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My assessment training in grad school (in both a clinical 3-year masters and school psych doc program) was *intense* and standardized administration was EVERYTHING. When I was a TA, I would time the newbies on number span and they'd have to re-do it if they weren't at 1 per sec.
Someone in my cohort got seriously reprimanded, as in--had to repeat an entire year of grad school--for taking a WISC manual home to study it and not ensuring it was double-locked at all times in transit.
We agonized over scoring decisions, and we had to submit practice protocols, hand-scored and graphed, for everything from the Wechsler scales to the dreaded MMPI-2 and BASC (y'all ever hand-scored those bad boys?)
We memorized when to query and when not to query. We double-checked scoring for hours. Basal rules and ceiling rules and on and on, because we understood that the results of the assessments we administer can have life-changing impacts.
And yeah, then we graduated and got jobs and realized that administering cognitive and adaptive and emotional and educational assessments in the wild world isn't always as clean as it was in the ivory tower.
So we engage in the art of clinical and school psychology, understanding when standardization breaks are minor versus not and how to handle things like testing in a closet next to the music room while the music class learns to drum.
... but this year (and I'm gonna be honest because love it or hate it that's what I am here), it feels like there's pressure from all directions to disregard standardized administration.
And, I mean, I get it. We've blown past federally-mandated timelines and we're in a pandemic. There's pressure from the boss people to get it done. Pressure from parents and families who rightfully want to know whether students are eligible for services.
But dang, y'all. Some of the things psychs are being asked to do are just bananas, no two ways about it. We all have to decide for ourselves what we are and are not willing to do... what we could and couldn't justify when our licenses are on the line.
I wish I had the answers, but unfortunately I don't. I'm incredibly lucky to work for a company that is allowing in-person assessment and providing all needed PPE. But that's not the case everywhere. So, to my fellow School Psychs struggling with all of this, I see you.
