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The landscape of mental health care is undergoing a significant transformation, driven by the integration of digital tools. Given that less than half of the 57.8 million adults diagnosed with mental illness received mental health services in the past year, the potential for digital technologies to enhance mental health care and prevention is becoming increasingly evident. Untreated mental health conditions such as depression and anxiety can have profound long-term health, social and economic consequences, emphasizing the need for prioritizing preventive mental healthcare.

Digital assessments have emerged as a powerful tool for measuring student learning and understanding. They promote equity through fair and unbiased results while offering real-time feedback that allows educators to track student achievement and make timely adjustments for personalized assessment.

I would say that digital assessments — along with their robust scoring and interpretation capabilities — are the biggest game changers in the educational assessment industry to date. They’ve revolutionized how practitioners can gather data and engage with their students, all while reducing human error. 

As a former school psychologist, digital assessment was a powerful tool that would give me accurate and insightful results, allowing me to better collaborate with educators and families to support the overall well-being of the children I was working with. The time savings I gained from digital assessment enabled me to employ other extremely valuable skill sets, such as direct interventions with students and ongoing consultation with staff, parents, and administration.

Yet, as educators embrace the shift to these resources, facing the many choices available, the logistics involved in administration, and the best ways to analyze data for individual support can feel overwhelming. In my current role as a member of the K-12 education team for Pearson Clinical Assessments, I often work with educators to help them select the right digital assessment tools for their district’s unique needs. I also offer strategies for effective administration and results interpretation.

Here are some of the digital assessment benefits and best practices I regularly share in those discussions.

We are proud to announce the new Call for Research published by Pearson Clinical Assessment. Our goal is to ensure that Pearson assessments comply with the highest standards of quality and support research that investigates the validity or efficacy of our products. We are inviting United States-based faculty members, graduate students, and qualified researchers to submit their proposals no later than August 16, 2024.

Efficient diagnostic tools can better address mental health in patients — and providers. Today, about one in four adults experiences a diagnosable mental health disorder in a given year. Many of these adults are your patients. And many others are your healthcare staff. This leaves healthcare organizations in the position of supporting patients who may struggle to get the care they need and supporting staff who may struggle to deliver proper care.  

You don’t need to go far to hear about the staffing woes in our schools, and the most critical needs are within the special education and school psychologists' departments. These education professionals and their peers, including SLPs and reading specialists, need to assess more students than ever to identify the students who need instructional, speech, and mental health support — with less time and fewer resources at their disposal.

Celebrate 10 years of Q-interactive with us!

Chances are, everyone’s appreciation for digital assessment looks a little different (and is hopefully a bit less dramatic), but no matter the setting, for the last decade, Q-interactive has been making an immeasurable impact. The last 10 years with Q-interactive have given us a better understanding of how our customers use our tests and how we can help them discover even greater efficiencies, greater accuracy, and — most importantly — greater connections through digital assessment.

We are proud to announce the new Call for Research published by Pearson Clinical Assessment. Our goal is to ensure that Pearson assessments comply with the highest standards of quality and support research that investigates the validity or efficacy of our products. We are inviting United States-based faculty members, graduate students, and qualified researchers to submit their proposals no later than August 11, 2023.

Here’s what you need to know...

Nancy, a fellow speech-language pathologist, worked in clinical practice for many years before coming to Pearson. She didn't simply happen upon her career as an SLP. Perhaps like you, Nancy’s interest in following a path to help people with communication disorders was sparked by her experiences with some very special people in her life.