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ROCHESTER SCHOOL FOR THE DEAF
1545 ST. PAUL STREET
ROCHESTER, NEW YORK 14621
EDUCATIONAL EVALUATION and
CLASSROOM OBSERVATION
Student Name: Jean Doe
DOB:
DOE: 11/14/2006
Age: 11-11 years
Evaluator:
Primary Language in the Home: English
Primary Language of Student: ASL
Current Grade Placement: 6
REASON FOR REFERRAL
Jean was referred for academic evaluation as part of the reevaluation process required by
the New York State Education Department to determine her current levels of academic
functioning, to monitor her program at Rochester School for the Deaf (RSD) and to plan
future programming at (RSD).
BACKGROUND INFORMATION
Jean presents with a severe to profound sensorineural hearing loss bilaterally. Her hearing
loss is believed to have been present at birth and genetic in nature. Jean uses binaural
amplification most of the time in school. Her history of hearing aid use indicates that
Jean benefits from amplification but that she wears it inconsistently. While English is the
primary language at home, some of her family is able to communicate with Jean by using
some American Sign Language (ASL) vocabulary and structures. Jean has attended
Rochester School for the Deaf (RSD) since she was six years old. Prior to that time, she
was a student at St. Mary’s School for the Deaf (SMSD) in Buffalo, New York. Jean’s
educational history is significant for both academic and linguistic delays.
A diagnosis of Pervasive Developmental Disorder, Not Otherwise Specified (PDD-NOS)
was given Jean in August 2005 (Henderson, 2005/ARC Clinic). This diagnosis indicates
that while not all of the features defining autism are present in an individual, stereotypical
behavior patterns or interests exist and may be accompanied by a marked impairment of
social interaction and communication.
Jean’s most recent social history (Feder-Piasek/DeWindt-Sommer, 2006) indicated that at
the time that history was recorded, Jean was taking the medications Concerta and Zoloft.
Jean’s medical history did not reveal any additional health concerns at that time.
PREVIOUS TEST RESULTS
Jean’s last educational evaluation was in February 2004. At that time, she attained the
following grade equivalents on the Woodcock-Johnson III-Tests of Achievement
(Woodcock, McGrew and Mathis, 2001); Form A with norms based on age 9 years0 months.
Subtest
Letter-Word Identification
Reading Fluency
Calculation
Math Fluency
Spelling
Writing Fluency
Passage Comprehension
Applied Problems
Writing Samples
Grade Equivalent
2004
1.5
1.6
2.9
2.0
2.0
<K.0
1.2
1.8
1.3
2001
K.8
NA
K.0
NA
NA
NA
<K.0
<K.0
1.0
1.4
2.3
2.7
1.5
1.1
1.9
K.3
<K.0
NA
K.8
NA
K.1
Cluster Scores
Broad Reading
Broad Math
Math Calculation Skills
Broad Written Language
Written Expression
Academic Skills
BEHAVIORAL OBSERVATIONS
Jean participated willingly and cooperatively to complete all required tasks. She
communicated via Conceptually Signed English and ASL. She was attentive to all tasks
and appeared at ease and comfortable most of the time. Occasionally she became anxious
when she was unsure if her responses were correct. Jean’s responses were prompt and
careful. She attempted difficult tasks but gave up easily. She often asked for
confirmation that her answers were acceptable and accurate. Jean needed to be
encouraged to take risks in figuring out and venturing responses to unfamiliar tasks. Jean
wrote with her left hand. Although she owns hearing aids, she did not wear them during
this evaluation.
REVIEW OF CURRENT TEST RESULTS
Nine tests from the WOODCOCK-JOHNSON III - TESTS OF ACHIEVEMENT (WJ III
ACH) were used to test Jean's reading, writing and math levels. Three tests were
administered for each of these areas. A detailed listing of the test results follows.
The WJ III ACH was developed and normed for hearing students. However, special
instructions regarding deaf and hard of hearing students are included. Students with
hearing loss were not an identified part of the norm sample, and norms do not reflect the
special implications of deafness in terms of knowledge base, communication, dominant
language, or culture. Therefore, results should be interpreted with caution and the
implications of special modifications (the use of sign language) should be taken into
account. This is especially true for the "Spelling" test since it contains a number of
higher-level words for which there are no signs. The following scores are obtained from
this test:
Age and grade equivalents reflect the age or grade at which an average student would
be expected to achieve the same raw score as this student. It should be noted that the
level above that of grade 12 does not necessarily indicate that the student is able to do all
the work required for high school regents courses in New York State.
Scaled Scores have a mean of 100 and represent the student's functioning relative to
the norm group in a way that is similar to IQ scores.
Percentile Rank represents the student's position in the norm group. For example a
percentile rank of 50 would indicate that out of 100 students in the norm sample, this
student scored better than 49 of the students.
Norms Based on Age 11-9 and Grade 6.2, Form A.
Test Name
Age
Equiv.
Grade
Equiv.
Letter-Word Identification
Reading Fluency
Calculation
Math Fluency
Spelling
Writing Fluency
Passage Comprehension
Applied Problems
Writing Samples
7-9
7-10
10-5
9-0
8-11
8-4
6-9
9-0
7-5
2.4
2.5
4.9
3.6
4.1
3.0
1.4
3.5
1.9
PR
SS
1
4
28
10
23
7
<0.1
13
0.4
66
74
91
81
89
77
50
83
60
Cluster Scores
Age
Equiv.
