How does Texas Special Education Solutions administer remote testing?

Texas Special Education Solutions utilizes a third party web-based platform to administer remote testing.

How reliable is remote testing?

Dr. A. Jordan Wright, Clinical Assistant Professor of Counseling Psychology at NYU Steinhardt and a leading researcher on psychological assessment conducted research to answer this question. The conclusion was that remote administration by credentialed school psychologists produces valid results when administering a teletherapy platform designed to minimize deviations from in-person assessment. The study compared in-person versus remote using the Woodcock-Johnson® IV (WJIV™).

Remote Online Administration of Psychoeducational Assessments, including a summary of the research.

Equivalence of Remote, Online Administration and Traditional, Face-to-Face Administration of Woodcock-Johnson IV Cognitive and Achievement Tests

What do school districts need to facilitate remote online assessments?

1. A quiet and private room

2. A document camera or cell phone

3. A student computer with reliable internet connection

4. A student response booklet if applicable and pencils

5. Support personnel (sits beside student during the assessment)

What if the district does not have the required student response booklet?

Should a district not already have the response booklets Texas Special Education Solutions will provide districts them prior to testing. The district personnel managing the student’s case will be informed of specific procedures for the receipt of the response booklet and providing the completed response booklet to the online administrator.

What if the district already has the required student response booklet?

If the district already has the response booklet to Texas Special Education Solutions will coordinate with district personnel to resupply response booklets that have been used.

How are the evaluations administered?

1. Support personnel turns on the computer and connects it to the document camera/or cell phone.

2. Support personnel connects online with the Education Diagnostician via an invite provided from the third party testing Administration Platform.

3. The Education Diagnostician administers the evaluation guiding the student remotely with the support personnel sitting beside the student.

4. The support personnel places the student response booklet in an envelope and signs across the seal to subsequently give it to the student’s case manager.

5. The Educational Diagnostician collaborates with the case manager to provide the results of the evaluation.

What else should districts consider?

Prior to scheduling testing, local schools need to ensure the testing time does not conflict with any scheduled drills so as not to interrupt testing.

Also local schools should consider factors such as a student’s lunch time, recess time, and P.E. class. Otherwise, optimal evaluation results could be impacted by a student’s reluctance to test because the student may be missing time he or she values.