Educational

Evaluation
On Student M

Melissa Swan
2/5/2013

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A. Student Data
1. Maria
2. March 23, 2004
3. 9 years old
4. Current Placement: General Education 3rd grade classroom, 23 students, age range of
classmates is 8-10, students without exceptionalities is 12, students in special
education program is 5 but one more student is being identified, students in ALPHA
(gifted program) is 6. The general education teacher is primarily the one teaching. A
teacher Aid (Teachers Aid, T.A. ) is in the classroom to help them get organized and
is in and out throughout day to help out. The Special Ed teacher is in the classroom
for 60 min during ELA. ALPHA(Gifted Ed) Program 1x week for 50 min.
5. Dates of Evaluation:
a. Torrance Tests of Creative Thinking: January 28, 2013
b. Key Math-3 Diagnostic Assessment: January 31, 3013
c. Informal assessments: January 31-Februray 7th various times
B. Referral Information
1. The student has been evaluated as gifted. She is smart and does well in all subjects in
school. She does just enough in ELA to get complete the work that is asked of her.
The teacher would like to see her expand on her thinking and writing.
2. She has been formally identified through the school as being gifted. She sees the
ALPHA teacher once a week for 50 min.
C. Background Information
1. Family History.

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a. Family composition: Marias parents are married and live together. She has
one younger brother who is 4 years old. The father installs pools The father
installs pools and mother is a stay at home mom.
b. Cultural and language background: Marias dominant language is English and
does not speak any other language. Her cultural background is primarily
Italian.
c. Family history of exceptionality: There is no known family history of
exceptionality.
d. Medical background: Maria did have to go to speech when she was in
Kindergarten. Her speech has improved so she does not require speech
anymore. There is nothing else in her medical history that would affect
Marias learning. Maria has been a healthy child.
2. Peer relationships: Maria has many friends in her class. She is social and attempts to
make friends. She is involved in community dance classes. She is not involved in
any school-oriented clubs.
3. Educational History:
a. Attendance record:
Maria has attended a suburban elementary since Kindergarten. She has lived
in the suburbs since she was born. She misses school on average of three days
a year. There is no attendance problem with Maria.
b. Achievement:
Maria is a student to whom school comes easily too. She is smart and
understands most things that are presented to her. Her report cards show that

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she has high grades in all her classes and all her subjects. When she is given
directions she starts working and stays on task. She was formally assessed as
gifted using the scientific research of Dr. Joseph Rezulli and the Three Ring
Model of Above Average Ability, Creativity and Task Commitment. She was
observed by her classroom teacher as having excellent Task Commitment. Her
intelligence was assessed with TSS Slosson exam and scored at 112,
approximately 115 or higher are considered above average. Her creativity was
assessed with the Creativity Assessment Packet where she scored a 75, about
65 is considered average. She is in the ALPHA program once a week for 50
minutes, as part of the schools gifted program.
c. There are no social-emotional factors that are of concern. She is an eventempered child who deals with her emotions well. She asks an adult if she
needs help with something. She has a positive outlook on life. Her attention
level is above her peers. She adapts well to new situations. She does not need
everything to be perfect but she does try her best and does everything that she
is asked.
4. Student Observations and Interview
a. Student Observations:
Maria was observed January 17, 2013 for approximately one hour and twenty
minutes. One hour was spent in structured classroom room settings and one
unstructured recess setting. In the regular classroom a math lesson was observed. An
adapted observation questionnaire and checklist was used from Spinelli. The group
climate was whole group lesson. The seating arrangements were in rows of fours.

