Because attention is so multi-faceted and affects all academic skills, this kind of comprehensive approach is the most reliable and valid. We received several questions related to group testing and standards. The following is a response to the questions and concerns that many of you had regarding group tests. A. Students are individuals, each with a unique profile of strengths and weaknesses. This neurodevelopmental diversity is extremely difficult, if not impossible, to capture in a group test.
Group tests assess a very narrow range of knowledge, skills, and neurodevelopmental functions.
Students can have very important strengths, such as creativity or expressive language, which cannot be demonstrated on multiple-choice tests, for example. The field of education needs to continue work towards developing innovative ways to provide accountability while remaining sensitive to the profiles of individual students. Potential solutions might well depend on the expertise of teachers trained to identify specific strengths and weaknesses through careful observation over time. The evaluation team collaborates to create a detailed description of the student, highlighting strengths, affinities, and weaknesses. The team links this neurodevelopmental profile to academic skills, helping us to answer, in very specific terms, why a student is struggling with an aspect of school.