Psychology
in
the Schools
Volume
23,
July
1986
COMPUTER SUPPORT IN A RURAL SETTING:
EVALUATION REPORTS’
A COMPARISON OF COMPUTER-ASSISTED AND HANDWRITTEN
FRANK
J.
NICASSIO, KEVIN
J.
MOORE,
AND THE STAFF OF THE CHILD DEVELOPMENT PROGRAM
Umatilla Education Service District
The present blind study compared the quality of psychoeducational reports generated
under two conditions.
On
the average, reports written with computer assistance were
rated
to
be of higher quality than those prepared by hand. Also presented are data
validating the large expenditure of staff time on report preparation, along with estimates
of
the time saving that may be realizedwith computer assistance. The relevance
of
computer support to relatively isolated, rural-based clinical staff is discussed.
A major undertaking for clinical staff is the production of written psychoeduca-
tional reports to convey testing outcomes, interpretations, and recommendations resulting
from observation and assessment. Writing reports is a time-consuming task. Eitel and
her associates (Eitel et al.,
1984)
report that, in their study, urban school psychologists
spent between
6.2
and
10.6%
of their time writing and dictating reports. Our estimate
for rural settings, based
on feedback from cooperating school districts, substantiates
this rather significant time expenditure and is discussed below.
In addition to time, considerable skill is required to produce an intelligible and useful
report, as is attested by the numerous criticisms and prescriptions offered by both readers
and writers (Caudra
&
Albaugh,
1956;
Hoy
&
Retish,
1984;
Rucker,
1967a,b;
Sattler,
1982;
Tallent
&
Reiss,
1959;
Teglasi,
1983;
Weddig,
1984;
Wiener,
1985).
In an attempt to reduce the amount of time required to create and write psychoeduca-
tional reports and also to improve their quality, a computer-assisted report-writing pro-
gram was created similar to others recently reported (Hofmann,
1985;
Mercadal,
1984;
Training and Model Exchange Project,
1984).
The program, dubbed Allegro, consists
of a manual, diskettes and worksheets, and is a well-organized, modifiable information
source accessed through commonly available word processing software (Allegro,
1985;
Nicassio, Huston, French, Robinson, Thomas, Daschbach, Costello, Moore,
&
Michael,
1984).
This article discusses a blind study testing the program’s communicative effec-
tiveness and studying the efficiency of computer-assisted report-writing procedures.
METHOD
Sample Reports
Sixty-eight reports were randomly drawn from special education files. Half
of
the
reports were computer-assisted and had been printed with a “letter quality” printer hav-
ing standard typewriter font, whereas half had been handwritten and typed prior
to
the
introduction of Allegro. To give reports an even more “generic” and standardized ap-
Inquiries or requests for reprints should be sent to Frank
J.
Nicassio, Child Development Program, Umatilla
Education Service District,
P.O.
Box
38,
Pendleton, OR
97801.
‘This paper describes the results
of
a team effort made possible by the following persons, who are gratefully
acknowledged: Dr. Richard Huston, Rosemary French, A.
John
Robinson, Walt Thomas, Mike Daschbach,
Pat Costello, and Norma Michael. Appreciation
is
also extended to the following field-test sites: the Josephine
County (OR), Gilliam County (OR), and Curry County (OR) Education Service Districts, and the La Grande
(OR) School District. Thanks to Dr. Robert W. Earl, Huntington Beach (CA) for consultation during data
analysis.
303