Educational Assessment Overview for Justin

Examiner: Ms. Tammy R. Grant

Justin is 13 year old, and 3 months, and in eighth grader. Justin attends a middle school in the St.
Louis County School district. Currently Justin is receiving no special educational services.
According to his mom, Justin could be a better student if he stopped playing and focused on his
work. Ms. LaVeika stated that the primary problem that she sees is that Justin rushes threw his
work, if he even remembers to do it. Justin earned three Fs on her report card. Justin indicated
that he likes school, but did not indicate a favorite subject. Justin loves football. He participated
on the schools football team this fall season. He attends church with his family weekly, where he
is a junior usher. There was no reported participation in any community activities by his mother.
Justin was administered the four different assessments during the months of SeptemberNovember.
Justins adaptive behavior was evaluated using the Adaptive Behavior Assessment System,
Second Edition (ABAS-II). The ABAS-II is designed to assess skills needed to function
independently at home, school, work, and community settings. It measures those facets of social
development and adaptive and problem behaviors that define, influence, or limit an individuals
adjustment in a variety of environments. Mrs. LaVeika D., Justins mother, completed the ABASII Parent Form.
The results indicate Justins overall adaptive behavior is developmentally appropriate (based on
performance in the average range on the General Adaptive Composite or GAC). Justins GAC
score fell at the 34th percentile, meaning Justin performed equal to or better than 34% of his
same-age peers in the standardization sample.
Additional composite scales reported on the ABAS-II include conceptual, social, and practical.
In the conceptual domain (communication, functional academics, and self-direction), Mrs.
LaVeikas responses indicate Justin is in the average range (27th percentile). In the social domain
(leisure & social), Justins skills fall in the above average range (77th percentile). Finally, in the
practical domain (community use, home living, health & safety, and self-care), Justins skills fall
in the average range (25th percentile).
An area of relative strength is social skills (examples: has friends, shows sympathy for others,
listens when friends or family need to talk about problems). An area of relative weakness is
home living (examples: cannot and/or does not place dirty clothes in the proper place, does not
clean room or living quarters regularly, cannot and/or does not pick up and throw away trash);
however, it should be noted that while this is a relative weakness compared to Justins
performance in other areas, his score still fell within the average range & thus is not an area for
concern.
The second evaluation that was giving was the Behavior Rating Inventory of Executive Function
(BRIEF). The Behavior Rating Inventory of Executive Function (BRIEF) is a questionnaire
completed by teachers and/or parents of school-aged children. It is designed to provide a better
understanding of a childs self-control and problem-solving skills by measuring eight aspects of
executive functioning. The executive functions are mental processes that direct a childs thought,
action, and emotion, particularly during active problem solving. Specific skills include (a)

selecting appropriate goals for a particular task, (b) planning and organizing an approach to
problem solving, (c) initiating a plan, (d) inhibiting (blocking out) distractions, (e) holding a goal
and plan in mind, (f) flexibly trying a new approach when necessary, and (g) checking to see that
the goal is achieved. The executive functions are also responsible for controlling a childs
emotional response, thereby allowing for more effective problem solving.
The scale was completed by Justins mother, Mrs. LaVeika D. According to Mrs. LaVeikas
ratings, area of concern (reflected by a T score of 65 or higher) include: Monitor (the ability to
check work; assess own performance). Some of the items endorsed by raters indicate Justin: does
not check work for mistakes, makes careless errors, forgets what he is doing, work is sloppy, is
unaware of how negative behavior affects others and does not notice when his behavior causes a
negative reactions.
Justins reading skills were assessed using the Test of Reading Comprehension Fourth Edition
(TORC-4). The TORC-4 consists of five subtests that evaluated the core skills for reading. They
are Relational Vocabulary, Sentence Completion, Paragraph Construction, text Comprehension
and Contextual Fluency.
The formal and informal information obtained during the administering of the TORC-4 revealed
that Justin's academic achievement in the areas of reading is in the Average range. The sum of
the scaled scores achieved by Justin was a 46. Although Justin did not indicated a favorite
subject, the Contextual Fluency subtest was his highest score (14), indicating a relative strength. .
Justin scored a 9 in the areas of Relational Vocabulary and Sentence Completion. Paragraph
Construction and Text Comprehension was found to be a relative weakness which was reflected
in scored a 7; however, his score still fell in the average range & thus is not an area of concern.
Finally, Justin was administered three informal reading tests. The purpose of this was to monitor
his progress in the area of reading. Justin base score was 150. Our goal was to get to 164 within
the eight week period. At first I saw no progress in Justins reading. At the time of this report, I
then saw a seven point progression in his reading score.
Based on the information gathered from the assessments given over the three-month time span
and the scores; I would concluded that Justin is an Average student. Justins strength lies in his
social skills (examples: has friends, shows sympathy for others, listens when friends or family
need to talk about problems). There is a clear sign that Justin has problems with home living
(examples: cannot and/or does not place dirty clothes in the proper place, does not clean room or
living quarters regularly, cannot and/or does not pick up and throw away trash) and Monitor (the
ability to check work; assess own performance). While there are no indication from the
assessments given and my observation of Justin that these weaknesses are a deficit to his
academic achievement; they can be a slight hindrance. As seen on the score achieved on the
TORC-4 subtest areas Paragraph Construction and Text Comprehension were found to be a
relative weakness.