NCED Preventive Maintenance Procedures 2 — Questions and Answers
Question 1: An educational diagnostician reviews a student's cumulative file before testing. Which preventive step best guards against confirmation bias during this review?
- Record prior teacher comments verbatim in the report
- Avoid reading subjective teacher narratives until after scoring is complete (Correct answer)
- Share the cumulative file contents with the student's parents before testing
- Use the cumulative file to select which subtests to administer
Correct answer: Avoid reading subjective teacher narratives until after scoring is complete
Reading subjective narratives after scoring minimizes the risk that prior opinions will bias test administration and interpretation.
Question 2: Which practice best prevents examiner drift during standardized test administration over multiple sessions?
- Paraphrasing instructions to keep the student engaged
- Periodically reviewing the test manual's exact wording between sessions (Correct answer)
- Allowing the student to self-pace through items to reduce anxiety
- Skipping basal rules if the student appears to know early items
Correct answer: Periodically reviewing the test manual's exact wording between sessions
Re-reading the manual between sessions prevents gradual deviation from standardized procedures that can occur over time.
Question 3: A diagnostician notices a student's hearing aids are not functioning during assessment. The most appropriate preventive action is to:
- Proceed and note the issue in the report's limitations section
- Reschedule testing until the hearing aids are repaired or replaced (Correct answer)
- Raise the volume of verbal instructions and continue
- Administer only nonverbal subtests for that session
Correct answer: Reschedule testing until the hearing aids are repaired or replaced
Testing without functioning amplification compromises the validity of results, so rescheduling is the appropriate preventive measure.
Question 4: To prevent floor effects when assessing a student suspected of significant intellectual disability, a diagnostician should:
- Begin all subtests at item 1 regardless of age norms
- Select an instrument with a normative sample that includes individuals with similar abilities (Correct answer)
- Skip basal rules to save time and start at harder items
- Use extended norms only if the student fails the first three items
Correct answer: Select an instrument with a normative sample that includes individuals with similar abilities
Choosing a test with an appropriate normative sample that includes individuals with similar ability levels prevents floor effects and improves score validity.
Question 5: Which scheduling practice best prevents fatigue effects on cognitive assessment results?
- Administering all subtests in a single extended session to maintain continuity
- Scheduling testing in the morning before the student's typical fatigue window (Correct answer)
- Conducting testing immediately after recess to capitalize on physical activity
- Splitting testing so the most difficult subtests are administered last
Correct answer: Scheduling testing in the morning before the student's typical fatigue window
Morning scheduling takes advantage of peak alertness and reduces the likelihood that fatigue will depress test scores.
Question 6: Before administering a norm-referenced language test, the diagnostician learns the student has been receiving intensive speech therapy for 6 months. Which preventive consideration is most critical?
- Administer the test immediately to capture current functioning
- Check whether recent intensive intervention may have raised scores beyond the student's independent baseline (Correct answer)
- Withhold intervention records from the report to avoid bias
- Retest in 6 more months before administering any language measure
Correct answer: Check whether recent intensive intervention may have raised scores beyond the student's independent baseline
Recent intensive intervention can inflate test scores above the student's independent level, which must be acknowledged when interpreting results.
Question 7: Which action during test scoring review best prevents errors that could alter eligibility decisions?
- Relying on software-generated standard scores without verifying raw score entry
- Independently re-entering raw scores and recalculating standard scores to verify accuracy (Correct answer)
- Having the student's teacher verify the standard scores for face validity
- Averaging scores from two different instruments to balance any scoring errors
Correct answer: Independently re-entering raw scores and recalculating standard scores to verify accuracy
Independent re-entry and recalculation catches transcription errors that could produce incorrect standard scores and flawed eligibility determinations.
NCED Preventive Maintenance Procedures 2
An educational diagnostician reviews a student's cumulative file before testing.
Which preventive step best guards against confirmation bias during this review?