Jessica Yoakum
Education Specialist

Educational Evaluation

 

Name: HN

Date of Birth: December 10, 2004

School: K Elementary

Grade: 4th

Tests Administered:

A parent questionnaire was given to the parent before testing session.

• Woodcock-Johnson - W-JIV (subtests 1-11)

• Woodcock Reading Mastery Test Third Edition- WRMT-III

• Adaptive Behavior Evaluation Scale- ABES

 

Reason for referral:  To fulfill partial requirement for ED 363.

 

Background Information:

According to information taken from a written parent questionnaire H is 10 years old.  H is also in the 4th grade.  Both parents live in the household and have been married for seven years.  Both parents also work full-time jobs.   H’s mother has a B.S. in nursing and his father is an electrician.  H has a sister who is in the 6th grade and has no disabilities or health concerns.  H’s family lives within close proximity of each other and has only one uncle who is married, two cousins and two grandparents.  There have been no crisis or major changes that the parents feel as though is significant in H’s development. 

 

• Medical and Developmental Information

H’s parent report no difficulties during pregnancy but do report a slow delivery (18 hrs.).  H weighed 7lbs and 3oz at birth.  H was full term born at 41 weeks.  H started walking at approximately 15 months and was toilet trained at 3 years old which is typical.  The parents stated there are heredity factors that might affect their H such as drug use, mental illness and alcoholism present on both the maternal and paternal sides of the family.  H has no known chronic physical conditions or recurring illnesses.  H has never been hospitalized or had any surgery.  H currently isn’t on any medications.  H has asthma but rarely has had to use his inhaler.  H’s Dr. is Priority Care Pediatrics located on Gladstone, MO.  H goes to bed 9:00 p.m. and gets up to get ready for school at 7:30 a.m.  From this information H gets 8hrs. or more of sleep each night.  H has missed a total of one day of school this year.   

 

 

• School History

H attended Creative World which is located in the same general area as the school in which he attends.  He attended one year of pre-school and pre-k at this location.  H has attended kindergarten through 4th grade at Kellybrook Elementary.  H has never repeated a grade.  H has never attended summer school or private tutoring.  Psychological or educational evaluation or counseling has ever been received.  H has also participated in any special programs such as speech therapy, remedial reading, special classroom or counseling groups.  H’s parents did not define any problems in which H is having in school.  They stated H is not having any issues in school and consider him to be an average student.  They also stated that he does struggle in math.  H has a positive attitude toward school.  He enjoys school and comes home every day and tells his parent about the new things he’s learned.

 

• Family and Home Background

H gets along with other family members well.  Both parents are responsible for the discipline in the household.  Time out and grounding are the discipline methods that are used and work best.  H’s home responsibilities include morning and afternoon routines in which he does well and receives an allowance weekly. 

 

 

• Personal and Social Adjustment

H has two close friends which are males 9 and 10 years old.  Their friendship is described as typical.  H spends his free time with his friends, playing sports, hunting and fishing.  The organized activates in which H is involved with outside of school is baseball, basketball and football.  H’s self-concept and personality is described as calm when he’s confident and persistent when he’s quiet.  The characteristic that H’s parents like most is his thoughtfulness and empathy towards others. 

 

H’s parents were given a scale of usually, sometimes, seldom and never to describe qualities and characteristics this is how it was answered:

            Truthful                                   (Usually)

            Sense of Humor                      (Sometimes)

            Creative                                   (Usually)

            Outgoing                                 (Sometimes)

            Good Adult Relationships       (Usually)

            Daydreams                              (Sometimes)

            Difficulty Handling Criticism   (Sometimes)

            Shy                                          (Usually)

            Uses Profanity                         (Never)

            Nervous                                  (Sometimes)

            Usually Quiet                          (Usually)

            Easily Upset                            (Seldom)

            Temper Tantrums                   (Never)

            Stealing                                   (Never)

            Self-destructive                       (Never)

            Overactive                               (Never)

            Difficulty Following Directions(Seldom)

            Short Attention Span              (Sometimes)

            Withdrawn                              (Seldom)          

 

 

Test Observations:

During each test session H seemed anxious but ready to take the tests.  During each test H’s level of conversational proficiency was typical for age and grade.  His level of cooperation was uncooperative at times.  During the testing his level of activity appeared fidgety or restless at times.   His attention and concentration level was attentive to the tasks which are typical for his age and grade.  H’s self-confidence level changed during the testing session and appeared tense or worried at times.  H was slow and careful in responding to questions. When H came upon difficult tasks he responded with attempting the tasks but gave up easily. 

