One of the first things we do when we meet a new client as stated in another blog is to do an initial assessment to gather a baseline. It is very important that we clearly define this baseline so that it is clear exactly what we have measured, under what circumstances, and with what accuracy. Our baseline is where we will be starting out and will help us write our goal.
Here are some examples of good baseline statements that help to clarify what they should say. Names are not of actual clients.
Courtney wrote:
| Baseline level of performance: On 2/18/2019, the client produced the /gr/ blend with 78% accuracy as measured by The Entire World of R: Advanced Screening for /r. |
She has clearly said what she was measuring, how she measured it, and what the accuracy was. I know from this baseline that the client is working on the /gr/ blend as when given the Entire World of R Advanced Screening, he was able to do this with 78% accuracy. This program tells you to work on the sound that is the closest to 80 %.
Serena wrote:
| Baseline level of performance: Using the Words Their Way Primary Spelling Inventory on 2/14/19, Albert correctly spelled 13/26 words and obtained 43/56 feature points, earning a total score of 56/82 – which indicates his spelling to be at the Early Within Word Pattern stage. |
Serena clearly stated what she was measuring, how she measured it, and then the accuracy and the meaning of the score she obtained.
Sarah wrote:
| Baseline level of performance At the beginning of the semester, James independently produced two full sentences with subjects, verbs, and objects when provided with images to describe. |
Sarah too gave information about how she measured a student’s writing skills although she did not use a standardized test. Here the measurement is the type of grammatical structures that the student used in his sentence construction. When I read her goal is references back to the baseline performance.
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