Assessment for Special Education: Diagnosis and Placement

• Author: Jennifer R. Frey
• Published date: 01 May 2019
• Date: 01 May 2019
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1177/0002716219841352
• Subject Matter: Assessments for Selection and Placement

841352ANN
THE ANNALS OF THE AMERICAN ACADEMYUSEFUL ASSESSMENT FOR SPECIAL EDUCATION
research-article2019
Over the last 40 years, federal legislation has led to
improved access to public education for students with
disabilities. Today, more than six million students
receive special education and related services through
American public schools; however, evaluation practices
for eligibility determination largely have remained
unchanged. Assessment approaches used for identifica-
tion, program planning, and evaluation of progress,
arguably, have been insensitive to cultural differences,
Assessment for contributing to disproportional representation of chil-
dren from different backgrounds in specific special
Special
education disability categories, and inefficient because
they are too broad to immediately inform instructional
planning for both students within and across disability
Education:
categories. This article critiques current practices for
identifying children for special education services and
Diagnosis and offers considerations, grounded in developmental and
cognitive neuroscience, that could lead to more useful
assessment approaches that optimize all students’
Placement
learning.
Keywords: disabilities; comprehensive evaluation; eli-
gibility determination; precision educa-
tion
By
JENNIfEr r. frEy
As recently as the late nineteenth and early
twentieth centuries, students with disabili-
ties were denied access to public school educa-
tion and had no educational protections under
the law. rights of students with disabilities
evolved within the larger context of civil rights
legislation (e.g., Section 504 of the rehabilita-
tion Act of 1973) and landmark judicial
Jennifer R. Frey is an associate professor of special
education and disability studies in the Graduate School
of Education and Human Development at The George
Washington University. Her work has been published
in leading journals and handbooks in the fields of spe-
cial education, speech-language pathology, pediatrics,
and school psychology.
NOTE: The author thanks the issue editors and Dr.
Kevin Pelphrey for their helpful contributions and
reviews of this article.
Correspondence: jrfrey@gwu.edu
DOI: 10.1177/0002716219841352
ANNALS, AAPSS, 683, May 2019 149

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THE ANNALS Of THE AMErICAN ACADEMy
decisions (e.g., Brown v. Board of Education 1954; PARC v. Commonwealth of
Pennsylvania 1971; Mills v. Board of Education of District of Columbia 1972)
that ensured access to and protected opportunities for all people, regardless of
race or ability. With the passage of the Education for All Handicapped Children
Act (PL 94-142) in 1975, children with disabilities, for the first time, were legally
entitled to a free and appropriate public education (fAPE) in the least restrictive
environment (LrE), meaning, to the extent possible, students with disabilities
were to be educated in public schools, within general education classrooms, with
additional supports, and with peers without disabilities and only placed in more
restrictive environments if they could not make adequate progress within a gen-
eral education context. At that time, the educational emphasis was on protecting
access and preventing exclusion.
Since the initial passage of PL 94-142 in 1975, continued federal legislation
designed to support equal opportunities and access (e.g., Americans with
Disabilities Act 1990; Individuals with Disabilities Education Act 1990, 1997;
Individuals with Disabilities Education Improvement Act [IDEA] 2004) and
continued support from the U.S. Supreme Court (e.g., Board of Education of
Hendrick Hudson Central School District v. Rowley 1982; Endrew F. v. Douglas
County School District 2017) led to improved educational opportunities and
programming. By law, it is insufficient to merely provide students with access to
public education. Students who qualify for special education services are entitled
to Individualized Education Programs (IEP; IDEA 2004) that meet their unique,
identified needs and support their learning (i.e., allow them to make progress) in
the least restrictive educational setting (i.e., general education with supplemental
services must be considered before alternative special education instructional
programming or more restrictive educational settings outside of the general edu-
cation classroom are applied [IDEA 2004]). Today, more than 6 million students
(13 percent of all public school students) between the ages of 3 and 21 years old
receive special education and related services (National Center for Education
Statistics [NCES] 2018; see figure 1), and students with disabilities have dem-
onstrated growth in both academic and social learning (frey and Gillispie 2018).
Despite this progress, our communities and educational systems continue to
struggle to meaningfully include and meet the learning and developmental needs
of all children, particularly those with high-intensity needs (U.S. Department of
Education 2016).
Traditionally, assessment has played a critical role in screening children to
identify those who may have a disability and need a comprehensive evaluation
and determining, of those students who are evaluated, who qualifies for addi-
tional services and protections (i.e., classification and eligibility determination).
The process from referral to eligibility determination to educational placement,
however, remains a bumpy road for many students and their families. Currently,
assessment practices can be useful for supporting educators and related special-
ists in making eligibility decisions. yet a reliance on standardized norm- referenced
tests, the traditional “wait to fail” approach, and imprecise and variable guidelines
for eligibility decision-making challenge our current use of testing for selection
and placement in special education.

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USEfUL ASSESSMENT fOr SPECIAL EDUCATION
151
fIGUrE 1
Percentage of Students Ages 3 to 21 Receiving Services under IDEA by Disability
Category
SOUrCE: Data obtained from https://nces.ed.gov/programs/coe /indicator_cgg.asp.
NOTE: Disability categories with less than 1 percent of students are not displayed.
furthermore, perhaps the issue we, as educators, should be emphasizing is not
necessarily who qualifies for special education in what category but, rather, what
supports children need to be successful in their educational environments. While
the majority of students enrolled in public schools do not qualify for special edu-
cation services under the IDEA (2004), we all learn differently. Addressing indi-
vidual learning differences within and across instructional settings would enhance
all students’ learning. There is an opportunity for assessment to play an important
role in improving the efficiency and precision with which we identify and monitor
the learning and behavioral supports all students need to successfully navigate
their learning environments—leading to more useful assessment data for educa-
tors, specialists, and parents. Ultimately, we must strive to develop an approach
that allows all children—with and without disabilities—to fully access and benefit
from learning opportunities designed to optimize their development and success
within and outside the classroom.
Emerging theories and methods from multiple fields of science and practice
can help us to leverage our own expertise within educational assessment to
improve our techniques and approaches to support all learners. This article criti-
cally evaluates current practices for identifying children for special education and
considerations for the use of assessment for educational placement and planning,
including limitations and challenges associated with current practices, and offers
considerations that could lead to more useful assessment approaches designed to
maximize children’s developmental and educational outcomes.

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THE ANNALS Of THE AMErICAN ACADEMy
Status Quo: Assessment in Special Education Today
The purposes of psychological and educational assessment include (1) identifying
children for whom we may need additional information about their learning or
development or who may be at high risk for academic challenges (screening); (2)
diagnosing differences and determining whether a child is eligible for additional
educational services (classification and eligibility determination); (3) planning for
instruction or intervention; (4) monitoring progress; (5) informing the develop-
ment and refinement of educational approaches, and (6) providing accountability
of learning and instruction to school districts, states, and even the U.S. Department
of Education (e.g., Adequate yearly Progress [AyP]). The tools and methods we
use to gather information, or “assess” a child, must be designed for and aligned
with the intended assessment purpose (American Educational research
Association [AErA], American Psychological Association [APA], and National
Council on Measurement in Education [NCME] 2014). These conceptually dis-
tinct, yet practically connected, functions of assessment support educators and
related specialists in identifying children who need and qualify for additional
educational supports and designing supportive learning environments for all
students.
Children are identified for special education services through a “comprehen-
sive and individual...