Assessment Specialist Responsibilities

The assessment specialist responsibilities include learning, teaching, and developing psychological principles. The assessment specialist field was established for the coordination and implementation of the student testing program. This program generally includes assessing an individual child's needs, potentials, and limitations. The assessment specialist is responsible for observing the students, reviewing their records, and consulting the parents about the student's progress. They also need to continuously be in touch with the new developments in school of psychology by attending workshops, professional meetings, and seminars.

To become an assessment specialist, one needs to be highly sensitive to others' feelings and must be helpful on the job. This job also requires a person to be honest and ethical and requires being pleasant, having a good nature, and a cooperative attitude with others. The assessment specialist must also be reliable, dependable, and requires a lot of self-control by maintaining composure, controlling anger, keeping emotions in check, and avoiding aggressive behavior even in difficult situations. He or she must also be careful and thorough in completing the work tasks and accepting criticism and dealing calmly and effectively with any high stress situations.

The career as an assessment specialist is one of the most difficult and highly responsible jobs. A person must be highly educated with ample knowledge about psychology. Along with higher education, a person must also be aware of the basic skills and job responsibilities of an assessment specialist. The below given information about assessment specialist responsibilities, skills, educational qualification, and salary will help you to get ample knowledge about this field and further plan your career accordingly.

Educational Qualifications

To become an assessment specialist, a candidate must at least possess a bachelor's degree in psychology. However, a candidate with master's degree in psychology is always preferred for an assessment specialist job. Along with a degree, the candidate must also possess ample knowledge about applied behavior analysis, clinical child psychology, clinical psychology, counseling psychology, and development and child psychology. The knowledge about other different aspects such as geropsychology, health/medical psychology, psychoanalysis, psychotherapy, and school psychology will help a candidate to obtain other higher posts than assessment specialists.

Key Skills

An assessment specialist must possess ample knowledge about psychology which includes human behavior, individual difference in ability/ personality/ interests, psychological research methods, etc. Other than psychological knowledge, a person must also possess various other skills as follows:

• Expert knowledge of therapy and counseling
• Expert communication skills, both verbal as well as written
• Knowledge about principles and methods of curriculum, teaching, training design, etc.
• Extensive knowledge of sociology and anthropology
• Expert in mathematical calculations which include geometry, algebra, statistics, calculus, and other important arithmetic applications
• Knowledge about computer hardware and software, including the use of necessary application programs
• Clerical knowledge that includes managing files and records, word processing, designing forms, stenography, and transcriptions
• Knowledge about strategic planning, resource allocation, leadership techniques, production methods, human resource modeling, and coordinating people and resources
• Basic knowledge about media productions
• Knowledge about laws, legal codes, precedents, government regulations, court procedures, agency rules, etc.

Job Responsibilities

Learning, teaching, and developing psychological principals are the basic job responsibilities of an assessment specialist. The assessment specialist, however, also needs to undertake other responsibilities as follows:

• Counseling children and parents and help them solve any problems in learning and adjustments
• Promote child development and its relationship with learning and behavior
• Providing consultations to parents, administrators, and teachers on various topics related to learning styles and behavior modification techniques
• Collaborate with different educational professionals to develop new teaching strategies beneficial to the students
• Prepare and maintain student test results and study them to make necessary changes in the teaching pattern
• Pay special attention to each and every student and practice different teaching methods accordingly
• Document psychological reports for teachers, parents, and administrators
• Provide necessary references to the students and their parents to appropriate community agencies or social service groups
• Undertake educational programs on classroom management, parenting skills, and teaching strategies
• Analyze data to evaluate the effectiveness of the educational programs
• Maintain the student's special educational reports, confidential records, and behavioral data

Salary

The salary of an assessment specialist usually depends upon his or her educational qualifications and experience in the field of assessment specialist. However, according to various reports, the average annual salary of an assessment specialist lies in the range of $40,000 to $72,000. This salary may also vary according to the institute or organization you are working with.

The assessment specialist responsibilities mentioned above will provide you with ample and adequate knowledge about this field. This information will also help you to plan your career as an assessment specialist.