CURRICULUM-BASED ASSESSMENT AMONG SCHOOL-PSYCHOLOGISTS - KNOWLEDGE, USE, AND ATTITUDES

A national survey of the knowledge, use, and attitudes about, curricul um-based assessment (CBA) among school psychologists was conducted. Qu estionnaires were sent to 500 randomly selected NASP members from thei r 1989-1990 membership list. A total of 228 (45 %) were returned. The results showed that 46 % of the respondents indicated that they had us ed some form of CBA. However, more specific questions about use sugges ted that only about 18% of those initially indicating that they had us ed CBA had done so on a consistent basis. Additional questions about t he individual components of CBA procedures (such as determining instru ctional levels) revealed that while psychologists view these procedure s as very important in conducting psychoeducational assessments, their actual application of the procedures is quite limited. As to attitude s about CBA, it was found that psychologists view CBA as less biased t han published standardized tests for assessment of children from cultu rally diverse groups and that CBA is more acceptable for students and teachers.