Rationale for Education 622 – Psycho Educational Cheat Sheet.

I chose to include my Wechsler Individual Achievement Test (WIAT) III administrative

cheat sheet as an artifact under the practice category because I use it regularly when I assess

students with the WIAT III. The Psycho-Educational course that I took with Dr. Barb Nichols

was one of the most useful courses I took in the program, and I am glad I experienced it. One of

the most valuable aspects of the course was the process of painstakingly examining every aspect

of this level B assessment and becoming proficient with it through repeated practice and critical

feedback from the instructor. Part of our main assignment was to create a 'cheat sheet' for us to

refer to when doing the WIAT III that we could keep as a tool to help us as practitioners over the

coming years. It was only after becoming proficient with the WIAT III that we were required to

make our cheat sheet, which insured that it would be a reliable tool. It is important for the WIAT

III examiner to follow precisely the process and script because this ensures that data used for

scoring the assessment will not be skewed thus invalidating the results. As a level B assessment

the Wechsler Individual Achievement Test is considered a standardized assessment that ideally

should be administered by people who have specialized training and certification in test

administration, scoring and interpretation. Incidentally, my school district does not require its

employees administering the WIAT III to be certified; competence is enough. While we did not

receive a level B certification from this course, I believe the training I received made me

proficient at administering the WIAT III, better than most of the people currently administering

these assessments in our district. Level B certification is something that I am considering. All it

would take is more mentoring and supervised practice. The level B tests are more complex and

intensive than Level A tests, which are classroom based tests such as the PM Benchmark

assessment. Level B assessments require a degree of understanding of psychometric principles,

the traits being measured, and the disciplines represented within the tests (e.g., educational,

psychological, counselling). We were given the choice of which level B assessment we wanted

to focus on in the course, and I chose the WIAT III because, as a resource teacher, I am often

asked to perform it. The WIAT III, like other level B assessments, provides detailed information

in specific domains of functioning and are necessary for only a small proportion of students who

warrant more in depth evidence to inform individualized programming/interventions. Our school

district has contracted a psychologist to administer the Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children

(WISC), but it up to the resource teachers to administer the WIAT III.

The WIAT III, like all Level B assessments, is set up with very precise sets of

administrative rules and procedures. We were required to video tape ourselves administering

the assessment, and if deviated from the prescribed script more than twice we would not pass the

course. In the moment, these rules are easily forgotten. The cheat sheet is very meaningful to

me personally because it is a record of all the important details of administering the test that I

found particularly easy to miss. I have relied on this cheat sheet many times in my practice and

keep it next to me whenever I administer the WIAT III. I have had plenty of practice

administering the WIAT III because I, along with another resource teacher and fellow classmate

from EDUC 622, have assessed most of the students up for psycho-educational testing within our

district. This course and the cheat sheet I made while taking it have been put to good use and

will continue to be used throughout my career as a learning assistance resource teacher.