In special education, a merger between assessment and instruction is mandated by Federal law (PL 94-142), wherein teachers of handicapped pupils are required to specify individualized educational programs that include procedures for assessing students' progress toward goal attainment. The purpose of this study was to determine the effects of…

This article provides an overview of Peer-Assisted Learning Strategies (PALS) for reading. First, specific activities and research supporting PALS for Grades 2 through 6, High School, Kindergarten, and First Grade are described. Then, research addressing the characteristics of students who have not responded to PALS, as well as approaches to…

Curriculum-based measurement (CBM) bridges traditional psychometric and classroom-based observational assessment paradigms to forge an innovative approach to measurement, with several advantages over traditional and other forms of classroom assessment. This article provides a framework for extending CBM in two ways. First, the authors explain how…

The purpose of this study was to explore whether, and if so how, ongoing measurement and evaluation procedures affect the instruction that special educators provide and the educational decisions that they make. Eighteen experimental group teachers employed specific continuous evaluation procedures while 21 contrast group teachers employed…