New York, NY (PRWEB) June 16, 2015 -- Pearson announced today that more than one million clinical assessment subtests have been administered on Q-interactive, an award-winning, innovative digital system used by psychologists and speech-language pathologists. Designed for use in schools, clinics, hospitals, private practice and universities, Q-interactive allows clinicians to administer tests via two iPads connected with Bluetooth.
Q-interactive improves accuracy, reduces testing time, increases flexibility and allows for more personalized assessment through features including real-time scoring, audio recording, and on-the-fly editing of tests.
Cleveland Metropolitan School District is illustrative of districts around the country that are using Q-interactive to deliver clinical assessments. A team of more than 80 school psychologists began the transition from paper assessments to Q-interactive in the 2014-15 school year. As her department’s technology assessment chair, School Psychologist Rachael Folkman is managing the implementation. “When we evaluated Q-interactive as our assessment delivery tool, we realized that it would allow us to ensure that our psychologists have the right protocols to use with students on hand right when they need them. In addition, the platform provides us with significant time and cost-savings when it comes to ordering, storing and managing traditional assessment kits.”
Continuing, she said, “Best of all, we find that students are more engaged when taking assessments and rapport is built more quickly because of the tablet environment.”
From a practical standpoint, Folkman said that most of the district’s psychologists travel from school to school and, in the past, had to transport heavy test kits, with all of the supporting manipulatives. She said, “The trunks of our cars were filled with crates of files and boxes of kits. Now with the convenience of carrying just the iPads, it would be hard to go back to the traditional kits.”
The district rolled out Q-interactive incrementally over the 2014-15 school year, using a combination of digital and paper assessments while the school psychologists participated in both small group and 1:1 training on the platform. Full implementation will begin with the start of the 2015-16 school year.
Folkman said that her department represents a wide range of experience—from people right out of their internships to those with more than 40 years of experience. However, she can honestly say everyone has really bought in to using Q-interactive. “I haven’t had any resistance. Everyone is excited to hit the ground running in the new school year,” she said. “At our end-of-year luncheon, a colleague and I agreed that the value of the ease of use with scoring and getting immediate results as well as the increased student engagement that comes with Q-interactive far outweighs the time that we have invested in learning to use the platform.”
“Rachael and her colleagues at Cleveland Metropolitan School District exemplify the thousands of psychologists and clinicians around the country who are are turning to Q-interactive for its ability to put a comprehensive library of assessment tools at their fingertips,” said Aurelio Prifitera, Ph.D., managing director of Pearson’s clinical assessment group. “It is exciting to reach the platform’s one millionth subtest delivered milestone.”
Launched just over two years ago, Q-interactive is built on a solid foundation of research. Prior to inclusion in the Q-interactive library, each new type of subtest undergoes an equivalency study to evaluate whether scores from Q-interactive testing are interchangeable with those scored from paper-and-pencil testing. The assessment library offers an array of test batteries and subtests for assessing ability, achievement, memory, executive function and language. Visit http://www.helloq.com/home for more information.
About Pearson
Pearson is the world’s leading learning company, with 40,000 employees in more than 80 countries working to help people of all ages to make measurable progress in their lives through learning. For more information about Pearson, visit http://www.pearson.com.
Media Contact: Laura Howe, laura.howe(at)pearson(dot)com, or (202) 471-2187
Laura Howe, Pearson, http://www.pearson.com, +1 (800) 745-8489, [email protected]
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