Child Assessment: The Process and the Product.

The document contains seven papers from the Child Assessment Topical Workshop designed to raise participant awareness of basic assessment issues involved in screening, placement, and measurement of daily performance; to provide specific information about the assessment process, including collecting, organizing, analyzing, and using data; and to provide an opportunity for model handicapped children's and special needs projects to review and refine their individual assessment processes and instruments. In "Current Assessment Practices: A New Use for the Susan B. Anthony Dollar?" B. Algozzine looks at problems and issues involved with assessment and data collection for learning disabled students. Decision making processes involved in student assessment and referral are the focus of"Basic Considerations in Child Assessment: Not Quite Everything You Wanted to Know...And More" by O. White. A third paper by C. McGuigan addresses "Selecting and Evaluating Educational Tests.""Assessing Social and Emotional Problems" is considered by B. Algozzine with particular emphasis on use of an observation scale. C. McGuigan, in a paper titled "Analysis and Use of Performance Data," discusses the establishment of aims, the identification of program guidelines and decision rules, and the analysis of data patterns to make appropriate educational or motivational interventions. C. Hansen points out in "Developing and Validating Assessment Instruments" that five variables should be taken into account in developing an assessment instrument: purpose of the assessment, what to assess, who will assess, how the assessment will be conducted, and whom the assessment results are for. The booklet closes with "Concluding Remarks: Using Assessment Data to Document Program Effectiveness" (C. Hansen). (SBH)