The School Psychologist's
Role in School Assessment Authors: Sylvia Rosenfield
and Deborah NelsonERIC Digest 1995
ED391985Psychological
services for children originated within a diagnostic testing model. Psychometric
techniques were developed to assess individual children's cognitive-intellectual,
personality and academic functioning. Today, testing techniques have achieved
a high degree of prominence and testing is a major industry. Recently, however,
assessment in the field of school psychology has been changing and reshaping
itself to meet the demands of public policy and litigation, the requirements
of an increasingly diverse student population, and the constant shifting of
educational concerns. There have been, as well, continual refinements in the
concepts and technology of measurement (Taylor, Tindal, Fuchs, & Bryant,
1993). These changes have challenged all school professionals to modify their
assessment practices in order to adapt to them. However, within the schools,
it remains true that there are few others with training, experience and expertise
in assessment comparable to that of school psychologists. Traditionally, school psychology
has emphasized diagnosis and classification of individual students, and school
psychologists have acted as gatekeepers for special services. But as the current
ethical, political, legal and educational context has evolved, there has been
a re-examination of the purposes and applications of data gathered during the
assessment process (Taylor, et al., 1993). In a position paper on the Role of
the School Psychologist in Assessment (1994), the National Association of School
Psychologists endorsed the proposition that assessment practices must be linked
to prevention and intervention to provide positive outcomes for students. Thus,
there is an increasing emphasis on information that is "useful in designing,
implementing, monitoring, and evaluating interventions" (Reschly, Kicklighter,
& McKee, 1988, p. 9-50). Moreover, it is suggested that school psychologists
assist both local education agencies and state education agencies in restructuring
schools in positive ways. One of the constant elements in the school restructuring
movement is the call for greater accountability at every level, which has resulted
in "innovative thinking about alternative forms of assessment" (Stiggins
& Conklin, 1992, p.3). This broader, more outcome
based approach to the use of assessment in schools has had an impact on the
assessment practices of school psychologists. Currently, there are at least
three major purposes of school psychological assessment: informing entitlement/classification
decisions, planning interventions, and evaluating outcomes. ASSESSMENT PURPOSES
"Entitlement/Classification Decisions" Although, historically,
the school psychologist has been the professional to develop an individual diagnosis
of a referred student using psychoeducational tests, that role became even more
routinized as a result of the 1975 federal legislation, P.L. 94-142, requiring
testing for classification prior to delivering services to children with handicapping
conditions. However, there have been recent changes in the field of special
education, with pressure increasing for inclusive placements in regular education
classrooms even for students with severe and profound disabilities. These pressures
arose from research demonstrating limitations of the traditional classification,
labeling, and placement procedures, many of which relied upon school psychologists'
testing of students referred for problems. Challenges to the norm referenced
tests used to justify the classification and placement decisions arose for many
reasons, including "lack of data to support the use of certain types of
tests..., litigation related to the discriminatory nature of other types...,
and the general feeling that most tests did not provide educationally relevant
information" (Taylor, et al., 1993, p. 114). Since federal law and related
state regulations still, in most cases, require labeling for funding purposes,
norm-referenced psychoeducational assessment will likely continue in the schools
to fulfill the legal mandate. However, currently there is an emphasis upon improving
the technical characteristics of the most commonly used tests to answer growing
concerns about the soundness of many of these instruments. In addition, several
basic constructs underlying these tests have been revised, and new constructs
of cognition and neuropsychological and psychological processes, such as memory
and metacognition, are finding their way into new test construction and revisions
of older instruments (Taylor, et al, 1993). How useful these new and revised
tests and their underlying constructs are remains open for further study, although
there continue to be weak or nonexistent links to interventions for most psychoeducational
tests (Macmann & Barnett, 1994). In addition, as requirements for eligibility
for funding are modified, the use of tests for these purposes will also evolve.
