PRAXIS PRACTICE TEST Flashcards
Sue is a second-grade student who struggles with reading. It happens that Sue’s teacher lives next door to a reading specialist in the same school district. Sue’s teacher asked her neighbor to look at Sue’s standardized reading test to offer some advice. What law has Sue’s teacher violated?
A. The Federal Confidentiality Act (FCA) of 1975
B. No law was violated because the consultation was relevant for a reading specialist
C. Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) law provision for right to privacy
D. Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA)
D. The Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA) governs student information and confidentiality related to educational records. Foundations of School Psychological Service
Delivery
Noam Chomsky is known for what psychological idea?
A. Humans have a predisposition to acquire language
B. Children who have impoverished backgrounds are more likely to have behavioral and
emotional difficulties
C. Whole-word reading is innate
D. Children acquire language skills through explicit instruction
A. Noam Chomsky is known for concepts related to language development and language
acquisition device. Foundations of School Psychological Service Delivery
A school wants to adopt a new but controversial math curriculum. As a school psychologist, you are called in for a consultation. What do you tell the school’s principal about best practices in this situation?
A. There will be resistance from some parents, so a meeting should be held with concerned
parents
B. Parents need a way to voice their opinions during the adoption phase
C. The school should seek consensus on this issue because parents must agree on such an
important topic
D. The school needs to consult with curriculum experts so that parents can make informed
decisions
B. During a professional consultation situation, parents (not just concerned parents) must have an avenue to express themselves and feel as if their opinions are considered. Professional Practices, Practices That Permeate All Aspects of Service Delivery
Which type of goal-setting approach is most appropriate when teaching teenage students?
A. Goal setting that is within the student’s zone of proximal development
B. Mastery goal setting that increases performance and decreases anxiety
C. Performance goal setting based on classroom norms
D. High goals and standards to keep students striving for achievement
A. Although a few other choices are valid, answer “A” is the best response because it has a
specific basis in pedagogy. While it is important to have high and realistic goals when teaching
students, students perform best when goals are individualized. Educational goals need to be within
a student’s specific and attainable limits, which is called the zone of proximal development. Direct
and Indirect Services for Children, Families, and Schools
Which neurotransmitters are primarily implicated in depression?
A. Melatonin, serotonin, and dopamine
B. Serotonin, dopamine, and endorphins
C. Serotonin, norepinephrine, and dopamine
D. Glutamate, dopamine, and melatonin
C. Serotonin is the major brain chemical that is implicated in clinical depression. Although other brain chemicals, such as glutamate, might also play a role in depression, the other answer choices
do not support its combination with other neurochemicals. Of the combinations provided,
norepinephrine and dopamine are the other two neurotransmitters primarily supported by research. Always choose answers that take precedence in the current body of mainstream research. Foundations of School Psychological Service Delivery
A parent asks you to perform an emotional assessment on her daughter. When interviewing the parent for more background information on the situation, the mother mentions that her daughter has no friends and she appears withdrawn, sad, and anxious. Given the mother’s observations, what is the most appropriate tool to initially use in your assessment?
A. The Behavior Assessment System for Children (BASC)
B. The Vineland
C. The Clinical Scales of Depression in Children-II
D. The Beck Depression Inventory
A. Despite the two traits associated with possible depression (e.g., withdrawal and sadness), the additional comment about anxiety indicates that a broad-spectrum tool such as the Behavior
Assessment System for Children (BASC) is a valid assessment to initially use. Most likely, supplemental narrow-band tools will be employed to illuminate more information on this case, but the BASC is a common assessment starting point. Professional Practices, Practices That
Permeate All Aspects of Service Delivery
A child you recently tested with the Differential Ability Scales-II (DAS-II) had a General Conceptual Ability (GCA) standard score of 85. The student’s Vineland assessment from the teacher illustrated an overall standard score of 61, but the mother’s Vineland resulted in an overall standard score of 87 and the father’s Vineland revealed a score of 75. You determine that the discrepancy between the adaptive assessment scores is most likely due to:
A. Measurement error inherent in all tests, psychometrically referred to as standard error of
measurement (SEM)
B. Differences in contextual factors; the child behaves differently in various settings
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C. The subjectivity and different perceptions of raters
D. The difficulty associated with completing complex surveys
C. This is a very difficult question to answer because other answer choices could be correct. Also note the superfluous information (Differential Ability Scales-II [DAS-II] score), which has little
influence on the right answer. Despite other tempting responses, the best answer is C. Given the presenting facts of this case, it is unlikely that a student would score more than 20 standard points higher at home than at school because the interrater reliability is very good with the Vineland. Note the discrepancy between the parents. While behaviors certainly vacillate between environments, it is acceptable to assume there may be a problem of perception between the raters when scores are extremely discrepant. Professional Practices, Practices That Permeate All Aspects of Service Delivery
Which of the following is one of the first interventions employed for a child with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD)?
A. Placing the student near the front of the classroom away from distractions (preferential
seating)
B. Increasing the student’s self-awareness and knowledge of the disorder
C. Having the student exercise before school to moderate hyperactive tendencies through natural
dopamine production
D. Consistently reminding the student to take medication known to be effective in many cases
(e.g., Ritalin, Adderall)
B. Although exercise and student placement in the classroom are effective interventions, raising a
student’s awareness of her difficulty is a key first step in treatment. Direct and Indirect Services for Children, Families, and Schools
A 10th-grade teacher has a visually impaired student who is given an extensive assignment that requires a poster presentation. In this case, how should the teacher proceed?
