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Technology-based Assessment in Special Education
by GERALD McCAIN New Mexico State University Las Cruces, N.M.
Technology-based assessment in special education has made advances
during the last two decades. Whereas the first applications of computer
technology for assessment were for scoring student test forms,
contemporary uses support many other features and functions. These
features include self-administration, software control of item
presentation, response evaluation based on conceptual models or
algorithms, decision making based on rules and criteria, prescription
based on expert knowledge, and direct links between assessment and
changes in instruction. Technology-based assessment generally refers
to the use of electronic systems and software to assess and evaluate the
progress of individual children in educational settings. Thus it
encompasses both electronic versions of traditional measurement
protocols as well as innovative assessment approaches that employ
computers.
Examples of approaches in technology-based assessment include:
A video-based computer-assisted test able to learn the language
preference of the student and automatically switch to it to
increase the validity of its measurement;
Video segments from popular movies used as elements of a moral
dilemma in a real-life, problem-solving test; and
Students viewing video segments of peers interacting in various
social situations and entering their responses by simply
touching a computer screen.
In the world of technological evaluation these innovative approaches
bring validity and relevancy to the testing procedure.
A variety of factors have contributed to the current need for better
assessment tools and procedures in our schools. Students being
misplaced as a result of poor evaluations is one. Misplacements of
students can have devastating results for both student and teacher.
Such misplaced students tend to lose interest and drop out of school.
Teachers who have misplaced students in their classrooms are often not
properly trained to deal with certain behaviors or learning differences.
Other factors contributing to changes in assessment practices are
partially due to the growing population who qualify for IDEA
(Individuals with Disabilities Education Act). Data reported in the 1994
U.S. Dept. of Education's Sixteenth Annual Report to Congress on the
Implementation of Individuals With Disabilities Act show a 3.7% overall
increase in students receiving special education services during the
1992/93 school year.2 This growth in special education, although not
huge, d'es include a significant number of minorities who have different
cultural backgrounds and languages.