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Maria sits next to two girls and a boy. The lesson being taught was math shapes and
3-D objects. The teacher first modeled with manipulatives to demonstrate their
shapes. She followed along with what the teacher was saying, and stayed on task. She
only needed to be told once of directions and did her work without help from students
or teacher. She finished before most students. Maria is always prepared, arrives to
class on time and does all her work.
The second setting was 20 minutes of unstructured recess. She socialized with her
friends playing and sharing the stuffed puppy she brought in for share and tell. She
acted appropriately with her peers and followed classroom rules.
Maria is respectful and follows directions. She is a hard working student who
demonstrates positive and productive character traits.
b. Student interview:
Maria says her best subject is math, doing multiplication and division. She
struggles with ELA because it is hard for her to think of new ideas. She is able
to stay focused in class and does not have trouble concentrating in any
subjects. She likes to volunteer in class. She dances at Dance Connection
outside of school. She does hip-hop, jazz, tap and ballet. Maria believes she
learns best by reading. She enjoys dancing, swimming and biking. She likes
to learn about horses. One day she hopes to become a vet, a dance teacher or
an elementary teacher.
5. Analysis of Student Work Samples.
a. Writing Sample

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This writing sample is about setting New Years Resolution. Maria was able
to write complete sentences. She did not spell flexibility correctly and missed
a comma. She was able to write a complete paragraph with few mistakes.
Marias writing ability is above her peers. She is able to write a paragraph
with few mechanical errors.

b. Paragraph
The students read the book Nasreens Secret School: A True Story from
Afghanistan and then were asked to write a paragraph about it. The students
then had time to plan what they wanted to write. Maria was able to write
complete sentences well and had few mechanical errors. Her ideas made sense
but were a little out of order. Her word choice did have some variety but was
not correctly placed at times, such as First, However. Overall Maria did a
great job writing her paper.
6. Teacher Interview:
a. The teacher says Maria is a smart and gifted student. She does well in all her
subjects. Maria is an excellent student to have in class; she is a respectful,
responsible and a helpful student. Her strengths are her ability to stay focused,
her intrinsic motivation, above average study skills, writes well and above her
peers in math. She has trouble with expanding her thoughts when she writes.
She writes what she needs to pass the assignment but can give more. She
works well by herself or with others. Maria is organized and has a lot family
support.

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7. Testing Needs:
Maria should be tested in academic areas of math and reading/writing. She does well
in math but should be assessed to see how she compares to her peers. Her
reading/writing should be tested to see how she writes compared to her peers and how
to improve on it. Her creativity should also be tested to see how creative she is since
she likes to draw.
8. Assessment Plan:
a. Formal Assessments:
i. Torrance Tests of Creative Thinking:
This assessment will measure Marias creative thinking. TTCT has
lines and shapes where the student is asked to add to it and come up
with a title. She will be assess Marias creativity by fluency,
originality, abstractive of titles and elaboration. The predictive
validity of this assessment was found with a.51 correlation of students
who took this in high school to their adult creative achievements
twelve years later. This is not a high correlation, but creativity is
difficult to measure. There are two forms to this assessment so results
can be reliably compared so this assessment has reliability:
Alternate/Parallel forms. The construct of this assessment is kept valid
by giving the students a time limit to work and having a script of what
is to be said. The criterion of this assessment is valid because it
assesses different aspects of creativity such as: fluency, flexibility,
originality and elaboration. This assessment can be tested on students

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from K- graduate school, depending on the testing situations. The

younger students should be tested by themselves but older students can
be tested as a group. When giving the assessment, it is important to
follow this rule and make sure you follow the script. This assessment
was found to be adequate and valid.
ii. Key Math 3 Diagnostic Assessment:
Maria excels in math. This assessment will determine her present level
of performance. KeyMath-3 is a comprehensive, individually
administered measure of essential mathematical concepts and skills
(Connolly, 2007). It includes 10 subtests that represent three general
areas: Basic Concepts, Operations, and Applications. The reliability of
this assessment was drawn from alternate form and split-half
reliabilities, which was found to have an average coefficient of .90
which is a strong correlation therefore very reliable. Test-Retest
Reliability study was conducted with 103 examinees with about half
taking Form A and the other taking Form B; the reliability of the Total
Test score was found to be .97. The validity was measured using
content and construct validity of correlation of .80 to other Math
assessments. There are two forms of this assessment they are matched
statistically and by content. The basal set is the three consecutive
correct responses immediately preceding the first incorrect response,
and the basal item is the lowest numbered item in the basal set. The
ceiling set is four consecutive incorrect responses, and the ceiling item

