Assessment: Identifying Students with Severe Learning Disabilities in Literacy, White River Junction, Day 2 of 2

• Course Number: ISS3
• Date: February 10, 2010
• Time: 8:30 AM-4:30 PM
• Location: Kinney Pike Room
• Address: Stern Center
• Address 2: 1011 North Main Street
• City: White River Junction
• State: VT
• Cost: $325
• Instructor: Jackie Earle-Cruickshanks

This 16-hour seminar, developed by the Stern Center and the Vermont Department of Education, is designed for special educators.  In keeping with changes to federal regulations, it focuses on assessing students with severe literacy problems using cross-battery measures to identify the core deficits involved in Specific Learning Disabilities (SLD).  The deficits will be linked to the impact on the basic literacy skill areas: basic reading, reading fluency, reading comprehension, and written expression. A seminar in program intervention for students with severe learning disabilities in literacy will be offered January-May 2009.  Participants are required to complete an evaluation and bring data from a case study of one student in their school. Forms will be provided to all.

In this course, participants will:

• identify subtests and group them into core deficits for SLD
• understand rationale for using cross-battery assessments
• identify which deficit each subtest measures
• learn impact of core deficits on skill areas relating to literacy
• formulate hypotheses about SLD from curriculum based measures and diagnostic information
• observe hypothetical thinking in a model case study
• use data from the case study and synthesize information to determine adverse effect
• gather data and administer critical tests to identify core deficits, academic impact and adverse effect on a student from his/her school
• write case study report and share with group
• understand changing roles of professionals needed to implement these streamlined evaluations

Students will receive 30 hours of CEU's for the seminar series as a written product is expected.

This session is designed to support students across Tiers 1, 2, and 3.  

"Developing an understanding of the strengths and weaknesses in core cognitive processes and the academic areas that are impacted is a way to examine student instructional needs across the curriculum" .

"Even if you used a discrepancy model this information would be good for programming"