Class Notes

ES SPED 5743, Educational Assessment of Students with Mild/Moderate Disabilities  

Instructor: Associate Professor Moira Konrad

Editor’s note: Class Notes takes readers inside the classroom to see what students are learning in Education and Human Ecology.  

Special education can be a challenging field; at times, teachers may struggle to see what Associate Professor Moira Konrad describes as “the fruits of (their) labor.”

“Teaching students with disabilities is challenging work,” Konrad explains, “and sometimes students won’t respond to instruction quickly or they may respond in unexpected ways... or they may be making very small gains that are hard to detect.”

Without understanding where students are, there is no way to tangibly determine what support they need, how to approach their learning and what progress they are making. This, Konrad explains, is why understanding effective assessment and data collection skills is a powerful asset for teachers working with students who have disabilities.

“The good news is if teachers are monitoring student progress frequently with valid, reliable and sensitive assessment methods, they get the information they need to help students get and stay on track,” Konrad says. “They can see tiny changes and reinforce those improvements. When they don't see growth, they can make changes to their instruction quickly, so they don't lose too much valuable instructional time.”

During an evening class, around 20 pre-service special education teachers gather for ES SPED 5743, a special education course taught by Konrad in a hybrid format. Students meet in person once a week; the remainder of coursework is delivered through online modules.

Konrad begins class with a review question: “How does curriculum-based measurement fit into our ‘Big Ideas’ for this course?” 

The question is met with silence and stares.  Konrad moves to guide her students through misunderstandings and turns this question into an opportunity for a class discussion.

“What does it mean when an assessment has predictive validity?”  

The students murmur ideas to one another, but no one speaks up.

“What is validity?” Konrad says, prompting them. 

Konrad’s questions eventually lead to an understanding from her students. Things begin to click, and together, the class decides on an answer. The students are interested in how to apply what they are learning within their teaching. 

After the week’s review, Konrad exclaims with spirit that it is time for SAFMEDS: Say All Fast, a Minute Every Day, Shuffled. 

The room radiates anxiousness and confidence all at once as students pull out stacks of handwritten notecards. Each displays an assessment term on one side and a definition on the other.  

Validity. ETR. Task analysis.

“Let’s do a 7:3 ratio!” declares Konrad. 

Each student shuffles a hefty stack of 60 notecards and selects seven they know well and can recite quickly, and three that don’t come as easily.

The activity begins with a 10-second sprint as students shuffle their 10 cards and go through them quickly.  Most students only make it through two or three cards; one makes it through seven. During the second sprint, the goal is to get one more term correct.

The average for the round is five. Progress. By the fourth sprint, most students get nine or 10 terms correct. 

The students track their progress on a data sheet and graph. As one writes her score on the data sheet, she remarks happily, “Still not great… but last time I got half of what I got this time.”

Meanwhile, Konrad walks around, checking in with students, many of whom are student teaching full time.  “How are you two doing today?” she privately asks students in the back of the room.  

They feel overwhelmed and stressed about some things happening in their placements, the two respond. Konrad reminds them that not everything falls on them in the classroom.

“You are just starting out,” she said. “We don’t expect you to have it all figured out yet. You’ll get there!”  

After a break, the class reviews simulated data for a case study they’ve been working on.

“You are the intervention specialist..." Konrad says. “You have the evaluation team report from a year ago, and now you have current data.” 

“Remember, you are going to use current data as the baseline data for goal setting. ... Talk about improvement. ... Did (the student) write more? And then if he did improve, did he improve in relation to the norms?”

Konrad encourages dialogue and asks important questions her students will need to answer daily when they become full-time special education professionals.  

If the students seem intimidated by new tasks, she nudges them.  

The class scores three writing samples from their case-study project examining real writing samples from a student with a learning disability in written expression. For each sample, they note the total number of words written. They use a measure called “correct writing sequences,” which considers not just how much the student wrote, but spelling, punctuation and grammar. 

“What did you get for correct word sequences?” Konrad asks.

Each student has scored the same writing samples; however, they count the words individually, and there is some nuance for what counts as a mistake. 

“13...” responds one student 

“15...” says another. 

Then, “17?”

Some variety in scores is perfectly okay, Konrad says.

“We have a range,” she observes, “but as long as you aren’t too far off, that is okay because this assessment is a little bit more forgiving because it is administered frequently.” 

“You will get better at it with practice,” she tells the students. “Remember, the most important thing is consistency in scoring because your purpose is to monitor progress. You want to be sure each data point on your graph is comparable to each of the other data points.” 

Together, the class writes a statement regarding their case-study student: When given a story starter and one minute of think time, Devonne currently writes a median of 22 total words in three minutes.  

This is Konrad’s favorite part of the class — teaching future special education teachers to use curriculum-based measurement and direct observation to monitor children’s progress. Soon, her college students will use these tools to elevate skills of their own students. Bit by bit, they will see the true fruits of their labor.