Psychological and psychoeducational evaluation reports are often criticized for being too long and difficult to understand. Nonetheless, these reports inform, and are often required for, high-stakes educational decisions. Very little prior research has documented whether general and special educators read the entirety of such reports. This study…

The purpose of the current study was to investigate how preservice teachers perceived the utility of a psychological report for their practice (e.g., creating an individual education plan or a lesson plan). Teacher candidates, who were enrolled in an Inclusive Education course, used fictional psychological reports as the basis for course…

This review summarizes primary studies on teachers' preferences and perceptions of the psychological report. A systematic search identified 19 studies meeting the inclusion criteria. These studies were evaluated in terms of (a) psychological report section focus, (b) methodology, (c) research results, (d) discussion, and (e) recommendations.…

A majority of substantiated maltreatment reports are made by educators and thus, teacher knowledge of child maltreatment reporting mandates and reporting behavior has been a focus of research. The knowledge and behavior of school psychologists, however, has not received similar attention. This study investigated the child maltreatment reporting…

School-based practitioners are to implement and report functional behavior assessments (FBAs) that are consistent with both the research literature and the law, both federal and state. However, the literature regarding how best to document the FBA process is underdeveloped. A review of applied behavior analytic and school psychology literature as…

Investigates the effect of report-writing format and style on teachers' (N=81) comprehension of psychological reports. Results indicated that teachers better comprehended reports that organize information by functional domain, describe strengths and problems in clear behavioral terms, describe the child's learning style fully, and state specific…

Examined incidence of child sexual abuse (CSA) reports to school psychologists and perceived quality of services to child victims and surveyed usage of CSA prevention and screening programs. Subjects included 171 school psychologists who reported 498 CSA cases. Results suggest need for training school psychologists in assessment of child sexual…

Purpose was to determine what parents want and the degree to which they value psychoeducational reports prepared by school psychologists. The sample (N=44) consisted of parents whose children were seen as out-patients of the UCLA Learning Disorder Clinic. Results showed positive impressions regarding evaluations, usefulness, and content. (Author)

Results of a survey of staff of a short-term residential facility serving mentally retarded clients indicate that recommendations and social competency information are perceived to be the most important sections of psychological reports while projective test personality interpretation and IQ test results are considered to have the least value.…

Describes a process whereby the school psychologist writes a more descriptive and less interpretative report. Encourages parents and staffing team members to become collaborators in hypothesis testing relative to the test results instead of being passive recipients of the psychologists' wisdom. Attempts to decrease defensiveness, improve…

Studied comprehension of psychological reports by three groups of educators: school administrators, elementary school teachers, and secondary school teachers. All three groups preferred reports in which both the child description and the recommendations were elaborated with explanations and examples. Elementary teachers and principals comprehended…

Teachers read fictitious psychoeducational reports that were consistent, inconsistent, or absent with respect to a child's diagnostic label, then cumulative folders, then the report again. Their perceptions of child's characteristics changed in an adaptive direction for general adjustment, academic skill, and learning approach, and negatively for…