"Assessment Linked
to Intervention" Perhaps the most far-reaching
change in the role for school psychologists has been an increased emphasis on
linking assessment and intervention, so that information from the assessment
process leads directly to intervention strategies rather than just to a diagnostic
label and alternative placement for the student. School psychologists have moved
from relying upon standardized/norm referenced testing practices to frequent
use of more natural and dynamic forms of assessment that impact directly on
classroom instructional delivery and behavior management. The importance of
this shift arises from the current state of classroom assessment. While the
instructional and management decisions that teachers make about their students
have been recognized as critical to important outcomes, relatively little attention
has been paid to the quality and process of classroom assessment in research
or practice. This has been true in spite of evidence that teachers are concerned
about the quality of their own assessments, and have limited knowledge of assessment
methodologies and their use in instructional decision making (Stiggins &
Conklin, 1992). Increasingly, school psychologists have become involved in developing
and delivering behavioral and curriculum-based assessment procedures useful
for classroom decision making to assist teachers. A recent development has
been the growth of curriculum-based assessment methods that use direct observation
and recording of student performance in the classroom curriculum itself to gather
information for instructional decisions. Two major forms of this type of assessment
are the curriculum-based assessment for instructional design (CBA-ID) model
(e.g., Gickling & Rosenfield, in press), and the curriculum-based measurement
(CBM) model (e.g., Deno, 1986). CBA-ID was designed to assist teachers in planning
instruction for individual students, whereas CBM was developed primarily to
assess pupil progress in the classroom. The information derived from these techniques
are used by school psychologists consulting with teachers to support them in
developing interventions related to instruction and classroom management (Rosenfield,
1987). These classroom based models of assessment are also used by prereferral
and support teams designed to provide assistance to teachers and students. "Outcome Evaluation"
School reform has created
a focus on the outcomes of education. Psychologists are involved in discussions
of a possible national test to be given to all students, and state assessments
aligned with state content standards are in the process of development. Many
of these will be performance assessments, which still have serious technical
issues that need to be resolved (Ysseldyke, 1994). School psychologists have
a role in helping school personnel understand and use the results of these external
assessments. At the local level, outcome
assessment is also changing. Reform in regular and special education often involves
the creation of new programs. School psychologists can bring their assessment
expertise to the school reform agenda by helping school systems and individual
schools evaluate the effectiveness of different programs and organizational
changes designed to meet specific goals. School psychologists can provide assistance
in systems change efforts, including needs assessment prior to program implementation,
as well as on-going monitoring of program implementation and effectiveness along
a broad array of outcome dimensions, depending upon the goals of the school
personnel. Conducting research and evaluation to answer important questions
about effective programs is an additional assessment role in which many school
psychologists can participate. SUMMARY
School psychologists can play a unique role in schools because of their assessment
expertise. Traditionally, they have been most involved in individual psychoeducational
assessment for classification and labeling purposes, but the limitations of
this form of assessment for building intervention strategies has led many school
psychologists to broaden their role. Techniques linking assessment to interventions
are being demonstrated by school psychologists as they consult with teachers
to enhance the classroom performance of students. Further, school reform initiatives
have required more program evaluation at the building and system level, and
school psychologists are engaged in these activities as well. Assessment is
an important task in the schools, and school psychologists can increase their
impact on school effectiveness by contributing their expertise in this domain
at many levels.
Deno, S.L. (1986). Formative evaluation of individual programs: Anew role for
school psychologists. School Psychology Review, 15, 358-374.
Gickling, E., & Rosenfield,
S. (in press). Best practices in curriculum-based assessment. In A. Thomas &
J. Grimes (eds.). Best practices in school psychology, Vol. 3. Washington, D.C.:
National Association of School Psychologists. Macmann, G.M., & Barnett,
D.W. (1994). Structural analysis of correlated factors: lessons from the verbal-performance
dichotomy of the wechsler scales. School Psychology Quarterly, 9, 161-197. National Association of
School Psychologists (1994,). The role of the school psychologist in assessment.
Washington, D.C.: author. Reschly, D.J., Kicklighter,
R., & Mckee, W. (1988). School Psychology Review, 17(1), 9-50. Rosenfield, S. (1987). Instructional
consultation. Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates. Stiggins, R.J., & Conklin,
N.F. (1992). In teachers' hands. Albany, NY: State University of New York Press.
Taylor, R.L., Tindal, G.,
Fuchs, L., & Bryant, B.R. (1993). Assessment in the nineties: A possible
glance into the future. diagnostique, 18, 113-122. Ysseldyke, J. (1994,). Assessment:
Current directions and misdirections. Unpublished paper. Sylvia Rosenfield is professor
and chair of the Department of Counseling and Personnel Services at the University
of Maryland--College Park. Deborah Nelson is a doctoral student in the School
Psychology program at the University of Maryland--College Park.
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