WIAT
Composites
ASSESSMENT
REPORT
Identifying Information:
Name: Yvonne Chavez (pseudonym)
Date of Birth: 9-6-82 Sex: F Grade: 12
Home Language: English Language of Instruction: English
Age at time of background data collection: 18 years, 1 month, 15 days
Background Information:
The following information was collected by teacher observations, surveys, and interviews with Yvonne and her mother, Theresa Chavez.
Yvonne appears to be a healthy, alert young woman. She states that she “works out” at home every day. She has no significant health problems that interfere with her learning. Hearing and vision screening results are normal. However, she does have allergies and asthma that are controlled with occasional medication and inhalers.
Yvonne lives with her mother, Theresa Chavez. Their home appears neat, clean and orderly. Mrs. Chavez cares for several children in her home on a daily basis, with occasional help from Yvonne. Yvonne has an older sister, 41, and two older brothers, 37 and 39 who all live outside the home. The family usually gathers for major holidays. Both Yvonne and Theresa have male friends who support them with repairs around the house and music interests. As a baby, Yvonne was adopted. She has no contact with the birth family. Yvonne’s adoptive father passed away from cancer in 1994. He had been ill for three years. Mrs. Chavez is in her early sixties and recently she had a small stroke, but she says that she feels healthy.
Yvonne’s current academic performance has improved since her junior year when she was at risk for failing all of her classes due to poor attendance. Currently, her attendance is good. Her letter grades for the first quarter 2000, are four A’s and a B+ in piano. She states that she knows she’s graduating and that she has “to do the work,” which may account for her improved performance and attendance.
Her courses for the first semester are: Supervised Student Tutoring, Career Development, US/AZ History, Teacher aid in Pre-algebra, Senior English One, US/AZ Government, and Piano 1. She is enrolled in the Youth Transition Program (YTP) for career development class. She is not involved in any extracurricular or community activities at this time. Yvonne does not plan to work while in school.
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The following information was collected from Yvonne’s school file.
Yvonne did not attend a pre-school. She was evaluated in kindergarten (Jan. 1989). In March 1989, she began receiving speech/language and occupational therapy. In August 1989, at 6 years-11 months, Yvonne was placed in the learning disabilities program. She was served in the resource/itinerant program for help with word recognition and reading comprehension. During this intervention, skill in these areas improved. She needed one-to-one often and she had difficulty with attention to task.
Yvonne’s specific learning disabilities are in math calculation and reading comprehension. At this time, as a high school senior, Yvonne is receiving special education services in the areas of mathematics and basic reading skills/comprehension through student supervised tutoring for 500 minutes weekly and teacher consultation in her general education classes. There is documentation of her poor attendance during her junior year and evidence that an IEP behavior plan was a special factor of consideration for the IEP meeting on September 21, 1999. The following goals and objectives reflect that area of need.
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Yvonne’s present IEP objectives are (verbatim):
Measurable Goal: Student will investigate career options by completing transition curriculum to prepare for successful job placement and to create appropriate work ethics [and] behaviors with % participation.
Short Term
Objectives/Benchmarks:
a) Dream Sheet.
b) Visit career center to obtain information.
c) Increase classroom attendance to 5 [absences] per quarter.
d) One-page report on the relation between attendance [at] work and school.
Measurable Goal: Student will learn [and] effectively apply a variety of reading. strategies for comprehension, interpreting a wide range of text [with] 85% [accuracy] by [teacher made tests].
Short Term
Objectives/Benchmarks:
1) Identify the main idea, critical [and] supporting details author’s purpose, feeling, [and]
point of view.
2) Distinguish fact from opinions.
3) Summarize text in her own words [and] apply the knowledge.
4) Use phonetical approach and morpheme strategies to decode words in isolation and in
context.
5) Use the context to decode [and] comprehend text in relation to the context.
