Evaluation of Test Materials and Procedures

Reliability and Validity

The validity evidence from associations that are compared to different mediums produced outcomes that offered the same as the results that would have been expected. Per the article published by Kaufman, the subscale and index-score relationships are commonly offered in association with the K-ABC, also per the index and IQ scores of the WISC-III, WISC-IV, and WPPSI-III, with the KAIT, and with the Cognitive clusters of the Woodcock-Johnson III. Correlations of KABC-II scales with the like-named clusters of the WJ III Cog battery reveal weak discriminant validity (Kaufman, A. S., & Kaufman, N. L, 2004). Large amounts of clinical studies disclose variances that exist in different section of students with disabilities and the norm group. In the group that included Autistic Disorder, ADHD, and emotional disturbance the greatest pattern of differences could be found. The authors of the study often warn about considering the smaller differences too much as it could take focus off the larger benefits of using the test.

Strengths and Limitations

As with all testing there are certain strengths and limitations with neuropsychological testing. The strengths are found in the design of the assessments. If students are not willing to engage in the testing due to the test being boring or uninviting, this could affect the score or desired outcome. When testing for learning and attention disorders providing the best situation and test available for the students will help aid in the correct diagnosis. Limitations are also present when testing for Neuropsychological purposes. Some of those limitations involve student’s participation, others include limits that the student or tester may have both physical and mental. The Neuropsychological evolution is focused on detecting any issue that affects the whole child or person not just certain subjects or academic gaps or learning delays that other test are designed to assess.

NASP Principles

The National Association of School Psychologist offers principals that are designed to protect both the tester and the test administrator. In a school setting these principals are key to protecting the students from various situations. First and foremost, with any test, permission must be obtained. Principle 1:1 focuses on ensuring that parental or custodial consent be obtained. This will ensure that parents are aware of the testing, as well as provide parents or guardians an opportunity to ask questions and fully understand the need for the testing. When privacy and confidentiality is concerned principle 1.2 covers how the test administrator should conduct themselves in regards to this topic. As with any test fairness should always be present. School psychologist should ensure that action that are discriminating against and one group of students not be present. The psychologist should maintain awareness and protect the integrity of the test at all times. This can be found in the Principles 2.1 through 2.4, school psychologists must not administer test outside their area of professional abilities. They must use scientific knowledge from psychology and education to offer assistance to parents and test takers to make knowledgeable decisions, and accept responsibility for their work (NASP professional standards, 2017).

Adhering to NASP

The steps that I can take to adhere to the National Association of School Psychologist principles. The first step would be to ensure that the test is administered following all the manual guidelines. This would mean that I must understand each ethic and guideline that is

issued. Before administering any test, I would seek proper training on the Psychological

Association to ensure that all bas could be removed and all ethics are maintained. The second

step would be to ensure that the test groups offer a fair balance in regards to race and gender. The

last step involves the evaluation or scoring of the test. I would redact any identifying markers

such as name, gender, and ethnic make-up, as this would remove the information that could lead

to bias in the scoring process. hen administering a test in the future, I will take specific steps to ensure that ethical code is maintained throughout the administration of testing, scoring, and interpretation of psychological test. The first step will be to ensure that the test being administered fall within my scope of experience. I will obtain written consent to test and ensure that all confidentiality has been maintained. Then, I will seek out training of the admiration, scoring and interpretation of the test being conducted. After ensuring that all training has been completed and that I full understand all expectations of the test, I will ensure that the test can be administered without bias. There will be further steps taken once the test has been completed and the scoring and interpretation of the psychological results are ready to review. The first step when scoring the test will be to maintain confidentiality of the test. Ensuring that the test results and participants remain private and confidential is extremely important to the integrity of the test. The next step would be to score the test as it appears. I will not be interpreting any aspect of the test when scoring. The answer elected will be the answer scored. When interpreting the test results, I plan to follow all guidelines set forth by the test design or administration handbook.

Technology

Technology is a great tool when conduction psychoeducational assessments, it contributes important information to the understanding of individual characteristics and capabilities, through the collection, integration, and interpretation of information about an individual (Groth-Marnat, 2009). There are many advantages to using technology in psychoeducational testing, such as monetary savings and time convenience. By providing testing online the risk of incorrectly scoring will also be reduced. Online testing or using software to test will also be a benefit when a test is orally administered. This is largely due to the ability to have the software installed that will read the assessment to the tester. Technology use will also allow for the reduction in time that test administrator would need to spend on scoring the assessments as technology offers instant scoring. This can be completed faster with technology as results or feedback is generally immediate.

NASP in Technology

When administering assessment with the use of technology the National Association of School Psychologist principles must still be applied. The principles offer some clear guidelines for what professional expectations should be applied in all testing situations. The test administrator should use the same guidelines outlined for a paper based test when administering with the use of technology. In standard 2 section 3.2 the responsibilities for the use of technology is identified. It states that the school psychologist must choose a test that will meet all professions standards for accuracy and validity. The standards that are mentioned in the section titled NASP Principles apply to the use of technology as well. The principle 2.5 lays the foundation for the responsible use of material. In this principle, School psychologists respect the intellectual property rights of those who produce tests, intervention materials, scholarly works, and other materials (NASP professional standards, 2017). When administering the test with the use of technology the security of the test must be keep just as it would if the test was paper based.

Test Bias

Test norms and standardization can become sources of test bias by over servicing a gender, religion, or demographic makeup. It is stated in the Encyclopedia of School Psychology, that research investigating content validity bias is concerned with the test questions and the degree to which individual test questions are biased against a specific group. If a test question is biased against specific groups, then it should be found to be more problematic for that group (Canivez, G. L., 2005). Any assessment that is designed to forecasts the outcome lower for a certain subgroup based on demographic group, gender specific group or religious group, should be regarded as invalid for testing any group. An example of a way that could be used for

assessing individuals or specific groups to measure predictive validity would be to equate the correlation coefficients between numerous groups that specify whether the test had increased predictive validity for gender, religion, or demographic groups with the higher coefficient. Research exploring construct validity bias is characteristically concerned with the differential factor construction of a test that could possibly indicate bias against an identifiable group (Canivez, G. L., 2005).School psychologists have a legal as well as an ethical obligation to take steps to protect all students from reasonably foreseeable risk of harm (NASP professional standards, 2017).

Conclusion

When testing using the Kaufman Assessment Battery for Children (KABC), Second Edition test, it is imperative to follow the National Association of School Psychologist principles. This will aid in a successful evaluation of students. Using the National Association of School Psychologist principles, the test will be administered without bias and a lower chance of testing irregularities or screwed data.

References Canivez, G. L. (2005). Bias. Encyclopedia of School Psychology, 66-69. Groth-Marnat. (2009). A Measure of Everyday Ability. In Handbook of Psychological. Hoboken, NJ.: John Wiley & Sons. Kaufman, A. S., & Kaufman, N. L. (2004). Kaufman Assessment Battery for Children, Second Edition. San Antonio: Pearson. NASP professional standards. (2017, May 05). Retrieved from National Association of School Psychologists (2010): http://www.nasponline.org/standards/2010standards.aspx Pearson Clinical Psychology. (2017, May 06). Retrieved from Pearson Clinical: pearsonclinical.com