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is the highest numbered item in the ceiling set. Key Math is reliable
and valid assessment.
b. Informal Assessments:
i. Math Curriculum-Based Exam: This will be an exam that will measure
what she knows of the 3rd grade math curriculum. The questions being
asked on the exam were pulled from her math textbook. Maria is does
well in math, this assessment will show what she knows from the
curriculum she has been taught so far this year, some questions were
above grade level to see if she can answer them correctly.
ii. Writing Sample: The student will be asked to write a paragraph about
what she thinks of school. She will be graded on a rubric of 1-4, 1
needs work to 4 very strong on: organization, voice, word choice,
sentence fluency, conventions and presentation/expansion. The
teacher, Mrs. Amoia, uses this rubric so the student has seen and
knows what is being asked of her. This assessment will demonstrate
the students writing abilities. The teacher would like to see her expand
her writing, and this assessment will help show where her writing is
and what she needs to improve on.
c. Process used in selecting informal assessment:
i. The Curriculum Based Assessment will assess what she knows from
the curriculum she has been taught from. Some of the questions were
above her grade level to see if she could answer them correctly. Her
textbook was used to create the exam.

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ii. Marias writing skills such as: organization, voice, word choice,
sentence fluency, conventions and presentation/expansion will be
assessed. The rubric is one the teacher uses the student has seen it
before. The student is at school most of her day and week, so school
will be something easy to discus and talk about.

d. Testing Sessions: listed in order planed to be assessed.

1. Torrance Tests of Creative Thinking: A half an hour will be
planned in a quiet, well-lit room with just the student.
2. Key Math-3 Diagnostic Assessment: Forty minutes will be
planned in a quiet, well-lit room with just the student.
3. Math Exam: A half an hour will be planned, in a quiet place
where the student will not be disturbed.
4. Writing Sample: A half an hour will be planned, in a quiet
place where the student will not be disturbed.
II. Part two
A. Test Behavior and Results
1. Test Behavior & Results:
a. Attentiveness: The student was attentive and not easily distracted. She was excited
to begin the assessments. The length of test sessions was done well, she did not
become impatient.

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b. Degree of cooperation: The student was willing to work and do her best. She
started to show frustration when questions started to get harder. The student
followed directions quickly.
c. Quality of rapport developed with examiner: The rapport established between the
student and examiner is very high. The student shows excitement when working
with examiner.
d. Factors that might lower students scores: None
2. Results of Individual Assessments, organized by domain/subject area.
a. Formal assessments
1. KeyMath-3 Diagnostic Assessment
i. Score: KeyMath-3 Diagnostic Assessment is a comprehensive assessment of a
students understanding and application of important mathematic concepts and
skills. The test was administered February 5th, 2013. Marias overall performance on
the Keymath Basic Concepts area suggests that she is functioning on average range
of ability. In the Basic Concepts area, Maria achieved a standard score of 100 and a
percentile rank of 50. She scored at the same level as 50% of her peers.
ii. Item Analysis: In the areas of geometry, algebra and data analysis the student
demonstrates above average ability. Strength is apparent in measurement. A less
than average weakness is evident in numeration such as: which two numbers
round to 80, how many 10s in 130, 2 hundreds + 3 tens + 16 ones and 3 stacks to
make 9 cubes.
iii.Estimated Accuracy of Results: The test results should be considered an accurate
estimate of the students abilities, the student tried her best, showed confidence,

