PRACTICE:
school psychology services
1. PSYCHOLOGICAL ASSESSMENT : THE PROCESS
Teachers often refer students who are exhibiting difficulties at school for a psychological assessment. The most common reasons for referring students for a psychological assessment are that they are having difficulty acquiring age-appropriate academic skills, or controlling their behaviour.
In addition to the standards set by the College of Psychologists, The Ministry of Education has set out requirements for conducting psychological assessments within school boards in its Policy/Program Memorandum No. 59.
Prior to beginning a psychological assessment (or to offering any psychological service), the psychologist/psychological associate must have obtained informed consent from the parent, or from the adult student. The Waterloo Region District School Board has prepared a list of Frequently Asked Questions about Assessment for parents.
The purpose of a psychological assessment is to determine a learning profile of the student. The learning profile is a description of strengths and needs. With this understanding, Psychological Services staff can make recommendations to the school staff and parents about ways to help the child. Recommendations often include teaching and learning strategies, curriculum areas to reinforce, language and learning skills to teach, and behaviours to target for change.
Sources of information for a psychological assessment include:
- a review of the student's educational history from the Ontario School Record (OSR);
- a review of the student's developmental history, provided by the parent or guardian;
- the teacher's description of the student's difficulty;
- the parents' or guardians' understanding of the student's difficulty;
- tests of intellectual or cognitive ability
- tests of specific processes, such as visual-perceptual skills, auditory skills, and memory;
- tests of academic achievement;
- tests of social and emotional functioning;
- measures of personality and self-esteem
- discussion with the student on his or her perspective on the problem.
- behavioural rating forms completed by the child's teacher and parent(s) to examine for behavioural, attentional or emotional difficulties
Outcomes of psychological assessments are shared with parents and school staff in a variety of ways. Psychological Services staff share assessment outcomes orally with parents at scheduled interviews. They also write psychological reports which summarize the information gathered from the above sources, for the benefit of parents and school staff. These reports contain scores reported in a number of different forms, usually percentiles. A Conversion Chart has been prepared to assist in comparing the various kinds of scores.
Legal access to psychological reports placed in the Ontario Student Record (OSR) is controlled through the Education Act, the Municipal Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act and the standards of the College of Psychologists of Ontario.
Psychology staff who conduct assessments of children in schools should be familiar with Liability Insurance and the Risk Management Advisory for Specialists and First Aid Providers of the Ontario School Boards Insurance Exchange (OSBIE)
Liability Insurance through OSBIE: The purpose of liability insurance is to protect a person or entity (such as a school board) against any legal responsibility arising out of a negligent act or failure to act as a prudent person would have, which causes bodily injury or property damage to another party. The OSBIE limit is $20 million with no deductible. OSBIE's policy includes: Errors and Omissions, Legal Expense, Incidental Professional and Malpractice.
Useful Resources about testing and assessment:
Dumont-Willis on the Web
The Uses and Misuses of Processing Tests 