Context: The school psychology program faculty are redesigning the course sequence required of M.A/Ed.S. in school psychology students and Ph.D. in education students with a specialization in school psychology. This redesign is occurring to provide students with high-quality training in contemporary best practices in assessment, prevention and intervention, consistent with (a) the National Association of School Psychologists’ (NASP’s) 2020 Professional Standards and (b) Delaware’s (DE’s) regulation requiring all schools to provide tailored, student-centered services within multi-tiered systems of support (MTSS). As a part of this curriculum redesign, faculty are proposing to revise or deactivate several courses and introduce select new courses.
Title change: The course name change reflects more modern language stemming from the understanding that individual intelligence encompasses more than the skills measured by cognitive assessments. Cognitive functioning is a more accurate term for the constructs assessed.
Description change: The proposed description better reflects the course content. Removal of specific test kits in the course description will allow flexibility to update test kits focused on in class as new versions are released and to align with current practices in DE schools. The new description also highlights the focus on consideration of a student’s background and culture when interpreting assessment results.
Objectives change: The proposed objectives are streamlined better reflect the course content. Students will learn and practice how to administer, score, and interpret common standardized assessments of cognitive functioning batteries (e.g., KABC-II, WJ-IV, and WISC-V). Students will learn and practice how to administer, score, and interpret common standardized achievement batteries (e.g., WIAT-IV, WJ-IV, and KTEA-3). Students will learn current models for the identification of a learning disability and intellectual disability as defined by federal regulations within an RTI/MTSS framework. Students will learn to interpret assessment results in the context of the student’s personal history, educational background, and information gathered from multiple reporters. Students will gain experience writing school-based assessment reports. Students will practice providing feedback to parents/guardians and other stakeholders.