Final answer:
Professionals use screening assessments to quickly evaluate basic skills and identify students who might require comprehensive evaluation for special education services. These are crucial in ensuring that all students, including those with disabilities, receive appropriate education and potential accommodations.
Step-by-step explanation:
The quick and simple test provided by professionals to cover basic skills and detect students who may need comprehensive evaluation and potential special education services is called a screening assessment. Screening assessments are an example of formative assessments that review comprehension of concepts and elicit explanations demonstrating understanding. They can be followed by more in-depth assignments for those who may require further examination. The importance of these assessments is emphasized under policies like the No Child Left Behind Act, which includes students with disabilities in the pursuit of standardized educational goals, often necessitating academic accommodations and alternative assessment opportunities.
Such assessments can be part of a wider educational approach that includes practice problems, performance tasks, and test prep that help in preparing students for the rigor of standardized testing. IQ tests are another formative assessment that can determine if there is a need for special education services, as they can indicate significant deviations from the mean intelligence score for an age group.