Judgement-based performance measures of literacy for students with additional needs: seeing students through the eyes of experienced special education teachers

Abstract

This article describes the development of judgement-based performance measures to support the instruction of students with additional learning needs. The focus of the research was the design of assessment materials and protocols to help teachers recognise and respond to students’ proficiency in foundational literacy skills. It drew on the expertise of special education teachers to provide all teachers with an evidence framework against which to observe their students’ learning. The assessment materials were trialled in 53 schools and used to monitor literacy learning for 547 students, who ranged in age from 3 to 18 years and represented children and young people with a wide diversity and severity of disabilities. The article reports a new approach to judgement-based performance measurement which directs teachers’ observations to meaningful shifts and transformations in foundational literacy skills for students with additional needs.