Assessments Flashcards
Why do school psychologists conduct psychological educational assessments?
“The reason we consider psychological educational evaluations is in order to make effective decisions about children. Effective decision making is the hallmark of sound psych-ed assessment” - SATTLER
Testing vs. Assessment
Testing:
-administering and scoring tests
-the focus is on collecting data
-testing produces scores
Assessment:
-utilizes the 4 pillars
-the focus is on collecting data, integrating the findings, integrating the findings, interpreting the data, and synthesizing results.
-produces findings and recommendations.
School Psychologists Competencies
-test battery selection
-established rapport
-Observation
-interviews
-assessment skills
-ethnic/cultural information/understanding
-collaboration
-develop interventions based on results.
Factors that impact assessment
-Style/Technique
-Bias/Predetermination
-Attention (or lack) to Childs needs
-Extraneous variables within the physical environment
-acknowledging cultural differences
-planning
-interpretation of observations and info
Sources of validity
-degree of rapport
-qualify of interaction
-amount and type of assessment
-length of assessment
-standardization
-number of inquiries & questions
-the amount of breaks
-number of trials required
Assessment Process
- Review Referral
- Obtain background info
- Consider influence of others
- Observe
- Select assessment and administer
- interpret results
- develop intervention
- write report
- Hold IEP
- Follow up
Assessment Observations
Things to look for:
-personal appearance
-attitude
-attention span
-affect
-language
-sensory & motor skills
-behavior
Assessment Behavior
Non-verbal:
-facial expressions
-posture
-gestures/mannerisms
-vocalizations
-senses
-attention span
Verbal
-speech quality
-clarity of expression
-cohesiveness of communication
-comprehension
-length and frequency of pauses
-vocabulary ability
-train of thought
Areas of Measurement
- Intelligence
- Processing Ability
- Academic Acheivement
- Behavioral Characteristics
- Adaptive behavior
- Personality traits
Standard Score
Used to compare scores on different test measures
most test has a standard score of 100 with increments of 10-15
helps to separate sections of the population into ranges (average, below, & above)
Measures of Central Tendencies
Mean - average
Median - Middle value
Mode - most frequent
Percentile Rank
Way to compare to same-age peers
NOT the percentage correct
Age/Grade Equivalents
Obtained by computing the average raw scores obtained on a test by children at different ages.
Average raw score obtained by children at a specific age.
Ceiling Effect
The number of difficult items available at the highest level of a test to distinguish among children with above average ability.
Floor Effect
The number of easy items available at the lowest level of a test to distinguish among children w/ below average ability
Item Gradient
The ratio of item raw score to standard scores or the number of raw score points required to earn 1 standard score point
Standard Deviation
Tells you how much scores vary or deviate from the mean
Reliability
the consistency of a test across time or administrators
Validity
whether or not the test measures accurately what is is designed to measure
The Five Theoretical Perspectives of Multimethod Assessment
- Developmental
- Normative-Developmental
- Cognitive-Behavioral
- Family Systems
- Eclectic - or combo of all
Four Pillars of Assessment
- Norm-Referenced
- Interviews
- Behavioral Observations
- Information Assessment Procedures
Norm-References Measures
Standardized measures based on a clearly defined group (norm group)
ex. KABC-2 or WISC-V
Standardization allows for quantification
Interviews
Can be held in a structured, semi-structured, or unstructured format between the school psychologists and students, parents, or teachers.
Allows for direct observation of the student and gain additional information from parents and teachers.
Behavior Observations
Can occur before the assessments process by observing the child in the classroom, playground, and/or at home.
Behavioral
Environmental
Assessment
Informal Assessment Procedures
These assessments can be used to supplement the Norm-Referenced measures to get more info to develop an intervention.
Testing of Limits
-Interactive Assessments
-Process-oriented assessment
-dynamic assessment
-mediated learning
-instruction-oriented method
-graduated prompts method
-potential assessment
Testing of Limits Procedures
Providing additional cures or aids
changing stimulus modality
eliminating time limits
cannot generate reliable standardized scores when testing the limits but can obtain valuable qualitative information.
Multi-method assessment
Getting information from multiple sources, including demographic and background information educational records, medical info and previous evaluations would be an example.
The 4 pillars of assessment are vital for a thorough assessment because they provide a pull picture of the child. Each of the 4 procedures is evaluated in their own right and then woven together to assure everything is pointing in the right direction.
True
When selecting a battery test the test that you select should…
Be directly related to the referral question
take into consideration the students language proficiency, culture, and age
help you to consider possible supplemental assessments to give.
Special Education Eligibility Criteria
- Specific Learning Disability (SLD)
- Other Health Impairment (OHI)
- Emotional Disturbance (ED)
- Intellectual Disability (ID)
- Autism (ASD)
- Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI)
- Orthopedic Impairment (OI)
8, Speech/Language Impairment (SLI) - Multiple disabilities
- Deafness / Deaf Blind
- Hearing Impairments
- Vision Impairment
- Medically established condition
