Wouldn’t it be nice to have a group you could contact to discuss professional assessment products? We thought so too, so PAR has established a discussion group on our LinkedIn page!
Originally started as a group for our University Partnership Program, we’d like to invite all PAR Customers to join our group where you can ask questions about—or share your experiences with—our assessment products. The group is designed to encourage the discussion of academic uses, research pursuits, and assessment instruction using PAR proprietary instruments. Whether you are teaching students how to use assessment products and looking to share ideas with other instructors, using a PAR product and looking to connect with other users, or simply wanting to discuss assessments with other professionals, this group is an open forum for discussion on the use of PAR products.
Join the discussion! https://www.linkedin.com/groups/8668065
Did you know there are many large organizations that use the Self-Directed Search (SDS) on a regular basis? One of the most widely used career interest inventories, the SDS is routinely administered by universities, colleges, school districts, and other large businesses to a diverse base of clients, students, and even job applicants.
If you’re part of a large organization that you believe could benefit from the insight the SDS offers, than you may be interested in our SDS Partnership program. The program provides customized access to the SDS and offers predetermined payment options.
For any partnership, we can:
Want to learn more about the benefits of the SDS Partnership program? Our Customer Support Specialists are available via e-mail or you may call them at 1.866.727.2884.
You may not know what all of these mean, but PAR does. And we are staying on the cutting edge—we do it voluntarily to keep your data private and secure. PAR chooses to comply with all of these security frameworks in order to provide a system that is as strong as it is secure. It’s as important to us that we keep your data away from the bad guys as it is we keep it available to the good guys—like you.
99.99% availability since 2016.
More than twice as fast as other assessment platforms.
No-hassle service and support.
Learn more about PARiConnect.
Looking for a more objective and effective way to assess talent? Introducing InVista, a revolutionary new platform designed to help you identify talent, develop employees, and grow your business.
You know recruiting is too important to leave to chance. Hiring the wrong person lowers performance, destroys organizational morale, and costs you money. InVista was designed to bring science and objectivity into the recruitment and hiring process so you can hire the right person the first time.
Developed by experienced I-O psychologists, InVista draws on 40 years of scientifically reliable, valid, and predictive success in psychometric and clinical assessment. It offers individual tests for targeted and precise measurement needs, role-specific solutions that measure specific competencies linked to job performance, and advanced solutions for leadership or high-potential staff assessment.
Our products help you identify the necessary abilities for job performance and link those abilities to customized hiring solutions. We can develop tests to measure virtually any competency, skill, or knowledge domain relevant to your business.
Learn more about how InVista can help your business as Craig Dawson, PhD, InVista’s director of HR assessments, presents “Demonstrating the Value of Talent Programs to Senior Leadership” during the HR Tampa, Society for Human Resource Management Dinner Meeting on August 15 from 6 to 8 p.m. at the Centre Club in Tampa. Register here.
Dr. Dawson’s presentation will demonstrate how modern science and practice findings from the field of I-O psychology make talent programs valuable to organizations, how to use best practices and legal guidelines to support strategic organizational goals, and what makes the return on investment of talent programs resonate with senior leadership.
Learn more about InVista at www.invistatalent.com.
The Reynolds Adaptable Intelligence Test (RAIT) is a comprehensive intelligence test that measures crystallized intelligence, fluid intelligence, and quantitative aptitude or intelligence. It was designed to provide continuity of measurement across a wide age span and requires minimal reading skills and no motor coordination. It can be administered on paper or online via PARiConnect. The digital version allows the proctor to administer the full battery or abbreviated battery and automatically calculates a measure of effort. The timing for a full battery is 50 minutes and 30 minutes for the crystallized and fluid subtests.
The Reynolds Adaptable Intelligence Test Nonverbal (RAIT-NV) uses the two nonverbal subtests from the RAIT. The RAIT-NV is ideal for individuals with limited English proficiency or language skills. No reading skill, motor coordination, or visual–motor capabilities are required. It can be administered via by paper and pencil in individual settings or in a group format, making it ideal for use in human resources settings. The RAIT-NV can be administered in 20 minutes.
The RAIT is appropriate for use when looking for a comprehensive measure of intelligence, whereas the RAIT-NV is an ideal way to test intelligence in individuals with limited language capabilities.
We would like to introduce the newest member of PAR’s Sales team, Terri Sisson, EdS, our new educational assessment advisor. Terri brings a wealth of experience to PAR, with more than 20 years of experience in public schools as a licensed school psychologist and education specialist, as well as a university student instructor and supervisor.
In her national accounts role with PAR Sales, Terri will work with our largest school district customers to coordinate trainings about PAR instruments, answer questions, provide insight about how PAR instruments compare with competing assessment products, and work with districts to maximize their budgets during the ordering process.
In addition to her public school service, Terri has held several leadership positions in the National Association of School Psychologists (NASP) and is a past president and president elect of the Virginia Academy of School Psychologists (VASP). She was selected as the VASP School Psychologist of the Year in 2011 and was recently awarded the 2017-18 Community Partnership Award from James Madison University for her support of JMU graduate students.
