The Atlas Clinic
Educational Assessment
Evaluate performance in specific subjects
About This Assessment
What is an Educational Assessment?
Educational assessments play a crucial role in informing a student’s academic development.
They evaluate a student’s performance in specific subjects such as reading (phonological awareness, decoding abilities, comprehension), writing (spelling, sentence completion), mathematics (numeracy, problem solving) and other areas.
This provides parents and teachers with a snapshot of what the student has learned and assesses their current level of achievement in comparison to their peers.
What’s Involved in the Educational Assessment Process?
Educational assessments examine various aspects of a student’s academic performance, learning style, and overall educational experience. Here’s some of what you and your child can expect when you come to visit us for an assessment:
01. Friendly Introduction
It begins with a friendly chat. We sit down with parents or caregivers and the child to understand their likes, dislikes, and what they enjoy doing.
02. Interview / Collateral Information
We may gather additional information from parents or caregivers, as well as teachers, so we can understand the child across different settings, including home and school.
03. Checking Your Educational Map – Academic Achievement Testing
We assess how your child is progressing across key areas of learning. This is like checking points on a map to ensure they are on the right path.
This includes areas such as phonological awareness, reading comprehension, spelling, reading rate and fluency, as well as mathematics.
04. Emotional Backpack Check – Behavioural and Social-Emotional Assessment
We observe how your child interacts with others and how they are feeling on their educational journey.
This may include parents or caregivers completing questionnaires to help us better understand the child. This holistic approach considers the child’s overall development.
05. Educational Progress Over Time
These assessments can be used to track a student’s progress over time, comparing current performance with previous assessments.
This longitudinal view helps identify trends and areas for improvement.
06. Feedback / Comprehensive Report
Following the assessment, a comprehensive report is generated, detailing the findings and recommendations.
A feedback meeting is arranged (3–4 weeks following assessment), where parents or caregivers meet to go through the report in detail, discuss any diagnoses, and explore recommendations.
This helps teachers and parents understand the best ways to support the child’s learning and overall development.
Benefits of an Educational Assessment?
The primary goal of educational assessments is to understand a student’s strengths and challenges in order to inform educational planning, determine the level of intervention, and support applications for reasonable accommodations (RACE/DARE) or foreign language exemptions (e.g. Irish).
Educational assessments offer a range of benefits for students, parents, and teachers by providing valuable insights into a student’s learning profile, such as:
- Identifying strengths and weaknesses
- Tailoring instruction and teaching approaches
- Informing individualised educational plans (IEPs)
- Identifying the need for early intervention
- Tracking educational progress and achievements over time
- Supporting applications for State Examinations
- Empowering students