Welcome to the very first PTS newsletter for 2015. Happy New Year! We hope everyone had a relaxing and enjoyable break over the holiday period and that you’re ready for another busy year.
We have a few test updates and prices changes to tell you about as well as our upcoming Leadership Circle Certification and Conference.
The Leadership Circle Certification
We have confirmed the dates for our 2015 The Leadership Circle Certification workshops.
These will be held in Wellington from 29 April - 1 May and 04-06 November.
The Leadership Circle Profile (TLCP) is a true breakthrough among 360 degree profiles. It is the first to connect a well-researched battery of competencies with the underlying and motivating habits of thought. It reveals the relationship between patterns of action and internal assumptions that drive behaviour. Ultimately, TLCP goes to the sources of behaviour to get greater leverage on change. Furthermore, unlike most profiles that take hours to interpret, TLCP integrates all this information in a way that brings the key issues to the surface.
For more information and to register check out our April or November flyers or contact NZCER on 04 802 1399 or theleadershipcircle@nzcer.org.nz.
The Leadership Circle 2015 Annual Conference
The Leadership Circle Asia Pacific will be holding it's 2015 Annual Conference in Sydney this year. The conference will run from 8.30am to 1pm on 21 May, 2015 at the the Wesley Conference Centre.
Here's what one of last years attendees had to say:
"If you want to deepen your understanding of this powerful leadership framework then book to go to TLC conference in May. Attendance is free, so for the cost of a flight you get to hear inspiring presenters on the latest research and business results. The afternoon is a chance to connect with other practitioners and explore topics further. I came away this year inspired, with a deeper understanding and appreciation of TLC, increased connections with TLC community and a date in my dairy to make sure I get along again in 2015. It is well worth the price of an air ticket. Next year it would be great to use this event as an opportunity for NZ practitioners to get to connect."
Contact us for more information and your free invitation.
Adaptive Behaviour Assessment System, Third Edition (ABAS-3)
Western Psychological Services have just released the third edition of the Adaptive Behaviour Assessment System (ABAS-3). The third edition includes new test norms, updated item content and improved ease of use. This assessment provides a complete picture of functional skills across the life span. It measures 11 essential skill areas, which fall into 3 major domains: Conceptual, Social and Practical. For more information about the ABAS-3 please contact us.
Canadian Occupational Performance Measure - Fifth Edition
The Canadian Association of Occupational Therapists have released the fifth edition of the Canadian Occupational Performance Measure (COPM-5) along with the following support website: www.thecopm.ca
The COPM-5 is an individualised measure that has been designed for use by occupational therapists to assess a client's self-perceived change in occupational performance over time. It initiates the conversation with clients about performance issues in everyday living and provides the basis for setting intervention goals.
Updates include:
- A case example linked to video clips on the COPM website
- A wider range of theoretical and process models and terminology
- Recent research findings for the psychometric properties of the COPM
Click here for more information about the COPM-5. We still have quite a few manuals and record forms available for the COPM-4 and are offering a 20% discount on these items. Contact us on 04 802 1399 or test.advisory@nzcer.org.nz to order.
GORT-5 and GDRT-2
Following conversations with customers last year we've realised there is a need for an effective assessment of oral reading comprehension. We’ve identified the Gray Oral Reading Tests - Fifth Edition and Gray Diagnositic Reading Tests - Second Edition as two valid and reliable reading assessments. The manuals for both of these assessments are available to borrow from our test library if you would like to know more. Please contact us at test.advisory@nzcer.org.nz to borrow the test manuals.
York Assessment of Reading for Comprehension (YARC)
Just before Christmas the publisher of the YARC let us know that prices for this assessment will be increasing in January 2015. The new prices can be viewed here: YARC
We wish you all the best for 2015 and look forward to working with you again this year. I will leave you with some of our literacy assessments:
PAT: Listening provides information about students' ability to focus their listening and to make meaning from texts that are read to them.
The test assesses a student's comprehension of texts read to them. It uses short stories, extracts from novels, poems and nonfiction items. Because the student is listening rather than reading, their response provides information about meaning making that is independent of their ability to decode text.
Reading Comprehension assesses students' ability to construct meaning from text. The content reflects current developments in the teaching and learning of reading comprehension. Each test is organised around seven to eight extended texts. These include: narrative texts; poems; transactional texts including reports, explanations; and procedural and persuasive texts. Questions for each text are categorised as: retrieval questions; local inference questions; and global inference questions.
Reading Vocabulary assesses students' ability to understand the words they read. Each question is based around key word that is embedded in a short sentence. Students are asked to choose a synonym that best represents the meaning of this word from a list of five plausible alternatives.
The purpose of the STAR is to supplement the assessments teachers make about progress and achievement in reading. The STAR may be administered at any time in the school year and there are two parallel forms.
The Test of Reading Comprehension is designed to help teachers assess reading comprehension skills in students from Year 3 to Year 10. The third edition of the TORCH replaces TORCH-2 and TORCH Plus, building on popular features of these assessments and providing nine new passages and items. The illustrated Test Booklet contains 16 fiction and non-fiction reading passages in a variety of text types. Test items are classified according to the Reader Behaviour Framework, which can be used to inform teaching and learning.
TORCH can be used for a number of purposes, including:
- providing an estimate of reading achievement
- providing information for setting goals and planning learning activities
- identifying areas of strengths and weaknesses for individual students or within a class
- monitoring student reading achievement over time