Nadeen L. Kaufman, EdD
Dr. Nadeen L. Kaufman was Lecturer on the clinical faculty at Yale University's Child Study Center in the School of Medicine from 1997 to 2023. She is an expert in learning disabilities assessment, test construction, clinical assessment, and case report writing. The 1983 Kaufman Assessment Battery for Children (K-ABC, co-authored with Alan S. Kaufman) was the first individually administered cognitive test based on theory and successfully reduced IQ differences among ethnic groups. Further, the K-ABC changed the way comprehensive tests of intelligence were constructed. The K-ABC introduced “teaching” items, its manual included a wide array of pre-publication validity studies, and its project director (Randy Kamphaus) was a clinically trained psychologist (previously, project directors were trained in psychometrics, not clinical assessment). All of these innovations are now standard practice for new and revised IQ tests.
Nadeen, a Hofstra University graduate who earned graduate degrees in Psychology, Reading and Learning Disabilities, and Special Education (Neuroscience) from Columbia University, has been a teacher of learning-disabled children, school psychologist, learning disabilities specialist, university professor, test developer, author, and founder-director of several psychoeducational clinics. She also was a direct participant in the development and standardization of the McCarthy Scales of Children’s Abilities and WISC-R from 1969 to 1974
From 1974 to 1997, Nadeen trained school psychologists and clinical psychologists, and supervised graduate-student research, at the University of Georgia, the National College of Education (now National Louis University), the California School of Professional Psychology, San Diego campus, and the University of Alabama. The research team of doctoral students that Nadeen and Alan supervised while at the University of Georgia in 1978-79 to develop the original K-ABC included several individuals who went on to become international leaders in school psychology, cognitive assessment, nonverbal assessment, behavioral assessment, and adaptive behavior assessment. This stellar group includes (alphabetically): Bruce Bracken, Jack Cummings, Patti Harrison, Randy Kamphaus, Steve McCallum, Jack Naglieri, and Cecil Reynolds.
In addition to the K-ABC and its second edition (KABC-II), both of which have been translated, adapted, and standardized in dozens of countries around the world, including several rural African villages, Nadeen and Alan have developed a variety of other psychological and educational tests published by Pearson, most notably the popular Kaufman Test of Educational Achievement (K-TEA) and the Kaufman Brief Intelligence Test (K-BIT). Current editions of these tests are the KABC-II Normative Update (KABC-II NU), the KTEA-3, and the KBIT-2 Revised. The K-BIT and KBIT-2 extend from preschool age through the adult life span, and have been published in Spain. The Kaufman Adolescent and Adult Intelligence Test (KAIT) and the Kaufman Short Neuropsychological Assessment Procedure (K-SNAP)—both normed from early adolescence through old age—have been published in Germany and Netherlands. Nadeen and Alan also developed the computerized K-CLASSIC for French-speaking countries, which has been published for Germany-speaking countries as well.
Nadeen and Alan are founding editors and co-editors (since 1997) of the popular Wiley book series Essentials of Assessment, which numbers more than 70 volumes, has been widely translated into at least 10 languages, and has world wide influence.
Nadeen’s other projects include co-authoring Clinical Evaluation of Young Children with the McCarthy Scales (with Alan in 1977), Essentials of Assessment Report Writing (with Liz Lichtenberger, Nancy Mather, & Alan in 2004), Essentials of KABC-II Assessment (with Alan, Liz Lichtenberger, & Elaine Fletcher-Janzen, 2005), and Essentials of Assessment Report Writing (2nd ed.) (with Joel Schneider, Liz Lichtenberger, & Nancy Mather in 2018),; and co-editing Specific Learning Disabilities and Difficulties in Children and Adolescents: Psychological Assessment and Evaluation (2001). She co-edited (with Nancy Mather) two special issues of Psychology in the Schools in 2006 devoted to the integration of cognitive assessment and response to intervention in the assessment of children with specific learning disabilities. In 2007, she co-authored (with Dawn Flanagan, Liz Lichtenberger, & Alan) the DVD-based training program — Agora: The Marketplace of Ideas. Best Practices: Applying Response to Intervention (RTI) and Comprehensive Assessment for the Identification of Specific Learning Disabilities. In addition, dozens of Nadeen's case reports have been published in a variety of books, and she has authored or co-authored many articles, chapters, and reviews in professional journals and books. Nadeen is a former associate editor of School Psychology Review.
Nadeen is a Fellow of APA's Division 16 (School Psychology) and of the Association of Psychological Science. In 2012, she was awarded (jointly with Alan) the School Neuropsychology Summer Institute KIDS, Inc. Lifetime Achievement Award. In 2017, with Alan, she was inducted into the Creativity Hall of Fame by the American Creativity Association (ACA).
Nadeen and Alan’s daughter, Dr. Jennie K. Singer, is a clinical psychologist in private practice who has worked in prisons as a psychologist, and at CSU--Sacramento as a professor of Criminal Justice. She has expertise on the psychological aspects of the prison experience. Their son, Dr. James C. Kaufman, Professor of Educational Psychology at the University of Connecticut, is an international expert in the field of creativity.
Nadeen is proud and grateful to have been mentored by Margaret Jo Shepherd at Columbia University. The Learning Disabilities Clinic that Dr. Shepherd directed in the 1970s was cutting edge during the rise of the learning disabled movement. The dynamic approach to clinical interpretation of intelligence and psycholinguistic tests that Nadeen learned at that clinic provided the blueprint for Alan’s Intelligent Testing philosophy and interpretive approach. Nadeen is also fortunate to have been mentored in literature and writing by Margaret Atwood when the famed Canadian author was a Visiting Professor at the University of Alabama in the mid-1980s.