PSYCHOEDUCATIONAL EVALUATION
Name: Marché Ross
DOB: 02/13/1996
CA: 18 years, 5 months
Date of Evaluation: 7/22/2014 & 7/25/2015
Kristi L. Harris, Graduate Candidate
Reason for Referral:
Marché was referred for evaluation to determine her academic strengths and weaknesses.
Background Information:
Marché Ross is a recent graduate of Armstrong High School. She attended Richmond Public
Schools from Head Start until the second semester of her 6th grade year. AT that time, she
transferred to Stonewall Jackson Middle School in Hanover County, VA. She transferred back
to Richmond Public Schools the second semester of her 7th grade year and finished her
educational career in June 2014. During her educational career, Marché was never evaluated nor
did she receive any special education services. Marché’s favorite subjects in school are English
and History, while her least favorite subjects were Science and Math. This is evident in her self
proclaimed strengths and weaknesses. Marché stated that her academic strengths include:
remembering dates and locations of historical events, spelling, and writing essays. Her admitted
weaknesses are: standardized testing, solving math problems (especially when she does not have
access to a calculator), and remembering formulas in math and chemistry. At this time, Marché
is preparing to take her placement tests for J. Sergeant Reynolds Community College, where she
hopes to attend in the fall. Upon completion of her Associate’s degree, she hopes to transfer to
Virginia Commonwealth University. It is Marché’s goal to become either a dental assistant or
open her own business.
Behavioral Observations:
Marché appeared to be alert and attentive during testing. There were times, however, where she
appeared to be fidgety and disinterested. Marché was advised to take breaks during this time so
that she could regain focus in order to complete testing. At times, Marché visually appeared to
be confused or frustrated by the questions asked but was always diligent and persevered to do her
best. There were times when she was distracted by her cellular phone, although it was on vibrate
during the testing session. Breaks were taken to allow Marché the opportunity to tend to
personal matters. The morning of the Achievement Test, Marché complained of tired and
sleepy. There were a few times during the test where, Marché was restless, rubbing her eyes,
yawning and disinterested. She did her best to push through and participate as much as possible.
Several breaks were taken during this testing session so that she could gain her composure. It
should be noted that Marché established a good rapport with both examiners and was very
understanding of the fact that both examiners were inexperienced in administering this
assessment.
Tests Administered:
Woodcock-Johnson III (WJ-III)- Cognitive and Achievement
Current Test Data:
Woodcock-Johnson III (WJ-III)
Test Interpretation:
The Woodcock-Johnson III was administered to Marché to assess cognitive abilities, scholastic
aptitude and achievement. The WJ-III is comprised of both cognitive and achievement sections.
These batteries comprise a wide age-range, comprehensive system for measuring general
intellectual ability (g), specific cognitive abilities, oral language, and academic achievement.
The WJ-III batteries are designed to provide valid methods for determining strengths and
weaknesses based upon actual discrepancy norms.
The WJ_III cognitive section is designed to assess comprehension-knowledge, long-term
retrieval, visual-spatial thinking, auditory processing, fluid reasoning, processing speed, and
short-term memory. Marché’s profile demonstrated a significant weakness in the area of verbal
comprehension and visual-auditory learning, while demonstrating a significant strength in
nonverbal reasoning. Such a comparison can be made between verbal comprehension and spatial
relations. Her profile showed that she scored within the borderline range in verbal
comprehension, visual-auditory learning and visual matching; most other scores fell within the
low average to average range. During the Numbers Reversed subtest Marché appeared to be
tracing the numbers on the table with her fingertips so that she could easily recall the numbers
that were given to her. Marché’s deficiency in verbal comprehension skills may be due to a lack
of academic as well as environmental exposure as she displayed limited vocabulary in her
conversational skills during the assessment and with the examiners. Marché’s areas of strengths
were spatial relations, auditory working memory, concept formation and sound blending. There
was a significant discrepancy in her scores for spatial relations; which was close to the high
average range. This may be due to her fondness for the arts and creative outlets, as she
expressed a love of cosmetology and design.
The achievement section of the Woodcock-Johnson III was administered to Marché to determine
skill levels in reading, oral expression, listening comprehension, mathematics and written
language. Marché’s profile indicated that she does well in the area of attention to detail, and her
skills were generally within the average range with a relative deficit noted in calculation and
math fluency. According to her profile, Marché’s scores fell within the average range for letterword identification, reading fluency, story recall, understanding directions, spelling, writing
fluency and passage comprehension. She showed a significant deficit in both calculation and
math fluency. When completing the calculation she worked slowly, skipping several problems
and used her fingers assistance on those that she did attempt to complete. During math fluency,
she continued to use her fingers to solve problems and moved at a slower pace to ensure she
performed the correct operation according to signs. During the applied problems section of the
test, she was often frustrated and confused appeared to not know how to begin to solve the
problems presented to her. She often stated that she didn’t know the answer or impulsively gave
an answer. Marché stated in earlier conversation that she did not like math and often had trouble
remembering formulas and procedures to solving problems. This was evident in the response
times as well as the process used to solve the problems.
It should be stated that both examiners who administered this assessment were novices and this
was the first time that either had ever done so. To that end, there may have been some examiner
errors during the assessment. There was an error with playing the wrong starting point on the
audio cd during the sound blending and numbers reversed sections of the cognitive subtests,
however, this was corrected during the administering of the incomplete words and auditory
working memory subtests. There was also some confusion about the scoring and ceiling for the
writing samples subtest, so the test may have been concluded before Marché reached her true
ceiling.
Submitted by:
_____________________________
Kristi L. Harris
Graduate Candidate
Virginia Commonwealth University