Measurable Goal: [student] will increase functional Math Skills needed for future employability [and] independent adult living [with] 80% [accuracy] measured by [criterion referenced tests and teacher made tests].
Short Term
Objectives/Benchmarks:
1) Given integers [student, with behavior assessed by teacher,] verbalize the process of
converting the integers into their equivalent forms.
2) Using a calculator, [student, with behavior assessed by teacher,] convert integers into
their equivalent form.
3) Utilize basic math skills and apply to daily living skills.
A) Paychecks.
B) Budgeting for independent living.
C) [Dollars] per [hours of] workload.
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Referral Information:
Yvonne is being assessed for the purpose of an annual Individual Education Plan review and revision. Yvonne has specific learning disabilities in the areas of mathematical calculations and reading comprehension.
An informal survey reveals that Yvonne’s learning style preference is auditory and visual. Direct observations show that Yvonne is a talkative, sociable young adult. She participates often in class and in individual discussions, usually with an adult and not peers. She usually acts socially appropriate, but interrupts others often. She enjoys writing and using the laptop computers. Yvonne states that she prefers not to read and would rather have some one else read and then discuss the information with her. It was observed that she had difficulty completing a “Cloze” review with corresponding text or with vocabulary lists. She also had difficulty working consistently on assignments.
Yvonne shares that her interests are in music, dance, and singing. She would like to pursue a singing career after high school. She states that her favorite pastime is watching music videos. However, she often has a negative attitude. She makes negative comments about school, self, friends, teachers, and the future. She complains that her teachers don’t listen to her.
Yvonne’s teacher of record, the Youth Transition Program teacher, described Yvonne as needing a lot of teacher attention and that she likes to be the center of attention. She asks the teacher often for help and interrupts others. The paraprofessional made similar statements. The Vocational Rehabilitation Specialist said she found that Yvonne needed a lot of attention and she sees Yvonne as negative. The VR Specialist also felt that Yvonne needed to work on social skills.
During home interviews with, Mrs. Chavez states that Yvonne “cannot whisper.” She also shared, “Yvonne is strong willed, and she has a bad temper.” Mrs. Chavez admits that she just lets “her go” and “gives into her.” Nevertheless, Yvonne helps her mother with the childcare, cooking and cleaning. Mrs. Chavez would like to see Yvonne obtain her drivers license soon.
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Summary of Tests Administered
and Scores:
WIAT- Wechsler Individual Achievement Test
Date: October 27, 2000
Age at time of test: 18 years, 1 month, 21 day
|
S AGE |
RAW
SCORES |
Standard
Scores
|
Confidence
Interval 90% |
Percentile |
Age
Equivalent |
|
Basic Reading |
42 |
80 |
82-98 |
9 % |
11:6 |
|
Mathematics Reasoning |
28 |
67 |
82-98 |
1% |
10:0 |
|
Spelling |
38 |
90 |
83-99 |
25% |
13:0 |
|
Reading Comprehension |
17 |
67 |
56-78 |
1% |
8:6 |
|
Numerical Operations |
|
|
|
|
|
|
Listening Comprehension |
|
|
|
|
|
|
Oral Expression |
22 |
88 |
81-95 |
21% |
10:6 |
|
Written Expression |
|
|
|
|
|
WIAT
Composites |
S AGE |
Reading |
Sum of Raw Scores |
59 |
|
Standard Score |
66 |
|
Confidence Interval 90% |
59-73 |
|
Percentile |
1 % |
|
Age Equivalent |
11:3 |
facing each other. Assessment materials were prepared. Administering the test began at 8:10 AM. When presented with the first part of the test, Yvonne said, “oh no, not again.” She was assured that she would do well. She mentioned that she had taken the test before, but that she would go ahead with the testing.
During the basic reading, she gave up easily when decoding words and used no apparent strategy except to guess. Throughout the testing session, Yvonne became distracted easily. She would talk about home and school life. It was difficult to encourage her to continue with testing.
