Abstract

The current study evaluates the perceived best practices and current actual practices of school-based professionals in interprofessional collaboration and in conducting multilingual assessments. The participants consisted of 341 professionals from across the United States in the following groups: speech language pathologists (SLPs), assistants, special education teachers, general education teachers, specialists, school psychologists, and administration. Participants responded to an online Qualtrics survey with a total of 74 possible items regarding demographics, caseload, multilingual assessment practices and beliefs, and interprofessional collaboration practices and beliefs. Results were analyzed with descriptive and inferential statistics. Results indicate that participants recognize the need for interprofessional collaboration when conducting assessments in the schools. They feel more confident in collaborating than in conducting multilingual assessments. Results also indicate that, when referring students for special education evaluation, actual practices of school-based professionals do not line up with perceived best practice (a transdisciplinary approach). The same is true during the evaluation process. Professionals were more likely to use an approach other than the one they indicated was best practice (trans- or interdisciplinary) in their actual practice of conducting evaluations. These findings indicate that it may be effective to train school-based professionals about conducting multilingual assessments in the framework of interprofessional collaboration. They also indicate that there may be work to be done by special education teams to overcome challenges to collaboration.

Degree

College and Department

David O. McKay School of Education; Communication Disorders

Rights

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