’ objections, list oppos-

ing viewpoints. They are then motivated to write the persuasive piece, knowing their

letters will actually be sent to principal or newspaper. They then need to support

their viewpoint with evidence.

b. The student is above her peers in writing and can use more challenging writing

concepts to enrich her writing experience. The student needing to support her view-

point with details will help her to elaborate and give reasoning to her thinking.

ii. DISCOVER Curriculum Model

a. It is recommended the teacher use a DISCOVER model for some lessons. This

model develops learning units based on abstract themes such as systems, relation-

ships, patterns or invention (Muammar, Serino, Ching, Mohamed, Sak, 2006). It is

based on constructivist thinking, actively building new knowledge based on prior

experience to help students acquire higher order thinking and problem solving

skills. The students will be active participants rather than passive observers in

their education.

b. Basing some instruction off this model will help the student become more active

in her education. The students will be asked questions and need to use prior

knowledge to answer the question. Maria is an intelligent student who needs to be

encouraged to question and think of new concepts.

iii.Reading Enrichment:

a. The students read and do projects based off their own reading level. The stu-

dents are asked higher order themes and asked critical questions focusing on

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synthesis, evaluation, and discussion at their own reading level (Sally and Gara,

2007).

b. The student would benefit from reading at a higher reading level. She can learn

high-quality writing, vocabulary and improve her writing skills.

References:

Burkhalter, N. (1995). A vygotsky-based curriculum for teaching persuasive writing in the

elementary grades. Language Arts, 72(3), 192-192.

C, J. M., Muammar, O., Serino, L., Ching, C. K., Mohamed, A., & Sak, U. (2006). The DIS-

COVER curriculum model: Nurturing and enhancing creativity in all children. KEDI Jour-

nal of Educational Policy, 3(2)

Connolly, A. (2007). Keymath3. Minneapolis, MN: NCS Person.

Sally, M. R., & Gara, B. F. (2007). Exploring the new literacies using two new approaches: The

schoolwide enrichment model in reading and renzulli learning. New England Reading

Association Journal, 43(1), 30-35,90-91.

1

1 Student Project Disclaimer: Readers of this report are asked to interpret the results and recommenda-tions with the understanding that it has been developed as a project for graduate-level assessment course. Although the author is a certified teacher in an advanced academic program, the contents may be limited by the as-yet-developing expertise of the author, time limitations of the course, etc.