Ohio Admin. Code 4757-5-06 - Standards of ethical practice and professional conduct: assessment and testing instruments
(A) General use of assessment and testing
instruments:
(1) Appraisal techniques: the
primary purpose of educational and psychological assessment is to provide
measures that are objective and interpretable in either comparative or absolute
terms. Counselors, social workers, and marriage and family therapists shall
interpret the statements in this rule as applying to the whole range of
appraisal techniques, including test and non-test data.
(2) Client welfare: counselors, social
workers, and marriage and family therapists shall promote the welfare and best
interests of the client in the development, publication, and utilization of
educational and psychological assessment results and interpretations and take
reasonable steps to prevent others from misusing the information these
techniques provide. They shall respect the client's rights to know the results,
of the interpretations made, and the bases for their conclusions and
recommendations.
(B)
Competence to use and interpret assessment and testing instruments:
(1) Limits of competence: Counselors, social
workers, and marriage and family therapists shall recognize the limits of their
competence and perform only those testing and assessment services for which
they have training. They shall be familiar with reliability, validity, related
standardization, error of measurement, and proper application of any technique
utilized. Counselors, social workers, and marriage and family therapists using
computer-based test interpretations shall be trained in the construct being
measured and the specific instrument being used prior to using this type of
computer application. Counselors, social workers, and marriage and family
therapists shall take reasonable measures to ensure the proper use of
psychological assessment techniques by persons under their
supervision.
(2) Appropriate use:
Counselors, social workers, and marriage and family therapists are responsible
for the appropriate selection, application, scoring, interpretation, and use of
assessment instruments, whether they score and interpret such tests themselves
or use computerized or other services.
(3) Decisions based on results: Counselors,
social workers, and marriage and family therapists responsible for decisions
involving individuals or policies that are based on assessment results shall
have a thorough understanding of educational and psychological measurement,
including validation criteria, test research, and guidelines for test
development and use.
(4) Accurate
information: Counselors, social workers, and marriage and family therapists
shall provide accurate information and shall not make false claims when making
statements about assessment instruments or techniques. Counselors, social
workers, and marriage and family therapists shall seek to identify and correct
client misconceptions about assessment instruments or techniques and about the
meaning of scores, charts, or graphs given to them as assessment product.
Special efforts shall be made to avoid unwarranted connotations of such terms
as "IQ" and grade equivalent scores.
(C) Informed consent in the use of assessment
and testing instruments:
(1) Explanation to
clients: Prior to assessment, counselors, social workers, and marriage and
family therapists shall explain the nature and purposes of assessment and the
specific use of results in language the client (or other legally authorized
person on behalf of the client) can understand, unless an explicit exception to
this right has been agreed upon in advance. Regardless of whether scoring and
interpretation are completed by counselors, social workers, marriage and family
therapists, by assistants, or by computer or other outside services,
counselors, social workers, and marriage and family therapists shall take
reasonable steps to ensure that appropriate explanations are given to the
client.
(2) Recipients of results:
The examinee's welfare, explicit understanding, and prior agreement shall
determine the recipients of test results. Counselors, social workers, and
marriage and family therapists shall include accurate and appropriate
interpretations with any release of individual or group test
results.
(D) Release of
information to competent professionals of assessment and testing instrument
results:
(1) Misuse of results: Counselors,
social workers, and marriage and family therapists shall not misuse assessment
results, including test results, and interpretations, and take reasonable steps
to prevent the misuse of such by others.
(2) Release of raw data: Counselors, social
workers, and marriage and family therapists shall ordinarily release data (e.g.
protocols, counseling or interview notes, or questionnaires) in which the
client is identified only with the consent of the client or the client's legal
representative. Such data shall usually be released only to persons recognized
by counselors, social workers, and marriage and family therapists as competent
to interpret the data.
(E) Proper diagnosis of mental disorders with
the use of assessment and testing instruments:
(1) Proper diagnosis: Counselors, social workers, and marriage and family therapists,
and social workers shall take special care
to provide accurate diagnosis of mental disorders. Assessment techniques
(including personal interview) used to determine client care (e.g., locus of
treatment, type of treatment or recommended follow-up) shall be carefully
selected and appropriately used.
(2) Cultural sensitivity: Counselors, social workers, and marriage and family
therapists,
and social
workers shall recognize that culture affects the manner in which
client's problems are defined. Clients' socioeconomic and cultural experience
shall be considered when diagnosing mental disorders.