 

•          Woodcock-Johnson - W-JIV (subtests 1-11)

The qualitative observations that were recorded for H during the Woodcock-Johnson IV are as follows.  Letter-Word Identification required increased time and greater attention to phoneme-grapheme relationships to determine the correct response (non-automatic word identification skills).  Applied Problems: Appeared to have limited understanding of grade- or age-appropriate math application tasks.  Spelling: Spelled initial items easily and accurately; spelling of latter items reflected a need for further skill development (typical).  Passage Comprehension: Appeared to read initial passages easily but appeared to struggle as the reading increased in difficulty (typical).  Calculation: Worked too quickly.  Writing Samples: Sentences were inadequate (for example, run-ons, incomplete sentences, awkward syntax, or limited content).  Word Attack: Identified initial items rapidly and accurately and identified more difficult items through increased application of phoneme-grapheme relationships (typical).  Oral Reading: Errors involving mispronunciation (2), insertion (1), hesitation (1) and repetition (2) were observed.  Sentence Reading Fluency: Appeared to read sentences at a rate typical for peers.  Math Facts Fluency: Solved problems at a rate typical for peers.  Sentence Writing Fluency: Wrote appropriate sentences at a slow pace.  

 

After the testing the of the Woodcock-Johnson - W-JIV (subtests 1-11) and the Woodcock Reading Mastery Test Third Edition- WRMT-III H expressed his relief of the test being done.  He also thought about some of the questions asked and stated that he felt as though he might have answered some of them wrong.  I could tell he felt less confident of his answers after each testing session.

 

Test Results:

•          Woodcock-Johnson - W-JIV (subtests 1-11)

The Woodcock-Johnson IV is the updated and redesigned edition of one of the most widely used batteries of individually administered achievement tests. Based on the data with is produced by the test the Woodcock-Johnson IV provides interpretive results which clusters place emphasis on the most important and diagnostically useful measures of academic achievement, oral language, and cognitive abilities. The design of three independent and co-normed batteries facilitates the evaluation of strengths and weaknesses within and among measures of academic performance, oral language competence, and cognitive abilities. The WJ IV’s focus on evaluation of relative strengths and weaknesses will help assessment professionals identify and describe patterns of performance across achievement, language, and cognitive domains that are key to diagnosing learning problems and developing targeted interventions for individual needs.

The sub-tests which were given to the student during this testing session included the standard battery which includes subtests 1-11 and form A was used.  H was administered a set of tests from the Woodcock-Johnson IV Tests of Achievement Form A and Extended. His performance in each area is shown below. Based on a comparison to others of his age, H’s BROAD ACHIEVEMENT national percentile rank of 35 means that he scored higher than about 35 percent of ten-year-old children nationally.  Broad Achievement is an overall measure of H’s performance across the reading, writing, and math domains.  Broad Reading is a comprehensive measure of H’s reading achievement, including oral sight-word reading skill, silent reading comprehension speed, and the ability to comprehend passages while reading silently.  Basic Reading Skills is a combined measure of H’s oral sight-word reading skill and his ability to apply phonics skills to pronounce unfamiliar printed words.  Reading Fluency is a combined measure of oral reading skills and the ability to quickly read and comprehend sentences silently.  Broad Mathematics is a comprehensive measure of math achievement, including math calculation skills, problem solving, and the ability to solve simple addition, subtraction, and multiplication facts quickly. Math Calculation Skills is a combined measure of math computational skills and the ability to do simple math calculations quickly.  Broad Written Language is a broad-based measure of H’s written language achievement, including spelling, the quality of written sentences, and speed of writing.  Written Expression is a combined measure of meaningful writing and writing speed.  Academic Skills is a combined measure of word reading, math calculation, and spelling skills.  Academic Applications is a measure of H’s ability to apply his skills to solve academic problems.  Academic Fluency is a measure of H’s ability to quickly read and understand short sentences, do simple math calculations quickly, and write simple sentences quickly.  H’s results are listed below. 

