39 Psycho-educational Assessments: Information for the TVI

What is a psycho-educational assessment?

A psycho-educational assessment is an evaluation that can help understand a child’s learning and behavior. The psychologist conducting the assessment will integrate data from records review; reports from parents, teachers, and service providers; observations of the child; and results of standardized testing and informal, dynamic assessment. The child’s functioning is interpreted in the context of their history, culture, and experiences. The goal is to identify the child’s strengths and areas of challenge, diagnose conditions such as a specific learning disorder or intellectual developmental disorder (if appropriate), and make recommendations for support and services.

What areas does a psycho-educational assessment evaluate?

Psycho-educational assessments nearly always use standardized tests to measure general cognitive functioning (IQ), academic achievement (reading, writing, math, oral skills), and socio-emotional/behavioral functioning. Informal, dynamic, and ecological assessment measures may supplement or replace the use of standardized tests in some cases, such as when evaluating a student with multiple disabilities. A psycho-educational assessment sometimes measures auditory processing, orthographic processing, memory, attention, executive functioning, and adaptive functioning (everyday living skills). Direct testing results are integrated with other information about the child, including their personal, social, and cultural context.

What is a standardized test?

Standardized tests are instruments that have been analyzed for their validity and reliability. Validity tells you about whether a test actually measures what it purports to measure. For example, construct validity of a test of attention evaluates how well that test actually measures attention by comparing it to another well-regarded attention test or measure. The reliability of a test tells you about the consistency of test scores (e.g., between test sessions, between the first and second half of a test, or between examiners).

Standardized tests have typically been given to a large group of students of the same age so that the child can be compared to their same-aged peers. Ideally, this large “normative” group is representative of the general population. Standardized tests are administered in a specific way. For example, each student hears the same instructions, gets the same amount of help, and sometimes the same amount of time to respond. This same way of administering tests allows the psychologist to compare the student’s ability to that larger (normative) group.

The normative group in almost all standardized tests is a sample of the general population. That means that standardized tests almost always compare the student to sighted peers. That is, the test will tell you how well the blind or low vision student is performing compared to the general population.

What do the scores mean?

Standard scores are converted from raw scores (e.g., the total number answered correctly on a test) to show where a student’s performance lies compared to a population to help show how a student is functioning compared to typical students their age or grade. Most tests have an average of 100 and a standard deviation of 15. A standard deviation measures how spread out the scores are or how far the score falls from the average score. Different tests have different score descriptors, but the average range or normal limits for standard scores is between 85 and 115.

Scaled scores are another type of converted score. Standardized tests usually are made of subtests or short tests that measure specific skills. Many subtests have an average of 10 and a standard deviation of 3. Different tests use various score classifications, but the average range or normal limits for scaled scores is between 7 and 13 or 8 and 12.

Percentile ranks show how many students scored the same or lower than a student’s performance. Percentile ranks are not the same as percentages. For example, a standard score of 100 has a percentile rank of 50, meaning the student performed the same or better than 50 percent of the normative group.

All tests of human behavior have some amount of error. Confidence intervals are a range of scores that likely include a student’s true score a certain percentage of time and account for the error inherent in all clinical tests. Confidence intervals are usually used with overall and composite or index scores (i.e., subtest scores combined to represent performance in a particular skill or domain). For instance, a student who scored a standard score of 98 on a certain test may have a 95% confidence interval of 93 to 103, which means the student’s true performance has a 95% likelihood of being between 93 and 103. This range of scores most likely describes the student’s performance instead of a single score.

Age or grade equivalent scores are the median raw score on a test by children at certain ages or grades, respectively. Age or grade equivalent scores do not mean that the student’s performance is consistent with expectations for that age or grade level. For example, a student with an age equivalent of 6.0 on a test answered the same number of questions correctly on the test as most students who were 6 years and 0 months in the normative sample. Standard scores are a more accurate representation than age or grade equivalent scores (Flanagan & Caltabiano, 2004; Pearson, n.d.)

To learn more, review “Test Scores: A Guide to Understanding and Using Test Results” (Flanagan & Caltabiano, 2004).

What is a criterion-referenced test?

Criterion-referenced tests measure mastery of certain skills or knowledge by comparing a student’s performance to a predefined standard or criterion. Percentages are the type of scores often used with criterion-referenced tests.

References

Flanagan, D. P., & Caltabiano, L. F. (2004). Test scores: A guide to understanding and using test results. In A. S. Carter, L. A. Paige, M. D. Roth, I. Romero, &  S. A. Carroll(Eds.), Helping children at home and school: Handouts for families and educators (2nd ed., pp. S2-81-S2-84). National Association of School Psychologists.

Pearson. (n.d.). Interpretation problems of age and grade equivalents. https://www.pearsonassessments.com/campaign/interpretation-problems-of-age-and-grade-equivalents.html#:~:text=An%20age%20or%20grade%20equivalent,examinees%20than%20with%20older%20examinees.