From Assessment to Intervention Part I: Who Do We Assess?

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From Assessment to Intervention Part I Who Do We
Assess?

• By
• Mike McCall, M.A. School Psychology
• School Psychologist/Learning Specialist
• Sheara Fernando, M.A. School Psychology
• School Psychologist/Learning Specialist

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Presentation Outline

• Background on Psychological and Academic
  Screening
• Deciding Who Needs Screening
• Types of Screening Tools
• Use of Screening Data
• Case examples of Screening Data
• Questions and Discussion

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Purpose of Psychological/Academic Screening

• The goal of psychological and academic screening
  is to quickly and cost effectively identify
  students who may have deficiencies or impairments
  that warrant intervention
• Part of the goal is to sort students, but that is
  not enough
• Effective screening can guide intervention and
  assessment decisions

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Facts of Psychoeducational Assessment

• Cost
• 100 to 250 dollars per hour
• Full assessments take 6-8 hours with the client
  if done correctly
• Reports are going to take 2-4 hours of work
• 1 hour of review of the report
• Total 1,000 to over 2,000 for a full
  psychoeducational assessment
• ADHD screenings cost 300 to 600 dollars

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Determining Who Needs Screening

• Some schools with lots of resources may screen
  all student-athletes when they enter the
  university
• Others may want to target high risk populations
  such as special/contract admits or other high
  risk populations
• Still other schools may choose to screen only
  after the student is referred/self-referred for
  the problems

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What are we looking for in a screening?

• Specific Learning Disability if student has
  average cognitive ability but below average
  reading, writing, math, or communication skills
• Behavioral/Neurological Disability screening
  for maladaptive behavior and disorders such as
  ADHD
• Social/Emotional Disability student has
  anxiety, depression, bi-polar, schizophrenia, or
  any other disorder that negatively impacts
  academic functioning

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Types of Screening Tools

• Norm-referenced tools (e.g. Nelson Denny Reading
  Test, OWLS, or any other standardized test that
  can be given by a non-psychologist)
• Assess intelligence, achievement, behavior, and
  social-emotional functioning
• Goal assign a numerical value to clients
  functioning
• See strengths and weaknesses within the client
  and compared to peers

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Interpretation of Discrepancy and Disability
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Popular Norm Referenced Screening Tools

• Nelson Denny Reading Tests standardized scores
  with percentiles and grade equivalents for
  vocabulary, comprehension, reading rate, and
  total reading
• Protocols are expensive (112 per 50 response
  booklets)
• Takes about 40 minutes to administer
• Scoring can be time consuming
• Provides cutoff scores for students in college
  that are predicted to have reading difficulties
• Reading fluency may lack accuracy

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Popular Norm Referenced Screening Tools

• Woodcock Johnson III tests of Achievement
  (WJ-III) Nationally standardized tests that
  relate directly to assessment for learning
  disabilities
• Covers seven areas of learning disabilities
• Most tests have to be individually administered
• Writing samples, fluency tests, spelling, and
  calculation can be group administered
• Protocols are expensive
• Scoring can be tedious for the writing
• May not help provide intervention information but
  allows for comparison to a college population

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Popular Norm Referenced Screening Tools

• Behavior Assessment Scale for Children 2nd
  edition (BASC-2)
• Screens for social, emotional, behavioral, and
  psychological strengths and deficits
• Good for evaluating possible problems with
  attitudes towards school, attention, test
  anxiety, alcohol problems, and psychological
  problems
• Protocols are expensive
• Must be given by a psychologists with training
• Time consuming

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Popular Norm Referenced Screening Tools

• Intelligence tests CogAT, Stanford Binet V,
  WASI
• CogAT can be group administered
• Standford Binet V and WASI need to be
  individually administered
• Tests will have to be interpreted by a
  psychologists
• They are time consuming and expensive
• Scores can be derived from SAT scores (see next
  slide)

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Standard Scores from High School

• SAT/ACT scores can be used to estimate IQ
• http//www.davidpbrown.co.uk/psychology/iq-convers
  ion.html
• http//www.iqcomparisonsite.com/GREIQ.aspx
• COGAT scores

