Identifying Academic Skill and Performance Deficits: The Experimental Analysis of Brief Assessments of Academic Skills. General Articles

This study examined an approach for assessing and intervening with academic concerns that is conceptually derived from the distinction between skill deficits and performance deficits. A class-wide assessment was used to describe the students' functioning in the context of their peers and to help select a target concern for intervention. An individual assessment was also conducted to examine the possibility that goal setting and reward would be sufficient to correct the identified deficit. For 2 students rewards were effective in the brief assessment, suggesting a performance deficit hypothesis, and for 2 students they were not, suggesting a skill deficit hypothesis. An extended analysis was then conducted comparing an instructional intervention to one emphasizing motivational variables. In all cases the intervention approach suggested by the initial brief analysis was supported in the extended analysis. Implications for practice and future research are discussed.