Re: Standards for Using Decision Tools, Assessment Instruments

[as2156@xxxxxxxxxxxx]

Hi John,

You'll find a wealth of information at the Children's Research
Center at:

http://www.nccd-crc.org

Look at structured decision-making and the excellent
reports/articles on reliability/validity (including predictive) of
risk assessment instruments using an actuarial approach (even
compares this approach to consensus-based tools).  Chris Baird and
Dennis Wagner have also published a few articles in journals.

Aron Shlonsky



Quoting John Rosen <jrosen@kii.com>:

> I would appreciate receiving references in the Social Work/Child
> Welfare literature to discussions of when social work agencies
> may "legitimately" rely on decision tools and assessment
> instruments, and when they may not use such tools and
> instruments.  The request is to help with a paper I'm writing on
> the subject.  I have a number of references taken from the
> psychological literature, but almost nothing from Child Welfare.
> 
> A bit more detail:
> 
> 	By a "decision tool" I mean an algorithmic (usually statistical)
> procedure for making a decision about a case (placement decision,
> whether to take a child into state custody, whether to send a
> foster child home, etc.)  The question is under what general
> circumstances can an agency use such tools; what types and amount
> of evidence about the tool are necessary to put a tool into
> routine clinical use?
> 
> 	By an "assessment instrument" I mean some sort of scale that
> assigns a number to each case (child or family) indicating to
> what extent the case possesses some attribute.  Unlike decision
> tools, scores on the assessment instrument would not directly
> translate into case decisions.
> 
> I'm especially interested in issues related to validation
> efforts, and the concepts of criterion and construct validity,
> but I haven't yet found directly relevant discussions from a
> Child Welfare perspective.
> 
> Thanks much to all.
> 
> 	T. John Rosen, Ph.D.
> 	Kansas Innovations, Inc.
> 	www.kii.com
> 	jrosen@kii.com
>