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Interview of School Psychologist
Nick Smith
Manchester College
Department of Teacher Education
EDUC 350
Dr. Korrine M. Gust
3 May 2007
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Nick Smith
EDUC 350
Dr. Gust
Interview of School Psychologist
On Thursday April 26, 2007, I interviewed Kimberly Mobley, School Psychologist for
Whitko Community Schools: During our interview, we discussed several tests and other topics
related to special education. We began our interview talking about a presentation that Kimberly
gave about Response to Intervention (RtI), and how it can be used to aide in determining eligibility for special education services.
As learned earlier in the semester, until recently, the discrepancy model was used as the
main instrument in determining eligibility for services; however with the No Child Left Behind
Act (NCLB) (2002) a greater demand was placed on actual tests to show eligibility more clearly,
in addition to multiple means to determine eligibility. Kimberly stated from her own research
that there was "a greater need for scientific data that involves the application of rigorous, systematic, and objective procedures to obtain reliable and valid knowledge relevant to education
activities and programs.” (http://eric.uoregon.edu/publications/digests/digest167.html) From this
statement, I thought back to Educational Psychology and other classes, where we learned that
goals and objectives must be measurable and attainable. With the increasing demands by the
state, for teachers, we must be sure that what we teach our students that we meet those objectives.
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The second point that Kimberly talked about was the need for schools to meet Annual
Yearly Progress and how No Child Left Behind requires Disaggregated Data. She stated that the
point behind disaggregating the data "is to remove the special education 'label' from students."
She also said "the Least Restrictive Environment (LRE) does not always guarantee that students
will be exposed to the best interventions, thereby improving performance," and that "progress
monitoring is done best by using authentic assessment, or student produced works." Using authentic assessment would compare a student only to him/herself over time, as opposed to the entire school. Doing so would allow educators to give more precise and specific intervention to a
particular student, thereby increasing success of that student. We also talked briefly about
overrepresentation of students. Kimberly stated that the National Association of State Directors
of Special Education defines Response to Intervention as “a general education practice of providing high-quality instruction and interventions matched to student need, monitoring progress frequently to make decisions about changes in instruction or goals and applying child response data
to important educational decisions.” What this does for special education is that it gives an increased student centered emphasis, where the individual student is the main focus more so than
the special education program as a whole. In terms of developing the Individualized Education
Plan, this approach to intervention allows for educators to take the data they collect over time,
and develop educational goals and objectives from the data. After this discussion, we moved
into talking about test administration.
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We first talked about norm-referenced assessment. Norm-referenced tests are "tests designed to yield average performance scores, which maybe used for comparing individual student
performances.” Kimberly named several norm-referenced tests she uses; however, she said the
most used is the Weschler Intelligence Scale for Children Fourth Edition. (Weschler, 2003)
This test designed, for students 6-0 to 16-11 is scored using full scale IQ in addition to index
scores for each individual. Kimberly stated that there are four main indexes to this test: Verbal
Comprehension Index, Perceptual Reasoning Index, Working Memory Index and Processing
Speed Index. The WISC-IV is divided into the following subtests.
The first set of subtests is the Verbal Comprehension Subtests. The point of these subtests is in understanding concepts of language. Similarities subtest: The student is given two
words, and they are required to determine how the two words are like. Each item is scored on a
2 point scale: 2 being a precise answer; 1 being an answer that is vague; and 0 being incorrect.
Vocabulary Subtests: This test is just that; a vocabulary test. Students are asked to define a
word. For younger children a picture stimulus is given. Comprehension subtest: This section
assesses the child's knowledge of everyday concepts learned throughout their lives. The topics
of this test include such things as social issues and functional/daily living skills. This subtest
would be especially pertinent to the mentally handicapped students and also emotionally disabled
students, in that it would should how or if the student could possibly live on their own, and function as a member of society. Information: This test of basic knowledge assessed academic and
common knowledge the student may have learned throughout their lives. Other tests include
visual and hands-on tests, where the student completes various tasks. The second part of this test
is working memory. Working memory requires that the student hold on to the stimulus for a
given amount of time. Skills tested here are: Digit Span, Letter-Number Sequencing and Arith-
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metic. These tests are a good indicator for students who may have a learning disability, specifically in math, either reasoning or computation. Scoring the WISC-IV involves taking the raw
scores from each subtests and turning those into derived scores. The mean for scaled scores is
10. Just as in determining a mental disability, the total mean is 100, with standard deviation being 15. (See attached chart for determining level of intelligence.)