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Standardized Test of Study Skills

• www.hhpublishing.com/_assessments/LASSI/scales.htm
  l
• Learning and Study Skills Assessment (LASSI)
• 10 scales
• Attitude Information Processing
• Motivation Selecting Main Ideas
• Time Management Study Aids
• Anxiety Self-testing
• Concentration Test Strategies
• Factors that significantly contribute to success
  in college
• Can be modified through interventions

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Screening with University Tools

• University required placement tests
• Foreign Language
• Math
• SAT-II tests
• These tests can give information about strengths
  and weaknesses in classes that may be required
  for graduation
• Foreign language difficulties could be related to
  language deficits
• Math placement scores, which are often required,
  can be a cheap way to evaluate math skills

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Curriculum Based Measurement

• Curriculum Based Measurement (CBM) assesses
  student skills in terms of fluency
• Fluency is a combination of speed and accuracy
  when performing a skill
• Students who lack academic fluency will likely
  struggle in school
• Visit www.interventioncentral.com for more
  information
• Shinn, Mark R. (Ed.) (1989). Curriculum-based
  measurement Assessing special children. New
  York Guilford Press.

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CBM continued

• Oral reading fluency measured using 1- minute
  reading probes
• Measure total words attempted
• Measure errors
• Subtract errors from total words to get words
  read correctly per minute (WRCM)
• Oral reading fluency (Below 150 words per minute
  is slow
• Accuracy is measured by dividing words read
  correctly by words attempted and multiplied by
  100
• Accuracy below 90 means the material to too
  difficult

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CBM continued

• Writing Fluency measures words written for a
  prompt in a 3 minute time span after thinking for
  1 minute
• Measure total words, total letters, words spelled
  correctly, or grammatically correct word units
• Helps see how students write with regards to
  legibility, spelling, grammar, and speed
• A drawback is that there are no norms for college
  students

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CBM continued

• Math fluency measures the number of digits
  correctly calculated per minute
• Gives an indication of specific areas students
  may lack skills
• Doesnt assess applied math reasoning
• No norms exist for college students
• Low accuracy and fluency may make it difficult
  for students in college if they cannot use
  calculators

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Curriculum Based Assessment (CBA)

• CBA directly observes a student performance in
  local curriculum to make decisions about future
  instruction and intervention
• Test what is taught
• Make assessment from students class material
• Not formalized
• Helps make decisions within specific material
• Helps psychologists see actual work
• Very cheap and often very quick to administer

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Other Inexpensive Assessments

• Informal writing samples poor organization,
  weak vocabulary, poor spelling, grammatical
  errors, lacks elaboration
• Observation of behavior (look for off-task,
  frustration, fatigue)
• Poor grades (but not enough on its own)

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Use of Screening Data for Referral

• Goal is to not refer students who are unlikely to
  meet a diagnosis or be helped by an assessment
• Assessment is expensive, time consuming, and
  emotionally draining
• Likely, you will refer more for ADHD for
  medication than other disorders

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Using Screening Data For LD Referrals

• IQ/Cognitive functioning
• To make a diagnosis of LD, a student must have
  academic achievement scores that are
  significantly lower than an IQ score
• Generally IQ needs to be above 80, and
  achievement at a minimum needs to be 1 standard
  deviation lower (e.g. Full Scale IQ of 80 needs
  achievement scores of 65)
• Ask student if they have ever been tested for
  disabilities
• For IQ, use the SAT/IQ estimator
• If you can afford/have access to a psychologist,
  have them give a brief IQ measure such as the SBV
  or WASI
• Have the student request CogAT scores from their
  high school

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Using Screening Data For LD Referrals

• Reading
• Standardized reading measures NDRT, WJ-III
  reading subtests, WIAT-II, WRAT, GORT-4
• NDRT- can easily be group administered
• Total scores below 35 percentile are likely to
  have difficulty with reading
• Individual achievement tests compare to college
  peers (should have norms for this) Scores below
  85 will likely have trouble, and below 70 need
  further referral

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Using Screening Data For LD Referrals