(F) Test selection in the use and
interpretation of assessment and testing instruments:
(1) Appropriateness of instruments:
Counselors, social workers, and marriage and family therapists shall carefully
consider the validity, reliability, psychometric limitations and
appropriateness of instruments when selecting tests for use in a given
situation or with a particular client.
(2) Culturally diverse populations:
Counselors, social workers, and marriage and family therapists recognize that
the psychometric characteristics of a test (e.g., reliability, validity) are a
function of the cultural composition of the population in which they were
evaluated, validated, or normed. Licensees shall exercise due diligence in
selecting tests to be used within a culturally diverse population in order to
minimize the risk of inappropriate interpretation of test
scores.
(G) Conditions of
test administration when using assessment and testing instruments:
(1) Administration conditions: Counselors,
social workers, and marriage and family therapists shall administer tests under
the same conditions that were established in their standardization. When tests
are not administered under standard conditions or when unusual behavior or
irregularities occur during the testing session, those conditions shall be
noted in interpretation, and the results may be designated as invalid or of
questionable validity.
(2) Computer
administration: Counselors, social workers, and marriage and family therapists
shall be responsible for ensuring that assessment administration programs
function properly to provide clients with accurate results when a computer or
other electronic methods are used for test administration.
(3) Unsupervised test-taking: Counselors,
social workers, and marriage and family therapists shall not permit
unsupervised or inadequately supervised use of tests or assessments unless the
tests or assessments are designed, intended, and validated for self
administration and/or scoring.
(4)
Disclosure of favorable conditions: prior to test administration, conditions
that produce most favorable test results shall be made known to the
examinee.
(H) Diversity
when using assessment and testing instruments: Counselors, social workers, and
marriage and family therapists shall be cautious in using assessment
techniques, making evaluations, and interpreting the performance of populations
not represented in the norm group on which an instrument was standardized. They
shall recognize the effects of age, color,
culture, disability, ethnic group, gender, race, religion, sexual orientation
and socioeconomic status on test administration and interpretation and place
test interpretation results in proper
perspective with these and other relevant
factors.
(I) Test scoring and
interpretation when using assessment and testing instruments:
(1) Reporting reservations: In reporting
assessment results, counselors, social workers, and marriage and family
therapists, shall indicate any reservations that exist regarding validity or
reliability because of the circumstances of the assessment or the
inappropriateness of the norms for the person tested.
(2) Research instruments: counselors, social
workers, and marriage and family therapists shall exercise caution when
interpreting the results of research instruments possessing insufficient
technical data to support respondent results. The specific purposes for the use
of such instruments shall be stated explicitly to the examinee.
(3) Testing services: counselors, social
workers, and marriage and family therapists who provide test scoring and test
interpretation services to support the assessment process shall confirm the
validity of such interpretations. They shall accurately describe the purpose,
norms, validity, reliability, and applications of the procedures and any
special qualifications applicable to their use. The public offering of an
automated test interpretations service is considered a
professional-to-professional consultation. The formal responsibility of the
consultant is to the consultee, but the ultimate and overriding responsibility
of the counselor, marriage and family therapist, or
social worker is to the client.
(J) Test security when using assessment and
testing instruments: Counselors, social workers, and marriage and family
therapists shall maintain the integrity and security of tests and other
assessment techniques consistent with legal and contractual obligations.
Counselors, social workers, and marriage and family therapists shall not
appropriate, reproduce, or modify published tests or parts thereof without
acknowledgment and permission from the publisher.
(K) Obsolete tests and outdated test results
when using assessment and testing instruments: Counselors, social workers, and
marriage and family therapists shall not use data or test results that are
obsolete or outdated for the current purpose. Counselors, social workers, and
marriage and family therapists shall make every effort to prevent the misuse of
obsolete measures and test data by others.
(L) Test construction for assessment and
testing instruments: Counselors, social workers, and marriage and family
therapists shall use established scientific procedures, relevant standards, and
current professional knowledge for test design in the development, publication,
and utilization of educational and psychological assessment
techniques.
Notes
Promulgated Under: 119.03
Statutory Authority: 4757.11
Rule Amplifies: 4757.11
Prior Effective Dates: 06/11/1985 (Emer.), 09/19/1985 (Emer.), 12/19/1985, 05/22/1986, 07/03/1997, 08/02/2001, 09/20/2002, 04/10/2004, 01/01/2006, 11/08/2007, 10/18/2009
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