Assessment

Assessments are designed to determine the student's abilities and needs in relevant aspects of the curriculum and instruction. Educators need this essential tool to guide day-to-day instruction. The range of assessments may fluctuate from classroom assessment practices all the way to district and statewide assessment programs. Regular progress monitoring provides valuable information on teaching effectiveness, and is the basis for informed instructional decisions.

Students with visual impairment may require accommodations to participate in certain types of instructional or standardized assessments (see Special Education Testing Accommodations for Pennsylvania State System of Assessment).

Recommendations for specific types of accommodations must be made by the Individualized Education Program (IEP) team, which includes the teacher of students with visual impairments,since the team has the best understanding of the student's abilities and needs. Teachers of students with visual impairments need to conduct assessments at least annually as part of the review of the student's IEP.  Assessments include a functional vision assessment, which determine show a student utilizes vision to function in a variety of environments including school and home. These assessments do not replace an examination by an optometrist or ophthalmologist, but do provide critical information for the team. A learning media assessment is also done at least annually. The learning media assessment is a process for systematically determining the student's primary reading and writing media, in order to assess how the student with visual impairment accesses information. Unless otherwise indicated, tactual or visual access (i.e., Braille or print) needs to be the primary access for effective literacy skill development, with auditory access secondary. (According to the Individuals with Disabilities EducationAct [IDEA '97], all students with visual impairment will be Braille readers unless a process such as a learning media assessment determines otherwise.) Sensory channel use, reading skills, technology skills and needs, environmental factors, functional vision, and current and future academic needs are all addressed in the learning media assessment. An important tool in this process is The Pennsylvania Framework for Functional Vision and Learning Media Assessment. In addition to the above assessments, the appropriate areas of the expanded core curriculum are assessed and implemented in the IEP, and effective practice suggests that every student with a visual impairment receives an orientation and mobility assessment to determine his need for specific instruction in this area.