Who Conducts Psychometric Testing?

Question

I have recently become increasingly more interested in the field of psychometric testing and would like to learn more about it. In particular what qualifications does one need to conduct such tests and what types of jobs are available in relation to this type of testing?

Answer 1

It depends on where you live, but generally a school psychologist has the job of doing a full psychoeducational eval.  I was trained in Indiana where school psychologists used to be called 'psychometrists'.  I enrolled in a doctoral program, so my training went beyond testing and assessment (thankfully).  Most school psychs have Master's in Education degrees.  When I lived in Texas, they had educational diagnosticians who would do academic assessments, and also learned cognitive tests.  These folks had a special licensure beyond a teaching degree, I believe.  My friend is a special education teacher in Maryland, and she does academic testing as well.  She has a BA in Education.  So those are a few options I know about in the schools.  Outside of schools, clinics will also do psychometric testing.  You can do them as a psych tech, but I believe you still need a master's degree to do it.  

I'm biased, but being a school psych offers the most options, and a potential for better pay (depending on where you live).  One caution to you is that psychometric testing is falling out of favor in terms of public education policy.  No Child Left Behind has changed special education law to include response to intervention.  There is a paradigm shift going on where we are moving from nature to nuture as the cause for academic difficulties.  Of course the rest of the world is moving back to a medical cause for everything, but oh well.