Task                                                                 National Percentile Rank

Broad Achievement                                        35 (Limited to Average)

Broad Reading                                                46 (Average)

Basic Reading Skills                                         86 (Advanced)

Reading Fluency                                              20 (Limited)

Broad Mathematics                                        19 (Limited)

Math Calculation Skills                                   14 (Limited)

Broad Written Language                                45 (Average)

Written Expression                                         31 (Limited to Average)

Academic Skills                                               50 (Average)

Academic Applications                                   56 (Average)

Academic Fluency                                           17 (Limited)

 

 

 

• Woodcock Reading Mastery Test Third Edition- WRMT-III

The Woodcock Reading Mastery Tests, Third Edition (WRMT - III) is a comprehensive battery of individually administered tests that measure reading readiness and reading achievement in examinees from pre-kindergarten to Grade 12 and from ages 4 years 6 months (4:6) through 79 years 11 months (79:11). The WRMT-III battery is designed to provide detailed information about an examinee’s reading performance that can be used to develop effective, individually tailored reading intervention programs. All test items are ordered in increasing difficulty, with grade-specific start points to ensure examiners administer only those items within the examinee’s functional range. The majority of items are administered with the stimulus book. Scoring can be completed by hand, using the norms tables in Appendix A.  The WRMT – III battery represents a significant revision of the previous WRMT instrument, the primary goals of the WRMT-III revision were to (a) provide a means to assess reading acquisition skills in younger examinees through the addition of tests such as Phonological Awareness and Rapid Automatic Naming; (b) provide a more thorough assessment of reading achievement through the addition of tests such as Listening Comprehension and Oral Reading Fluency; and (c) expand the analysis of errors to include Phonological Awareness, Listening Comprehension, Passage Comprehension, and Oral Reading Fluency. These changes reflect the battery’s definition of reading ability as a global ability based on five facets of an examinee’s reading skill: word identification, phonological decoding, word comprehension, passage comprehension, and oral reading fluency. Available in two parallel forms (Form A and Form B), the WMRT-III battery is made up of nine tests, five of which were retained from the previous version. The entire WRMT-III battery should take between 15-45 minutes to administer, depending on the examinee's grade or age.

 

Letter Identification measures an examinee’s ability to recognize letters presented in uppercase and lowercase forms.  Phonological Awareness measures an examinee’s awareness of the phonological components of language.  Rapid Automatic Naming measures the speed and accuracy with which an examinee is able to name a set of familiar stimuli.  Word Identification requires an examinee to read words of increasing difficulty.  Word Attack requires an examinee to read nonsense words of increasing difficulty.  Listening Comprehension measures the ability to comprehend spoken language and includes items that test both literal and inferential comprehension skills.  Passage Comprehension measures an examinee’s ability to study a sentence or short passage and exercise a variety of comprehension vocabulary skills in identifying a missing word.  Oral Reading Fluency measures the ability to fluently integrate learned reading abilities such as decoding, expression and phrasing. The subtests which were given during this session was Word Identification and Word Attack (Basic Skills Cluster), Word Comprehension and Passage Comprehension (Reading Comprehension Cluster), Listening Comprehension and Oral Reading (Total Reading).  Form A was used for this test and scores were reported as standard scores which are listed below. 

 

 

Sub-Test                                  Cluster                                    Standard Score

Word Identification                                                               116 (Average-Above Average)           

Word Attack                                                                            94 (Average)

(Basic Skills)                                                                            105 (Average)

Word Comprehension                                                           98 (Average)

Passage Comprehension                                                      85 (Below Average-Average)

(Reading Comprehension)                                                    91 (Below Average- Average)

Listening Comprehension                                                    116 (Average- Above Average)

Oral Reading                                                                           134 (Above Average- Well Above Average)

(Total Reading)                                                                        106 (Average)

 

• Adaptive Behavior Evaluation Scale- ABES  

The Adaptive Behavior Evaluation Scale-Revised Second Edition (ABES-R2: 4-12 HV) provides a measure of adaptive skills necessary for success in educational and residential settings. The ABES may be used as a general or specific measure of adaptive skills with any student experiencing academic or behavioral difficulties regardless of the severity or suspected disability. The ABES assesses 10 areas of adaptive skills grouped under the three adaptive behavior domains defined in the 10th AAMR Definition of Mental Retardation (AAMR, 2002). The Conceptual domain assesses the adaptive skills areas of Communication and Functional Academics. The Social domain assesses the Social, Leisure, and Self-Direction adaptive skills areas. Self-Care, Home Living, Community Use, Health & Safety, and Work are the adaptive skills areas assessed in the Practical domain.  The ABES-R2: 4-12 is a valuable tool designed to assist school personnel in making diagnostic, placement, and programming decisions for mentally retarded and emotionally disturbed/behaviorally disordered children and adolescents. The strong correlation of school and home ratings of adaptive skills makes the ABES-R2: 4-12 an efficient and effective means of measuring adaptive skills for educational decision-making. The companion Adaptive Behavior Intervention Manual: 4-12 Years is a must for use in program development and implementation for disabled students.

