high school students

My son is due is 3 year testing also. He is 14 and in the 9th grade. The school plans on doing the WISC III and the Woodcock Johnson test of achievement, they left the option open for further testing based on these results. They have also gathered work samples from various classes for the school psychologist to review. My understanding is she also plans on observing him in the classroom a few times. I don’t know if this through an eval is based on they are looking at exiting him out of special ed or if this is the way this district always does it. This will be the 1st time he is tested by this district. In 2000 when we moved here they based his services on the old districts results. This type of eval could also be driven by the fact that there is disagreement among the school staff on if he should be exited or not. The director of special ed feels he can be staffed out, his resource room teacher he had last semester does not. I guess this eval will give them more information to base the choice on.

I would suggest that you talk with the SLP at the school and see what tests she is going to do. There is an assessment for spelling that can be used but I can’t remember the name right now, a good reading inventory would be good to see where he is breaking down on that, perhaps a portion of the Brigance could be used for this. I know speech tests so I will mention some that are good for this age:
CTOPP- comprehensive test of phonological processing,
The DTLA-IV is a good comprehensive test for language and academic progress.
Test of Adolescent and Adult Language-3 to assess auditory comprehension and oral and written language skills,
test of Problem solving-Adolescent, to assess verbal problem-solving ability and sentence production,
Fullerton Language Test for Adolescents, to assess semanatic, morphologic and syntactic skills,
the TAPS-UL Test of auditory perceptual skills Upper level—Tests auditory attention, some logic and reasoning
Test of Adolescent/adult Word Finding—Asssess naming of verba and nouns, categories, description and sentence completion.
TOWL Test of Written Language, Good assessment for testing their ability to write a story from a visual prompt,
PPVT Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test, the CREVT which is the coomprehensive receptive and expressive vocabulary test, the Expressive one-word picture vocabulary test—Upper extension, the Receptive one-word picture vocabulary test-upper extension.

The Woodcock Reading Mastery Test-Revised will fit for qualifying in reading and the Test of Written Language 3rd Ed. (TOWL-3) will work for that age in Written Expression. Don’t use earlier versions of the TOWL such as TOWL-R. Some subtests don’t go over age 13 or 14.

Many districts will not give language testing without some real evidence of problems related to that area over just LD’s. The synonyms and antonyms subtests of the WRMT-R might point out possible language issues. Certainly the TOWL-3 might also. Doesn’t hurt to ask, though!

DON’T SIGN HIM OUT. EVER!!! You don’t have to sign him out, it is the law. He needs those accomodations for college. He can get assistance in college also, and special funding. I am the Special Ed chairperson on our PTA board at our high school and I have been researching college transition all year. NEVER SIGN YOUR CHILD OUT. THEY CAN NOT MAKE YOU DO IT. CALL YOUR STATE ADVOCACY OFFICE. IN GEORGIA, probably in the rest of the country also, you can request a second psychological evaluation if you don’t like the one that they do, AND THEY HAVE TO PAY FOR ONE FROM AN OUTSIDE SOURCE. YOU HAVE TO AGREE ON THE PSYCHOLOGIST THAT DOES THE OUTSIDE TESTING. THEY HAVE TO PAY FOR IT. YOU HAVE TO INSIST, and request it in writing.