The second area we talked about is Diagnostic Achievement testing. Kimberly said that
the most widely used test for this is the K-TEA II. (Kaufman and Kaufman, 2004) The basic
overview of this test is that it tests children (age 4 years and 6 months) to young adults in college
(25 years) with two forms: A and B, which allows for multiple assessments if needed. This test
examines fourteen areas in the areas of literacy and math, which would give a complete diagnosis for determining multiple learning disabilities. In general, the scoring of the K-TEA II is 1
point for each correct item, and 0 for incorrect items, however some timed tests are scored differently. To determine how this test can be used for providing educational needs, an error analysis of the students responses would need to be done. From the analysis, you can pinpoint specific areas of weakness, and write goals and objectives based on those specific areas. Kimberly
stressed that in this area of testing; she is not the only person involved. She said that it is a team
collaboration. In that testing, teachers use the KeyMath and Test of Written Language 3rd edition. The KeyMath Revised (Connolly, 1988) is a test of several domains (areas of cognitive development). The test is used mainly to determine specific areas of weakness in a given domain.
(i.e. computation and geometry) The scoring involves the use of basal and ceiling levels, which
is three consecutive items correct and three consecutive items incorrect respectively. Again the
items are scored either 1 or 0. To score it, the examiner takes the total scores of all domains, to
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obtain a raw score. From there, raw scores are used to determine standard scores, percentile
ranks and age or grade equivalents.
Concerning Informal Measures, Kimberly said that "outside of observation settings, Informal Measures are not used." Her reasoning for this is that in a due process situation, informal
measures (i.e. checklists, etc.) do not provide much evidence. For the most part, Kimberly uses
the informal means that we were introduced to in Education 315 when conducting our Functional
Behavior Assessments.
In my interview, I learned that the BASC is used quite frequently. This "inventory" is a
three way system of assessment: teacher, student, and parent. Each of these individuals ranks a
list of qualities for the student being assessed, on a scale of 1-5; 1 being little or no improvement/competency; 5 being significant improvement, or competency in the area. This test can be
used to determine how well students are adapting to specific tasks. I would think that the greatest strength of this test would be determining how well a student with a disability such as a mental handicap would do in the real world. From the BASC, one could determine if living on their
own is a realistic goal for a particular student. If so, you would need to write objectives in the
IEP so that the student could attain that goal. Either way, you would need to determine the best
transition plan for the student.
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In doing this assignment, I have found that these tests are extremely important to use in
the determination of special education. Being a student with a learning disability, and having
taken some of these tests myself, I looked forward to doing this assignment, so that I could understand the scoring and interpretation of each particular test, so that I understand my own test
results more clearly. Moreover, these assessments, can identify areas of strengths and weaknesses that other assessments and instruments may not. Until I had my evaluation and tests, people
in my high school did not believe that I had a learning disability; consequently, some teachers
believed that I was a student that was just lazy, and did not care, simply because I would not always understand some concepts, or needed additional help. These teachers having this attitude
toward me was quite demoralizing, and really made me feel like I was a failure. After having
this evaluation done, I feel more confident about myself, and know that I am not the failure that I
used to believe I was. I may not always understand everything completely, or need to take some
extra time preparing for exams, and take fewer credits than my friends each semester, but now I
know that’s okay. I have to do things the best way I can for me to be successful, even if it means
taking things one day at a time.
In my research and collaboration, I learned that the field of special education is always
increasing its demands for teachers and students alike; these increases are vitally important in
ensuring that accountability of teachers and students and progress of student performance is being made. Without these demands, the field of special education would inevitably fall apart and
we would have many students failing.
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Works Cited
Overton, Terry. Assessing Learners with Special Needs. 5th Ed.. Upper Saddle River, New
Jersey: Pearson, 2006.
Mobley, Kimberly. Personal interview,. 26 April 2007.