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paid attention and showed good conscientiousness. The ceiling was found in each
section of the assessment. The assessment was found reliable and valid.
iv. Score sheet attached in Appendix
2. Torrance Tests of Creative Thinking
i. Torrance Tests of Creative thinking was used to assess Maria in the area of
creativity in the areas of fluency, originality, abstractness of titles, elaboration and
resistance to premature closure. Marias overall performance on the Torrance Tests
suggests that she is not always as creative as her peers but she shows high originality.
Her overall creativity index she achieved a standard score of 85, and a national
percentile rank of 17.
ii. Item Analysis: In the fluency area, Maria achieved a standard score of 141 and a
percentile rank of 97. In the originality area, Maria achieved a standard score of 150
and a percentile rank of 99. These are her strengths; she scored 97 and 99% more than
her peers. In the abstractness of titles area, Maria achieved a standard score of 73 and
a percentile rank of 13. In the area of elaboration, Maria achieved a standard score of
61 and a percentile rank of 5. In the area of resistance to premature closure, Maria did
not receive points. Marias creative weakness is in elaboration and abstractness which
also shows true in her writing.
iii. Estimated Accuracy of Results: The test results should be considered an accurate
estimate of the students abilities. The student showed excitement, and tried her best.
The test was found reliable and valid.
iv.Score sheet attached in Appendix
b. Informal assessments

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1. Curriculum-based math assessment:

i. Results: The student was assessed on items from the curriculum she has
been taught and some questions being more advanced. The student
received an 85% with 17 out of 20 questions correct. The student is at
above grade-level expectations. She is performing just above her peers.
ii. Analyzes of responses: She forgot to answer one of the questions, which
was not counted against her score. The student is able to solve math
subtraction, multiplication and division equations. She was able to round
and complete numerical patterns. She knew her math figures and was able
to tell how many faces the math figures have. The student shows that she
understands the 3rd grade curriculum questions. She could not remember
intersecting lines, which was newer material. Maria was not able to write
the numbers in expanded form correctly.
iii.Attached is the graded assessment
2. Writing Paragraph
i. The writing sample was assessed in the areas of organization, voice, word
choice, sentence fluency/elaboration, conventions and presentation. The
student was asked to write a paragraph about school. She achieved a score
of 89%. The students writing is just above her peers but she can still use
improvements
ii. The student demonstrates many different ideas, shows strong transitions,
and has strong purpose, strong sentence fluency and overall nice
presentation. The student needs to improve her word choice for example

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she wrote I mean fun by like music, art and stuff like that. The student
could write more and expanding her thinking but she writes enough to
answer the question.
iii.Attached is the writing sample and rubric used to assess her writing.
D. Evaluation Summary:
1. Summary Statement: Maria is a bright student who works hard and does her best. The
student has a lot of family support to make sure she excels in all her subjects in school.
She shows strengths in math above her peers. She was recommended to improve her
elaboration in writing. In both her writing sample and the Torrance Creativity Test show
she struggles with elaboration. She demonstrates strengths in creativity in originality.
2. Instructional levels, strengths/needs, instructional implications
a. Students Instructional Level
i. Writing: She writes at an advanced 3rd grade level. She is performing
above her grade level peers.
ii. Mathematics: Math is one of Marias strengths. She is performing at 3.8
grade level. She is above her peers.
b. Specific Strengths and Needs
i. Writing: Maria shows a higher writing ability than her peers. She
demonstrates strong ability of forming ideas, organization, voice, fluency
and presentation. She is able to introduce a paragraph through a topic
sentence and support the topic sentence in a paragraph. The student shows
weakness and word choice and expanding her thinking. She needs to work

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on her revision skills and reading her work aloud to herself to help her with
her word choice and elaboration.
ii. Mathematics: Math is one of Marias strengths. She shows great strengths in
geometry, measurement, algebra and data analysis and probability. She
demonstrates some weakness in expanded form and perpendicular lines. She
had difficulty with the newer material as she did not practice the concepts
enough yet.

c. Instructional implications:
The main focus for Maria is to make sure she does not become bored as she is
above her peers in writing and math. Her writing ability is above her peers but can
improve. She struggles with expanding on her ideas. Providing research-based
instruction strategies can benefit her tremendously. It is important to continue to
monitor her progress so she can continue to improve. In math her grades should
be tracked to make sure she is not doing so well that she does not become bored
and not wanting to work.
E. Recommendations:
1.Recommended Supports
a. Modifications: It is recommended the student read more advanced level books.
She should be asked more involved questions to make her think more in-depth, to
enrich her thinking. It is recommended she reread her work for mistakes or