A. Allow other students to help the impaired student
B. The teacher should set aside a special time to discuss optional accommodations for the
assignment with the student
C. The visually impaired student should not be required to complete the entire assignment due to
his or her handicapping condition and instead should be offered a relevant alternative
D. The task should be assigned as a joint effort between the teacher and the visually impaired
student
B. When students feel they have a voice in their own learning, they tend to perform better. Students with certain types of difficulties can complete full assignments and should not be denied
the opportunity to be aligned with their classmates if collaborative accommodations can mitigate a person’s disability. Direct and Indirect Services for Children, Families, and Schools
You are a new school psychologist at a small public school. Your department leader gives you a new cognitive assessment to administer for which you have no formal training. The parents of the student you will be evaluating have hired an educational advocate. The advocate is formally requesting that you administer the new test because it uses the latest norms and it is culturally sensitive. From what you have read and heard from colleagues, the new test is highly regarded and should be used in this case. What should you do in this situation?
A. Ethically, you cannot administer the test and you should use a more familiar test
B. You can practice with the test first, and then administer it with supervision
C. You must to refer the case to another colleague who has more experience with the test
D. Ask a colleague to give the test, but be present during the administration
B. In practice and in real-world settings, it is permissible to study new tests and administer such
tests with supervision or guidance from a qualified practitioner colleague. Professional Practices,
Practices That Permeate All Aspects of Service Delivery and Ethical, Legal, and Professional
Foundations
Your assistant principal notifies you that a seventh-grade student has made drawings depicting death. When you ask the student why she drew such pictures, the student stated she thinks people who commit suicide are cool. After intervening and speaking with the student, what should you do next?
A. Notify the parents of this situation and conduct a suicide evaluation
B. Notify administration and conduct a suicide assessment
C. Notify administration and a social worker to assist you with a suicide assessment
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D. Call the student’s parents and request that a suicide assessment be completed
A. It is best practice to share important information with parents about their children as soon as possible, even if further investigations suggest the issue is not life-threatening. In suicide and threat assessment situations, parental permission for assessment is desirable, but not strictly
necessary (answer “D”). Parents will have to be notified early in all cases of suicidal ideation. However, police or social services do not necessarily have to be notified in all cases. Professional Practices, Practices That Permeate All Aspects of Service Delivery and Direct and Indirect Services for Children, Families, and Schools
You have just completed a multiday comprehensive assessment on a student initially referred for special education services. The student you tested has a Wechsler Intelligence Test for Children, Fifth Edition (WISC-V) Full Scale score of 67 and also has an Adaptive Behavior Assessment System (ABAS-III) score of 73. The student wants to know about his performance and asks you to explain the results. What is the best practice in this situation?
A. Tell the student that the test results give you information on how a student learns. The details
should not be disclosed to the student, even with parent permission
B. Be truthful, but use developmentally appropriate language with the student when you discuss
the results
C. First, secure permission from the parents before discussing assessment findings with the
student
D. Discuss the results with the parent, student, and teacher at the same time
C. To prevent a difficult situation from developing, parental notification about cognitive assessment results should be secured first before talking with students or teachers about formal results. Professional Practices, Practices That Permeate All Aspects of Service Delivery and Foundations of School Psychological Service Delivery
As a school psychologist, you work in a community where many parents use illegal drugs. You are concerned about one particular elementary school that you spend 2 days a week servicing. You have heard students talk about drugs and wanting to use drugs. What is an effective intervention in this case?
A. Present an antidrug intervention program to individual classes
B. Start a schoolwide antidrug campaign
C. Teach teachers how to talk with students about drugs
D. Gather parental, school, and community support to raise awareness and address the drug problem at school
D. This question is one that seems easy to answer at first, but then you find all answers are correct.
Your task, as mentioned earlier, is to find the best answer. In this case, the most encompassing
answer choice is “D” because it covers items found in other choices. Professional Practices,
Practices That Permeate All Aspects of Service Delivery and Systems-Level Services
What memory technique should students utilize to remember a long series of information?
A. Chunking information
B. Keyword note taking using personal technology
C. Immediate multiple rehearsal trials with a 15-minute delayed review
D. Teach students to remember patterns in information
A. Chunking is a well-known psychological technique that is a common memory aid, such as when people memorize or repeat phone numbers. Phone numbers are a series of numbers broken
up into chunks by hyphens so that they can be easily memorized. Direct and Indirect Services for
Children, Families, and Schools
According to the information processing model, incoming information is encoded into what first? A. The memory buffer B. The temporal lobe of the brain C. Conditional stimuli buffer D. Short-term memory (STM)
D. Straightforward factual answer. Direct and Indirect Services for Children, Families, and Schools
Diane is a sophomore at a large public high school. At the beginning of the year, Diane felt bullied by Sally. The first-year principal quickly intervened and stopped the bullying. A few months later, Diane reports to the administration that Sally is once again making aggressive comments at her. 123 This time the principal suspends Sally for 2 days and calls Sally’s parents. What is the most important recommendation you have for the principal?
A. Call Diane’s parents to notify them of the situation
B. Make sure both Diane and Sally have mental health support
C. Have Diane talk with the school psychologist or social worker about how to deal effectively
with harassment in the future
D. Recommend that Sally and Diane engage in a restorative practice to help prevent future
incidences
A. Legally, it is important to notify parents when aggressive actions are involved between students (e.g., duty to warn). All other answer choices are good response choices and valid, but you must
perform the actions provided in “A.” Foundations of School Psychological Service Delivery