TOTAL ACHIEVEMENT
BROAD READING
BROAD MATH
BROAD WRITTEN LANGUAGE
MATH CALCULATION
WRITTEN EXPRESSION
ACADEMIC SKILLS
8-2
7-5
9-6
8-5
9-11
7-11
8-6
Grade
Equiv.
PR
SS
2.8
2.1
4.0
3.1
4.4
2.5
3.3
3
0.5
13
7
18
3
5
72
61
83
77
86
71
76
CURRENT PERFORMANCE LEVELS
When compared to others at her age level, Jean’s academic skills and fluency with
academic tasks are both within the low range. Her ability to apply academic skills is very
low.
Jean’s performance is low average in mathematics and math calculation skills; low in
written language and written expression; and very low in reading.
Reading: Jean achieved a grade equivalency of early second grade in reading overall.
This means that she is showing the same level of reading skill development that is
expected of the average beginning second grader in the general population. Results
suggest that Jean can recognize a number of common sight words from preprimer
through third grade levels, but uses limited strategies for decoding unknown words. Lack
of an adequate English vocabulary greatly impacts her ability to recognize and decipher
new words in print. It also impacts Jean’s ability to learn new vocabulary from what she
reads.
Jean was able to accurately read 2-3 word phrases and match pictures to their print labels.
She was not able to correctly provide missing words to complete cloze sentences
regardless of the length or complexity of the sentences or regardless of whether or not
pictures accompanied the stimulus sentence. This suggests that Jean is challenged to
understand the meaning of what she reads beyond primary levels. Difficulty gathering
contextual cues from print is largely responsible for this compromised comprehension.
Her attempts to gather the contextual clues necessary to establish meaning are thwarted
by a variety of linguistic limitations: an incomplete knowledge of printed English’s
syntactic and grammatical structures, an inadequate English vocabulary and a lack of
decoding strategies, especially phonologically-based strategies. Jean’s unwillingness to
take risks also impacts her reading ability. She is tentative about going beyond words
and text that she does not immediately understand in order to see if subsequent print
might give her clues as to the meaning of what she is reading. Results of this evaluation
suggest that Jean will experience difficulty reading for content in classes that follow a 6th
grade curriculum. Jean has made seven months of reading progress since her last
reevaluation in February 2004.
Writing: Jean achieved a grade equivalency of beginning third grade in writing overall.
This means that she is showing the same level of writing skill development that is
expected of the average beginning third grader in the general population. Jean is able to
write a few simple sentences that a reader would be able to understand readily. However
her unconventional use of English syntax and grammar makes it difficult for a reader to
understand most of her written sentences. As demonstrated in this writing sample, it is
unlikely that Jean understands that the order of words in a sentence influences the
meaning of the sentence. This is illustrated by Jean’s writing the sentence, “The ball can
catch” when shown a picture of someone catching a ball and by her writing “The seal is
nose on ball” when shown a picture of a seal balancing a ball on its nose. In other
instances, Jean used an unconventional order of words in sentences, but the meaning was
not compromised (e.g. “I like milk cold”).
Jean’s writing sample also indicates that she relies on sentence patterning and rote
sentence constructions when she writes. Every sentence Jean wrote for this evaluation
began with the word “the” or “I” and was written in the present tense according to
sentence patterns often taught in leveled writing programs.
Jean correctly spelled all common words. She consistently used capital letters at the
beginnings of her sentences. Jean did not use punctuation at the ends of her sample
sentences.
Jean has made 1.5 grade levels of progress in developing written language skills since her
last reevaluation.
Math: Jean demonstrated overall math abilities at the beginning fourth grade
equivalency. Results suggest that her math calculation skills are at the mid fourth grade
level. She was able to add and subtract single-digit numbers in both horizontally- and
vertically-set up problems as well as add and subtract two- and multi-digit numbers. Jean
was able to multiply single- and double-digit numbers by single numbers. She
experienced some trouble regrouping. She was able to count money, but was not able to
correctly figure change.
Jean has achieved almost 2 grade levels in overall math performance since her last
reevaluation in February 2004.
SUMMARY and RECOMMENDATIONS
Jean presents a bilateral profound sensorineural hearing loss as well as delayed linguistic
and academic skill development. A diagnosis of Pervasive Developmental Disorder, Not
Otherwise Specified (PDD-NOS) has been indicated. Jean is a sixth grader at Rochester
School for the Deaf. Jean’s overall level of academic achievement increased by almost
1.5 grade levels within the three-year period between her last reevaluation in February
2004, and this one. While her skills are not at grade level, Jean has made progress in
math, reading, and written language. Severely delayed English language skills impact
Jean’s academic success and impinge upon her ability to read for content, write
coherently, use print to develop English language skills and solve math problems posed
in text.
Jean continues to need an educational program that grants her full access to the
educational and social environment of her school through the use of sign language. She
continues to need a small class size as well as teachers who are certified and experienced
in addressing the unique linguistic and academic needs of deaf children. Jean needs to
develop language skills through a program, which offers support for language learning
across the curriculum. She needs intensive instruction to develop vocabulary skills.
Jean would benefit from both structure and repetition when learning new skills. Reading
repetitive text with controlled language and picture supports would help Jean to develop
her reading and overall language skills. Visual supports such as pictures, thinking maps
or graphic organizers would provide clues and strategies for dealing with new concepts
and denser text.
A language experience approach for developing spoken, signed and written language is
recommended. Approaches that require Jean to actively manipulate language rather than
use rote patterns would be most beneficial. Increasing her bank of sight words would
benefit Jean, as would a reading program that provided a bridge between printed English
and ASL. Jean needs to be encouraged to take risks when learning new skills and
material.
Educational Evaluator