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incorrect wording, to help her improve her writing. Marias math scores should be
tracked to make sure she does not become bored.
b. Additional Testing Needs: none
c. Supports for Staff: The student receives a lot of support in the classroom and out
of the classroom.
d. Other recommendations: none
2. Suggested Instructional Goals:
a. Given a writing assignment the student will achieve a score of 4 out of 4 in word
choice in four out of five trials.
i. Rationale: It is important that the student is challenged and improve her writing
skills. The student is able to get her ideas across but should work toward improving
her word choice to better allow her readers to understand.
b. Given a persuasive writing prompt the student will be able to write 6-7 persuasive
details, two out of three trials.
i. Rationale: Writing persuasively asks students to work at higher-level thinking skills
and will increase attention to audience (Burkhalter, 1995). The student would benefit
writing persuasively to help improve her higher-level thinking and her descriptive
language. Asking the student to give 6-7 details will help the student to expand her
ideas.
c. Given a 4th grade creative writing assignment, the student will be able to write a
response using descriptive language with 4 or fewer grammatical errors.
3. Research-based Instructional Strategies:
i. Persuasive writing

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a. It is recommended the student write persuasive pieces to help the student achieve
higher-level thinking and increase her attention to audience (Burkhalter, 1995). To
do this: first, the students are shown what a persuasive piece is and looks like. Then,
the students are to develop arguments and anticipate a readers objections, list
opposing viewpoints. They are then motivated to write the persuasive piece,
knowing their letters will actually be sent to principal or newspaper. They then need
to support their viewpoint with evidence.
b. The student is above her peers in writing and can use more challenging writing
concepts to enrich her writing experience. The student needing to support her
viewpoint with details will help her to elaborate and give reasoning to her thinking.
ii. DISCOVER Curriculum Model
a. It is recommended the teacher use a DISCOVER model for some lessons. This
model develops learning units based on abstract themes such as systems,
relationships, patterns or invention (Muammar, Serino, Ching, Mohamed, Sak,
2006). It is based on constructivist thinking, actively building new knowledge
based on prior experience to help students acquire higher order thinking and
problem solving skills. The students will be active participants rather than passive
observers in their education.
b. Basing some instruction off this model will help the student become more active
in her education. The students will be asked questions and need to use prior
knowledge to answer the question. Maria is an intelligent student who needs to be
encouraged to question and think of new concepts.
iii.Reading Enrichment:

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a. The students read and do projects based off their own reading level. The
students are asked higher order themes and asked critical questions focusing on
synthesis, evaluation, and discussion at their own reading level (Sally and Gara,
2007).
b. The student would benefit from reading at a higher reading level. She can learn
high-quality writing, vocabulary and improve her writing skills.

References:
Burkhalter, N. (1995). A vygotsky-based curriculum for teaching persuasive writing in the
elementary grades. Language Arts, 72(3), 192-192.
C, J. M., Muammar, O., Serino, L., Ching, C. K., Mohamed, A., & Sak, U. (2006). The
DISCOVER curriculum model: Nurturing and enhancing creativity in all children. KEDI
Journal of Educational Policy, 3(2)
Connolly, A. (2007). Keymath3. Minneapolis, MN: NCS Person.

Sally, M. R., & Gara, B. F. (2007). Exploring the new literacies using two new approaches: The
schoolwide enrichment model in reading and renzulli learning. New England Reading
Association Journal, 43(1), 30-35,90-91.

Student Project Disclaimer: Readers of this report are asked to interpret the results and
recommendations with the understanding that it has been developed as a project for graduate-level

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assessment course. Although the author is a certified teacher in an advanced academic program, the
contents may be limited by the as-yet-developing expertise of the author, time limitations of the course,
etc.