During the mathematic reasoning subtest, she asked, “Is this where you do math? I ain’t doin’ that.” With prompting, she completed a few more. For several questions, she required prompting through rephrasing the question. For the four consecutive items with a 0 score, she either guessed or used no strategy. She used a drawing strategy for the last item and then said, “I hate this. It’s making me mad. I hate fractions.” At this point, she refused to do any more.
The spelling subtest went quickly. It appeared that Yvonne began writing the word without hearing the full context statement. For example, she wrote “soul” for “sole” before the statement was read and she did not self-correct afterward.
At the beginning of the reading comprehension subtest, she seemed negative about the questions. Adaptations of voice inflection were made while reading the questions to help her understand and to keep her interest, along with prompts to encourage her to continue. Students and adults walked by often. Yvonne finally said, “I feel uncomfortable with all these people around. I don’t know these people. It’s none of their business. They think I’m stupid because of my disabilities.” After a suggestion, the assessment location was moved back into the classroom. Here, she became even more distracted. She said, “I don’t care any more. I’m in a bad mood now. I want to scream.” After question 21, she said that she did not want to do any more. When asked if she wanted to stop the test altogether, she responded with a request to move again.
At 9:32 the location was moved into the office where the secretary sat at the desk and two teachers talked in the doorway. There were also several people in and out of the room there was a boy sleeping at the table where the assessment resumed. When the subtest of numerical operations began, Yvonne said, “I don’t want to do any of these, I’m not good at math.” She refused to continue with the subtest.
Yvonne continued on with oral expression. At 10:08, Yvonne went to her next class because her teacher had wanted her back at this time. She was thanked her for help and she was walked her back to class.
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Test Interpretations:
Yvonne was assessed with the Wechsler Individual Achievement Test (WIAT). A confidence interval of 90% was used for the scoring ranges of the test.
The subtest for Basic Reading began at grade level 5-12, where Yvonne would respond orally to printed words or read single words. She scored a 42 raw score out of 55 items. Her standard score was 80, with her score falling between the 82-98 range. Her percentile rank is at 9%, and age equivalent is 11 years, 6 months. Yvonne’s scores show that her performance is below the average of her peers for this subtest. She will need special education and academic intervention for this area to work on decoding skills and persistence in decoding (see current goals and objectives).
For the Mathematics Reasoning, I started Yvonne at the 8-12 grade level. Items in this subtest are read to the student. Some items the student may read along and some have visual cues. The response types are varied. Yvonne’s raw score was 28 out of a maximum of 50. Her standard score was 67. The range was between scores 82-98. Her percentile rank is 1% and age equivalent of 10 years. Yvonne’s performance was significantly below the average of her peers for this subtest. She will need intensive continued special education and academic intervention in the areas of multiplication, word problems, decimals and simple fractions (see current goals and objectives).
The Spelling subtest required that Yvonne write dictated words. She began at grade level 8-12. Here, she scored a 38 raw score out of 50 items. Her standard score was 90, with an 83 to 99 range. The percentile was 25% and age equivalent 13 years. Yvonne’s scores show that her performance is in the average range. This is an area of strength for her although she can benefit from general educational instruction for learning spelling strategies.
The Reading Comprehension subtest requires that the student read short passages and then answer comprehension questions. She began at 6-12 grade level. She required the reverse rule process until she scored 4 consecutively. Her raw score was 17 of 38 total items. The standard score was 67 with the range between 56-78. Her percentile rank was 1% and age equivalent was 8 years, 6 months. These scores show Yvonne’s performance to be significantly below the average range of her peers. Yvonne needs intensive special education and academic intervention in the areas of recognizing implied cause and effect, predicting events and outcomes, and comparing and contrasting (see current goals and objectives).
The subtest for Numerical Operations was not administered. The subtest for Listening Comprehension was not only partially completed. For both of these subtests, there were no scores recorded.