• Reading
• CBM create 3 reading probes from an
  introductory course textbook, administer all 3
  and look at range/median scores
• Oral reading rates below 150 words per minute
  could be referred for reading problems
• Accuracy scores below 90 may indicate trouble
  with phonemic awareness and phonic skills

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Using Screening Data For LD Referrals

• Reading
• Informal measures have students read aloud to
  you
• Look for hesitations, decoding of unknown words,
  rereading/backtracking
• Ask questions about reading to measure
  comprehension
• Have students highlight what is important
• Ask them to define difficult words to check for
  understanding
• Compare their understanding to when you read with
  them

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Using Screening Data For LD Referrals

• Writing
• Standardized tests - WJ-III writing subtests,
  WIAT-II, WRAT, OWLS
• Individual achievement tests compare to
  college peers (should have norms for this) Scores
  below 85 will likely have trouble, and below 70
  need further referral
• Look at SAT writing scores may not be used for
  admitting students, but scores should be reported

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Using Screening Data For LD Referrals

• Writing
• W-CBM/Informal measures Goal is to assess
  quality of writing
• Look for spelling errors, grammatical
  difficulties, handwriting quality, organization,
  ability to type, fluency
• Students with low scores may have trouble in
  classes with a heavy focus on papers or in-class
  writing
• Have students read their writing aloud to see if
  they self correct
• Organization and elaboration problems should be
  identified as well

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Using Screening Data For LD Referrals

• Math
• Standardized tests - WJ-III math subtests,
  WIAT-II, WRAT, Key Math
• Individual achievement tests compare to
  college peers (should have norms for this) Scores
  below 85 will likely have trouble, and below 70
  need further referral
• University required math tests SAT-II, or math
  placement scores
• Talk with the math placement coordinator
  obtaining and understanding the results
• Are the problems conceptual, calculation based,
  or both?

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Using Screening Data For LD Referrals

• Math
• M-CBM/Informal measures Goal is to assess
  problems in math
• Many students struggle with math
• Math takes a great deal of time to learn, so many
  students dont spend the time trying to grasp the
  skills
• Use M-CBM to assess fluency and accuracy for
  calculations
• Use an introductory math text to assess how they
  try to solve math problems (e.g. skip steps,
  disorganized approach, messy writing, lack of
  skills, ability to use a calculator)
• Refer students who seem to have conceptual
  problems understanding math for further testing
  (a calculator may be enough for those who
  understand how to calculate)

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Using Screening Data For Psychological Referrals

• ADHD, Social/Emotional/Behavioral
• If a behavior screening reveals at least 1
  standard deviation from average, it may be worth
  a referral to a psychologist
• Scores that are 2 standard deviations above
  normal should be referred as soon as possible
• Measures include BASC-2, CBCL, CAARS, Brown ADD
  scales

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Using Screening Data for Intervention

• IQ not particularly helpful because it is a
  stable construct, but consult a psychologist on
  how to make sense of the scores
• Working memory skills can tell you what to expect
  when students are learning new information
• Perceptual reasoning can help you see if they
  have difficulty deconstructing and reconstructing
  information (can they put the puzzle together)
• Verbal scores indicate can help you see how well
  they can solve problems with language

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Using Screening Data for Intervention

• Reading Standard scores and percentiles may
  help with LD referral, but the tests may not
  indicate the quality of the problems
• NDRT Low vocabulary could indicate students
  need to work on learning definitions while
  reading low comprehension use prereading
  strategies and self-questioning fluency
  repeated reading and listening passage preview,
  Kurzweil/audio books
• WJ-III nonsense words can reveal decoding
  skills
• CBM indicate fluency difficulties, so use
  repeated reading, listening passage preview, ,
  Kurzweil/audio books
• Informal reading for comprehension, teach
  highlighting, Q-system, self questioning,
  organization of paragraphs, prereading, ,
  Kurzweil/audio books

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Using Screening Data for Intervention

