Is There Tuly a Need for Psychological Assessment at School Entrance? The Israeli Case

This paper considers the efficiency of psychological assessment with regard to transition from kindergarten to first grade by examining the relation between information available to the psychologist mainly, the kindergarten teacher's recommendation and the results of tests administered during the assessment procedure and the ultimate recommendation reached by the psychologist (retention in kindergarten versus entrance into school). Employing a sample of Israeli kindergarten children referred to the psychological-educational service, the study found no relation between the psychologist's recommendation and test scores and a strong correspondence between it and the kindergarten teacher's recommendation. Agreement was particularly high regarding retention in kindergarten (the vast majority of recommendations) and with respect to the younger children in the cohort (July-December), who constituted 80 percent of the referral population. From an organizational standpoint, these findings suggest that psychological assessment is superfluous, at least with respect to the vast majority of referrals.