The Oral Expression subtest began with a K-12 level. Yvonne was required to respond to oral directions for items presented. She scored 22 out of 40 total. Her standard score was 88 with a range between 81-95. The percentile was 21% and the age equivalent 10 years, 6 months. The scores show that Yvonne’s performance is somewhat below the average range of her peers. She can benefit from general educational instruction with support.
It must be noted that the standard district process of administering the oral expression subtest is to stop after two consecutive records of 0, per the program assistant who administers the WIAT assessments.
The subtest for the Written Expression was not administered.
Yvonne’s Composite score in Reading is 59, the sum of raw scores. The standard score was 66 with range of 59 through 73. Her percentile was 1%, and the age equivalent is 11 years, three months. Yvonne needs special education and academic intervention as given for each subtest. Her performance in reading composite is below average to significantly below the average of her peers (see current goals and objectives).
For some subtests, the scores may be depressed due to the purpose for giving the assessment. The results would not be used to evaluate Yvonne or to be put in her permanent record. Furthermore, Yvonne may have refused to finish or do the subtests in mathematics because she has already completed the mathematic requirements for graduation as a senior. That is, she has successfully passed the Saxton Mathematic Curriculum through the 5.6 level or the fifth grade, sixth month level.
A comparison of past (10-27-98) and present assessment standard scores are as follows: Basic Reading- (86), 80; Mathematics Reasoning- (74), 67; Spelling- (89), 90; Reading Comprehension- (72), 67. No other comparisons are available.
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Summary:
For performance scores in spelling, Yvonne has average scores in comparison to her peers. In oral expression and basic reading, her performance is below average in comparison to her peers. Her performance in reading comprehension is significantly below the average of her peers. The composite for reading also shows she is below the average to significantly below the average in comparison to her peers. Yvonne’s mathematic reasoning scores show her performance in this area to be significantly below the average of her peers.
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Recommendations for Educational Programming:
Besides the suggestions given following each subtest category above, the instructional and classroom modifications that will maximize Yvonne’s opportunity for educational achievement are:
Yvonne’s preferred style of learning is auditory and visual. So, for reading and reading comprehension, as well as other content area learning, teachers can offer study guides, highlighted texts, additional examples, concrete materials, additional time, and preferential seating. They can also provide progress reports and positive feedback. The teachers can clarify instructions, ask Yvonne for understanding during verbal instruction, and use modified, explicit language.
Teachers should continue to build, review, and monitor mathematic skills for IEP goals and for career development and life skills in order to maintain mastery of basic skills. Allowing the use of a calculator would also help in this area. Teachers should follow similar modifications as for reading.
Accessing a community resource for a beginning driving course would be beneficial to Yvonne and her mom.
Nothing in Yvonne’s IEP specifically addresses a singing career. This should be encouraged and fostered by school personnel because Yvonne is motivated personally and supported by those people close to her outside of school. Glee club, school choir, drama club, or community volunteer choirs and vocal performance workshops would be starting points for developing her interest.
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Recommendations for Additional
Testing:
In order to understand Yvonne’s achievement level in Numerical Operations, I would interview her consumer math teacher. I would also review past work and encourage her to complete the subtest of the WIAT to see if she is maintaining her skill level.
For Listening Comprehension, I would interview the school psychologist so that I would gain an understanding of the listening skills test that she administered. The most recent evidence of assessment in this area is from 10-17-98, where Yvonne’s performance on the WIAT subtest showed a standard score of 89 and grade equivalent of 6.7. These scores were high enough not to be considered a part of a learning disability.
For written comprehension, I would encourage Yvonne to complete the subtest of the WIAT or incorporate similar assignments into the classroom curriculum to use as an informal or an authentic assessment as a way to monitor the retention of her skills.
Since Yvonne tends to show a negative attitude, and her recent records indicate that she was suicidal after her boyfriend moved away, I would begin screening for emotional or problem behaviors. I would use questionnaires and observations as to whether a referral was necessary and then follow up with more formal assessments.