We’re happy to welcome Terri to the PAR family and we’re confident our Customers will enjoy working with her!
A key part of meeting the needs of your clients is choosing the appropriate assessment instrument. Some clients may present with specific symptoms that clearly lead you to a full assessment vehicle. Other instances may not be so clear cut. In those situations, a screening test can be the best starting point. One of the biggest advantages of screening tests is the ability to confirm or rule out specific issues. They can also save you time and money versus administering a full assessment product.
PAR offers a total of 37 screening, short, and abbreviated forms that cover a variety of constructs. The full list is as follows:
APS
BRIEF2
BVMT-R
CAPI
CAS2
CASE-SF
ChAMP
EDI-3
FAM
FAR
M-FAST
NAB
PAS
PAS-O
PDDBI-SV
PSI/SF
PSI-4-SF
PSS
QNST-3R
RAASI
RADS-2:SF
RCDS-2:SF
RDSI
RIST
RIST-2
SAGES-2
SASSI-4
SASSI-A2
SEARS-SF
SIMS
SIPA
SIT-4
SNST
TICS
TSCC
TSCYC
Please note that for some products, you may have to go to the parent product page, as not all screeners have their own web page. With so many to choose from, we’re confident that we have a screening instrument to meet your needs.
Will you be attending the American School Counselor Association (ASCA) Conference in Los Angeles? PAR will be attending ASCA's Reach for the Stars Conference from July 14 through 17. Be sure to stop by the booth to take advantage of the 15% conference discount and free ground shipping. Not only that, but we will also be giving out free Self-Directed Search (SDS) sample packs at the booth. It's a great time to stop by to ask any questions, get a hands-on look at new products, or find out more about your old favorites.
We can't wait to see you, so be sure to stop by and say hello!
For children, experiencing a traumatic event—such as physical or sexual abuse, neglect, victimization by a peer, the death of a parent, witnessing a violent act, experiencing a natural disaster, and more—can have devastating and lasting psychological effects.
According to the National Children’s Alliance, child abuse victims experience trauma symptoms like fear, sleep disturbances, anxiety, and depression at rates verging on those experienced by war veterans. In addition, they are more likely to perform poorly in school, have behavior problems at home, and, left untreated, have poor long-term mental and physical health.
Getting these children the help and healing they need has historically relied on the results of a forensic interview. However, clinical intake evaluation results can vary based on the clinician’s training and experience, and the time involved in administering and scoring standardized tests often precludes their use in settings like children’s advocacy centers, which see large numbers of children in relatively short periods of time.
The Trauma Symptom Checklist for Children (TSCC) Screening Form and Trauma Symptom Checklist for Young Children (TSCYC) Screening Form were developed based on a critical need for standardized screening measures that can quickly evaluate trauma symptomology and risk in children who have experienced abuse or trauma.
The one-page carbonless screening forms, which are also available in Spanish, take just 5 minutes to administer and score and can be used to assist practitioners in the field with the treatment referral process.
Derived from the full-form TSCC (a 54-item self-report for youth ages 8 to 17 years) and TSCYC (a 90-item caretaker report for children ages 3 to 12 years), both the TSCC and TSCYC screening forms include 12 items and two subscales—General Trauma and Sexual Concerns—that are scored separately. Selected items were best at predicting overall trauma and sexual-related symptomology within their respective normative samples on the full forms.
These new TSCC and TSCYC screening forms are reliable and valid measures that quickly indicate whether a child or youth is at risk for a clinically significant psychological disturbance. This helps clinicians determine the need for follow-up testing and can help children get on the path toward healing.
Reading comprehension is a seemingly simple task. However, teaching, learning, and practicing this skill is not as simple as it would seem—and evaluating it is often just as difficult. The RAND Reading Study Group defines reading comprehension as “the process of simultaneously extracting and constructing meaning through interaction and involvement with written language” (p. xiii).
There have been many assessment formats developed to tap into what (and if) students are comprehending what they read. For instance, the cloze procedure asks readers to fill in a missing word within a sentence. However, test takers may have the tendency to focus on the immediate context of the question instead of the entire passage. Multiple-choice questions, easy to develop and score, may rely on passageless comprehension–that is, the likelihood that an examinee could take an educated guess based on prior knowledge, without reading the entire passage, and still score correctly.
According to the RAND study group, there are four factors that influence reading comprehension: the reader (e.g., his or her skills, knowledge, and preferences); the text (e.g., vocabulary, structure, and reading level); the reading activity (e.g., web site or novel); and reading over time (e.g., cognitive development).
When developing the Academic Achievement Battery Reading Comprehension: Passages subtest, author Melissa A. Messer took these factors into account and developed a valid and reliable reading comprehension test that is accurate and appropriate for all age and grade levels.
The novel approach used to develop this subtest identifies reading comprehension strengths and weaknesses across a wide and grade range. Learn more about the development of this AAB subtest in a new white paper available now on our website.
View or download for free!