A special issue of the Peabody Journal of Education looking at contemporary issues in psychological and educational assessment.

The terms interactive and dynamic would never have been associated with psychological and psychoeducational assessment a generation ago. They have currency now because of widespread dissatisfaction with the normative, standardized testing model, criticism of theoretical concepts of intelligence, recognition of abuses of standardized intelligence testing, and frustration with prediction and classification as primary goals of assessment. It is almost certainly true that public policy concerns propel scientific activity far more often than science propels public policy! In the case of psychological assessment, public policy concerns have arisen in the last 20 years primarily around issues of possible "discrimination" against members of ethnic minorities. At the same time, there has been a re surgence of dedication to "excellence in education" goals. These concerns have led to such extreme measures as prohibition of the use of standard ized intelligence tests to determine school placement decisions, especially for minority children. They have led also to a search for alternatives to standardized, normative testing. The chapters in this volume represent a variety of answers to this need.

The terms interactive and dynamic would never have been associated with psychological and psychoeducational assessment a generation ago. They have currency now because of widespread dissatisfaction with the normative, standardized testing model, criticism of theoretical concepts of intelligence, recognition of abuses of standardized intelligence testing, and frustration with prediction and classification as primary goals of assessment. It is almost certainly true that public policy concerns propel scientific activity far more often than science propels public policy In the case of psychological assessment, public policy concerns have arisen in the last 20 years primarily around issues of possible "discrimination" against members of ethnic minorities. At the same time, there has been a re surgence of dedication to "excellence in education" goals. These concerns have led to such extreme measures as prohibition of the use of standard ized intelligence tests to determine school placement decisions, especially for minority children. They have led also to a search for alternatives to standardized, normative testing. The chapters in this volume represent a variety of answers to this need."

Dynamic assessment embeds interaction within the framework of a test-intervene-retest approach to psychoeducational assessment. This book offers an introduction to diagnostic assessors in psychology, education, and speech/language pathology to the basic ideas, principles, and practices of dynamic assessment. Most importantly, the book presents an array of specific procedures developed and used by the authors that can be applied to clients of all ages in both clinical and educational settings. The authors discuss their approach to report-writing, with a number of examples to demonstrate how they incorporate dynamic assessment into a comprehensive approach to assessment. The text concludes with a discussion of issues and questions that need to be considered and addressed. Two appendixes include descriptions of additional tests used by the authors that are adapted for dynamic assessment, as well as information about dynamic assessment procedures developed by others and sources for additional information about this approach.

Dynamic assessment embeds interaction within the framework of a test-intervene-retest approach to psychoeducational assessment. This book offers an introduction to diagnostic assessors in psychology, education, and speech/language pathology to the basic ideas, principles, and practices of dynamic assessment. Most importantly, the book presents an array of specific procedures developed and used by the authors that can be applied to clients of all ages in both clinical and educational settings. The authors discuss their approach to report-writing, with a number of examples to demonstrate how they incorporate dynamic assessment into a comprehensive approach to assessment. The text concludes with a discussion of issues and questions that need to be considered and addressed. Two appendixes include descriptions of additional tests used by the authors that are adapted for dynamic assessment, as well as information about dynamic assessment procedures developed by others and sources for additional information about this approach.