What is the goal of using assessments for students with disabilities?

The goal of using assessments for students with disabilities centers on enhancing teaching methods and instructional planning. These assessments are designed to gather relevant information about a student's abilities, challenges, and learning styles. By understanding specific student needs, educators can tailor their teaching strategies and interventions to support individual progress. This individualized approach fosters a more meaningful learning experience, ensuring that instruction is aligned with each student’s unique requirements.

While assessing performance against national standards can be important, this primarily measures relative achievement rather than focusing on customization of instruction. Identifying underlying pupil behavior might be part of the broader assessment process, but it isn't the main objective. Lastly, providing competitive evaluations in standardized settings is not aligned with the purpose of assessments for students with disabilities, as it often does not accommodate diverse learning needs and can lead to misleading results. Ultimately, the emphasis of assessments should be on informing and improving educational practices rather than merely comparing performance.