Data Collection
Creating truly innovative assessments takes the expertise and dedication of many people—test authors and publishers, of course—but also field researchers and study participants who collect data to develop and validate tests and to ensure their ongoing reliability.
When you partner with WPS as a data collector, you use your skills and experience to shape the future of psychological assessment—helping us build tests that are more inclusive, more accessible, more responsive, and more accurate. You’re compensated for your time, and you share in the satisfaction when a new or updated assessment is published.
- Resources
- Data Collection
What do data collectors do?
When a new assessment is developed or an existing assessment is revised, WPS invites trained clinicians and educators to pilot the test. As a data collector, you recruit a diverse group of individuals to take the assessment. The demographic and test data you collect helps us develop the assessment’s norms and ensure that the assessment is valid and reliable.
Over time, assessments need to be revised and updated. That’s because populations, diagnostic criteria, language standards, methods of test administration, and several other factors change. To create a new edition of a trusted assessment, we need qualified professionals to gather data with representative groups of participants. It’s a chance to improve an existing test and possibly advance the field of psychological and educational assessment.
Who can be a data collector?
Reliable, accurate data is the key to successful assessments. Our data collectors are school psychologists, occupational therapy practitioners, clinical psychologists, speech–language pathologists, neuropsychologists, educational diagnosticians, researchers, and other health professionals who have been trained to administer, score, and interpret psychological and educational assessments. Successful data collectors have access to diverse populations, including a variety of clinical diagnoses as well as representative typically developing individuals throughout the life span.
What are our current data collection opportunities?
We’re recruiting qualified data collectors for these assessments:
Adaptive Behavior Assessment System, Fourth Edition (ABAS‑4)
- Purpose: Assessment of adaptive skills across the life span
- Assessment Type: Rating scale
- Ages: 0 years through adulthood
- Components: Parent Form, Daycare Provider Form, Teacher Form, and Self‑Report Form
Revised Children's Manifest Anxiety Scale, Third Edition (RCMAS‑3)
- Purpose: Anxiety measure that quickly brings into focus the often-invisible worry, stress, and fear that can lead to academic difficulties, social withdrawal, substance abuse, and other problems
- Assessment Type: Rating scale
- Ages: 4-19 years
- Components: Parent Form, Teacher Form, and Self-Report Form
Social Responsiveness Scale, Third Edition (SRS‑3)
- Purpose: Examines social communication behaviors as an indicator of symptoms associated with autism spectrum disorder (ASD)
- Assessment Type: Rating scale
- Ages: 2 years, 6 months through adulthood
- Components: Preschool Forms (Parent & Teacher), School-Age Forms (Parent, Teacher, Self-Report), Adult Forms (Self‑Report & Other/Caregiver)
If you’d like to know more about qualifying for any of our other data collection projects, please complete the Data Collection Participation Interest Survey.
What are the benefits of being a WPS Data Collector?
You’re compensated for your time and commitment.
Your time, expertise, and professional networks all have tremendous value. WPS compensates its data collectors generously; rates vary from project to project, depending on the time commitment involved.
Rating scale compensation and rater incentive rates differ based on the number of items on the form and the length of time it takes to complete them. Performance test compensation and rater incentive rates differ based on length of administration and data collector training required.
Data collectors can choose to be compensated in cash or WPS product credit, or a combination of the two. All WPS product credit amounts equal twice the amount of cash earned.
You can find out more about compensation for projects that interest you by contacting us here.
You’re playing a meaningful role in making assessments more inclusive.
For assessments to truly benefit people of all backgrounds, they need to be designed for and normed with diverse populations. As a data collector, you can leverage your professional and community connections to recruit people with different racial, ethnic, cultural, educational, and economic backgrounds. WPS partners with data collectors in all regions because we’re working toward greater equity, inclusion, and representation.
You can gain valuable expertise in administering assessments.
As a data collector, you have an advance opportunity to explore and administer new and updated assessments. This exposure can be helpful if you’re making purchasing decisions for yourself or your organization. Plus, you’ll receive extra training in test administration, which builds your skills in working with the instrument.
Your feedback makes assessments better.
WPS values the insights we gain by collaborating closely with our data collectors. Because you administer the assessments, you have a unique perspective on the test items themselves, the response of individuals taking a test, and the user experience a platform provides. We want to hear from you! This is your opportunity to share your thoughts so that we can develop tests that better meet your needs.