Assessment of Students With Disabilities in the UAE Toward Thriving in Inclusive Classrooms: Reality and Vision

This chapter addresses the reality of assessment with disabilities in the UAE. A related purpose is to delineate suggestions and strategies that can help in the establishment of a coherent assessment system that strives to accurately identify different disabilities in schools. It presents information relating to how students with disabilities are identified. This entails several steps and different organizations that are involved in the assessment process. It presents information about the provision of inclusion the country and connections to assessment of students with disabilities. Two focus-group discussions were conducted with special education teachers and administrators which explored the participants ' views and practices in relation to how students with disabilities in the schools are identified, whether the assessment procedures are sufficient, and requirements of a solid assessment system. The chapter concludes with several suggestions as a framework of developing a comprehensive assessment system that ensures that students with disabilities are not misidentified.