• Writing writing problems can be varied, so
  intervention should target problems
• Low spelling have students practice important
  words for classes (key terms) using cover, copy,
  compare have students practice phonemic
  awareness have students reread their writing
• Grammar teach basic sentence structures to use,
  subject verb agreement, consistent tenses,
  advanced punctuation
• Organization Analyze well written paragraphs,
  teach students how to outline (e.g. Inspiration)
• Elaboration pick simple objects/ideas and have
  students create lists of descriptors, Inspiration
• Fluency practice writing short answer and
  essays for tests

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Using Screening Data for Intervention

• Math these problems can be either conceptual,
  fluency based, or calculation based
• Fluency flashcards, calculators (if allowed),
  worksheets, practice problems
• Calculation same as fluency (but check to see
  if it is dont know how to perform the operation
  or carelessness), Touch Math
• Conceptual connect abstract concepts to real
  world applications, often students need to spend
  more time thinking about the math problems,
  practice problem solving steps

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Using Screening Data for Intervention

• ADHD Consult with a psychologist, but these
  interventions can be useful
• Study in distraction free settings (1 person
  rooms)
• Give frequent breaks (15 minutes of work, 1-2
  minutes of relaxation)
• Break studying up over the course of the day
• Foster use of a planning system
• Add structure to daily routine
• Intermix stimulating activities with mundane
  activities
• Teach organization

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Using Screening Data for Intervention

• Study skills some students may have descent
  academic skills but do not know how to study
• LASSI pick competencies that are low and try to
  improve one to two at a time
• Create small peer mentoring groups
• Create a summer bridge program that emphasizes
  studying
• How to Study in College by Pauk and Owens
• Have counseling center/psychologist run test
  anxiety groups

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Case Examples

• Student 1
• 18 years old
• NDRT (Total 1, Vocabulary 3, Comprehension
  1, Rate 6)
• WJ-III writing samples subtest (SS 86, 18th
  percentile)
• SAT 630 ACT Composite - 13 HSGPA 3.16
• IQ conversion 70
• What would you do?

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Case Examples

• Student 2
• 18 years old
• NDRT (Total 4, Vocabulary 3, Comprehension
  7, Rate 10)
• WJ-III writing samples subtest (SS 94, 36th
  percentile)
• ACT Composite - 15 HSGPA 2.113
• IQ conversion 81
• What would you do?

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Case Examples

• Student 3
• 18 years old
• NDRT (Total 44, Vocabulary 42, Comprehension
  47, Rate 14)
• WJ-III writing samples subtest (SS 101, 53rd
  percentile)
• BASC-2 attention problems in at-risk range
• SAT 910 HSGPA 3.4
• IQ conversion 97
• What would you do?

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Process of Referral

• Use one or a few psychologists who are trusted by
  disability services
• Using the same people consistently can help build
  a working relationship so assessments happen in a
  timely fashion and are useful
• Ideally, programs may need to hire services of a
  licensed professional at least on a part time
  basis

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Process of Referral

• Expect full assessments to take 4-8 hours of face
  time
• ADHD assessments may take 1-2 hours of face time
• Students will get better results early in the day
  when they are not exhausted
• May need to find psychologist who can assess on
  weekends
• Reports take several hours to write, so there may
  be a week to a month delay from testing to when
  the report is ready

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Process of Referral

• Send a packet of screening data to the
  psychologist
• Write a description of the students behaviors
  that you are concerned about
• Give a copy of the universitys disability
  criteria to the psychologist
• Make sure the student agrees to complete the
  testing

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Questions and Discussion

• What do your schools do for screening?
• How many students are being referred for
  psychoeducational assessments?
• Are you structuring interventions around
  screening data?
• Others?

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References

• Sattler, J. (2001). Assessment of children
  Cognitive applications (4th ed.). La Mesa, CA US
  Jerome M Sattler Publisher.
• www.interventioncentral.com
• Shinn, Mark R. (Ed.) (1989). Curriculum-based
  measurement Assessing special children. New
  York Guilford Press.

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Presenter Contact Information

• Mike McCall , School Psychologist/Learning
  Specialist
• mccallmw_at_sc.edu
• 803 777 - 3581
• Sheara Fernando, School Psychologist/Learning
  Specialist
• fernando_at_mailbox.sc.edu
• 803 777 - 3581