 

The ABES-R2: 4-12 uses frequency-referenced quantifiers. Each item on the ABES-R2: 4-12 is rated on a six point scale from (0) NOT DEVELOPMENTALLY APPROPRIATE FOR AGE, (1) DOES NOT DEMONSTRATE THEBEHAVIOR OR SKILL, (2) IS DEVELOPING THE BEHAVIOR OR SKILL, (3) DEMONSTRATES THE BEHAVIOR OR SKILL INCONSISENTLY (4) DMONSTRATES THE BEHAVIOR OR SKILL MOST OF THE TIME and (5) DEMONSTRATES THE BEHAVIOR OR SKILL CONSISTENTLY.  After the evaluation is administered the subscale raw score is calculated (the sum of the frequency ratings for each subscale) then converted into a subscale standard score (a consistent basis for comparing students).  A domain quotient and percentile, and an adaptive skills quotient and percentile is then converted as well.  The home version was used and filled out by H’s father.  Using the subscale standard scores, a profile of the student’s level of functioning across the 10 subscales may be constructed.  H’s scores within these areas are listed below. 

 

Subscales                                            Standard Scores

Conceptual Domain

Communication                                  13 (Above Average)

Functional Academics                        13 (Above Average)   

Social Domain           

Social                                                    13 (Above Average)                                                   

Leisure                                                 13 (Above Average)

Self-Direction                                      11 (Above Average)

Practical Domain

Self-Care                                              12 (Above Average)

Home Living                                        14 (Above Average)

Community Use                                 14 (Above Average)

Health & Safety                                  10 (Above Average)

Work                                                    12 (Above Average)

 

                                                            Percentile Ranks

Conceptual Domain                            >99

Social Domain                                     80

Practical Domain                                83

Adaptive Skills                                     85

 

Summary:

•          Woodcock-Johnson - W-JIV (subtests 1-11)

According to the results from the Woodcock-Johnson IV H shows limited achievement in the areas of Reading Fluency 20 (Limited), Broad Mathematics 19 (Limited), Math Calculation Skills    14 (Limited), Academic Fluency 17 (Limited).  These results show there is a weakness in mathematics and the reading of problems at a typical pace.  There is more time spent doing these applications when trying to define a concept or calculate a problem.  The results also shows H has limited to average achievement in the areas of Broad Achievement         35 (Limited to Average) and Written Expression 31 (Limited to Average).  These areas show the overall measure of achievement and the combined measure of word reading, math calculation and spelling skills.     

 

•          Woodcock Reading Mastery Test Third Edition- WRMT-III (subtests 4-9)

According to the results from the Woodcock Reading Mastery Test Third Edition- WRMT-III H shows below average-average achievement in subtest Passage Comprehension and in the cluster of Reading Comprehension.  There is an above average- well above average achievement in oral reading fluency.  This shows that H is reading the words but has a below average comprehension of the concept he is reading.  The there is a discrepancy in the processing of information.  All other factors stay within the average and above average range.   

 

•          Adaptive Behavior Evaluation Scale- ABES

According to the results from the Adaptive Behavior Evaluation Scale- ABES H is above average in all areas of adaptive skills.  H shows strengths in conceptual adaptive skills such as communication and functional academics.  His highest score were in the practical adaptive skills which included Home Living and Community Use.  His lowest scores were also in the practical domain which included Health & Safety.  These skills are related to the maintenance of one’s health in terms of eating; illness identification, treatment and prevention, basic first aid, sexuality, physical fitness, basic safety considerations, regular physical and dental checkups and personal habits.     

 

Recommendations:

H’s parents agreed to help me fulfill my requirement for ED 363 (Educational Assessment) class.  His parent describe H as an average student who enjoys school but does have a slight difficult in math.  Due to the results of testing H does have a weakness in mathematics and reading comprehension.  These could possibly be issues with the processing of information and memory.  H needs reinforcement in these areas and I recommend possible reading and mathematical working memory strengthening skills.  Working memory provides the temporary storage that underpins our capacity for complex thought.      

 

 

 

 

Jessica Yoakum, Examiner

 

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