School testing

[Anonymous]

I don't agree with that at all. School psychologists vary just like any other people in any profession. IQ tests are pretty scripted and there are a lot of rules about how to administer and score them. They start with warm up things like drawings and games. If you have specific areas of concern ask for one than one test or subtlest in that area. Private people have more time to explore every avenue. The school wants to do right by your kid. That's why we picked these jobs.

[Anonymous]

Most school psychs just have master degrees.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I don't agree with that at all. School psychologists vary just like any other people in any profession. IQ tests are pretty scripted and there are a lot of rules about how to administer and score them. They start with warm up things like drawings and games. If you have specific areas of concern ask for one than one test or subtlest in that area. Private people have more time to explore every avenue. The school wants to do right by your kid. That's why we picked these jobs.

+1 IME school psychologists are not trained testers. You should take your child to someone who does nothing but testing, like Dr. .Daisy Pascaval in the Foxhall building. The three day test should cost about $3K. The difference between school testing and outside private testing can make all the difference in the world.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I don't agree with that at all. School psychologists vary just like any other people in any profession. IQ tests are pretty scripted and there are a lot of rules about how to administer and score them. They start with warm up things like drawings and games. If you have specific areas of concern ask for one than one test or subtlest in that area. Private people have more time to explore every avenue. The school wants to do right by your kid. That's why we picked these jobs.

The school psychologists who evaluated my child missed his disabilities 2x's. Different psychologists, different MCPS schools but both only had a master's degree. Private evaluations by psycholgists with Ph.D.'s highlighted the data that MCPS psychologists ignored and how my child was meeting the DSM-5 criteria for ADHD. They also did further testing that highlighted two other disabilities that were missed. There was no excuse to miss my child's disabilities during the reevaluation because the first private evaluation was a roadmap to what they were.

The public evaluation will be at best cursory and at worst, fail to identify if your child has a disability. I disagree with the above poster that the school wants to do right by your kid. Some people are in their jobs because they didn't take the Ph.D. path so a school position is all that they are qualified for. On the outside, a school psychologist with a master's degree would not have the credentials to have a private practice.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I don't agree with that at all. School psychologists vary just like any other people in any profession. IQ tests are pretty scripted and there are a lot of rules about how to administer and score them. They start with warm up things like drawings and games. If you have specific areas of concern ask for one than one test or subtlest in that area. Private people have more time to explore every avenue. The school wants to do right by your kid. That's why we picked these jobs.

The school psychologists who evaluated my child missed his disabilities 2x's. Different psychologists, different MCPS schools but both only had a master's degree. Private evaluations by psycholgists with Ph.D.'s highlighted the data that MCPS psychologists ignored and how my child was meeting the DSM-5 criteria for ADHD. They also did further testing that highlighted two other disabilities that were missed. There was no excuse to miss my child's disabilities during the reevaluation because the first private evaluation was a roadmap to what they were.

The public evaluation will be at best cursory and at worst, fail to identify if your child has a disability. I disagree with the above poster that the school wants to do right by your kid. Some people are in their jobs because they didn't take the Ph.D. path so a school position is all that they are qualified for. On the outside, a school psychologist with a master's degree would not have the credentials to have a private practice.

I agree 100 percent. Have little faith in school testing.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We're having our child evaluated by the school. What has been your experience with school psycho ed testing? On the mark? Off? Any thoughts as I brace myself the results?

Our son was evaluated 2x by his school, and we did 2 private evaluations.

The school testing found the same general issues (ADHD, low processing speed, working memory deficits) but was simply not as deep. It was fine as far as it went, but when we began to see signs of anxiety we went to a private neuropsychologist because we wanted to make sure we understood if our child had ADHD, anxiety or both.

This was our experience as well. The school testing was good and accurate for what it was, and for our purposes (qualifying for the needed services) worked. When we eventually did private testing, we didn't learn anything new, but did get some additional/deeper insight.

[Anonymous]

Not OP but am curious about those of you who had private testing first and then school do the retesting after that. We have just finished private testing, and I am almost positive our child will have some dx but, depending on the problem, would consider haveing the school re-test. anybody do that? Pro/cons?

I"m thinking LD like dyslexia for my child.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Not OP but am curious about those of you who had private testing first and then school do the retesting after that. We have just finished private testing, and I am almost positive our child will have some dx but, depending on the problem, would consider haveing the school re-test. anybody do that? Pro/cons?

I"m thinking LD like dyslexia for my child.

Unless you were dissatisfied with the private results, thought they were far off mark or missed something, this would be unusual. Some of the batteries can't be repeated for certain number of months.

A more likely scenario would be the school disagreeing with the diagnosis or finding and want to do their own evaluation. They other thing that happens is the school doesn't dispute the disability / diagnosis but bring evidence from classwork or teacher that says the child isn't being impacted educationally.