Conducting School-Based Assessments of Child and Adolescent Behavior

This hands-on guide is designed to help school practitioners conduct effective multidimensional assessments of a wide range of emotional and behavioral difficulties. Each chapter focuses on a particular method, describes its applications in the school setting, and offers clear guidelines for implementation, illustrated with realistic case examples. Approaches discussed include direct observation, analogue assessment, child self-reports, teacher and parent interviewing, informant reports, and self-monitoring procedures. Recommendations for working with culturally and linguistically diverse children and adolescents are also provided.

The theoretical and empirical underpinnings of the assessment strategies demonstrated here are thoroughly reviewed in the companion volume, Behavioral Assessment in Schools, Second Edition: Theory, Research, and Clinical Foundations.

Edward S. Shapiro, PhD, until his death in 2016, was Director of the Center for Promoting Research to Practice and Professor in the School Psychology Program at Lehigh University. Best known for his work in curriculum-based assessment and nonstandardized methods of assessing academic skills problems, Dr. Shapiro was author or coauthor of numerous books. He also developed the widely used BOSS (Behavioral Observation of Students in Schools) software system and presented papers, chaired symposia, and delivered invited addresses at conferences around the world. Dr. Shapiro's contributions to the field of school psychology have been recognized with the Outstanding Contributions to Training Award from Trainers of School Psychologists, the Distinguished Contribution to School Psychology Award from the Pennsylvania Psychological Association, the Eleanor and Joseph Lipsch Research Award from Lehigh University, and the Senior Scientist Award from the Division of School Psychology of the American Psychological Association, among other honors.

Thomas R. Kratochwill, PhD, is Director of the School Psychology Program and Psychoeducational Clinic at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Dr. Kratochwill has been associate editor of Behavior Therapy, the Journal of Applied Behavior Analysis, and School Psychology Review, and was selected as the founding editor of the APA Division 16 journal, Professional School Psychology (now School Psychology Quarterly). He is president of the Society for the Study of School Psychology and coauthor of the Task Force on Empirically Supported Interventions in School Psychology. Dr. Kratochwill has written or edited 23 books and made more than 100 presentations at professional meetings.