Adhd

Attention-Deficit
ficit
Hyperactivity Disorder:
A School-Based
Evaluation Manual
Jim Wright, Syracuse (NY) City Schools

About This Book…
ADHD: A School-Based Evaluation Manual was first issued in April1995. The manual was used by the
Syracuse (NY) City School District to train its school psychologists to work collaboratively with other
members of the school multidisciplinaryEvaluation Team to carry out school-based ADHD assessments.
Although the manual was originally intended as a guide for completing ADHD evaluations in school settings
in New York State, much of the content applies to evaluators working in any of our nation’s public schools.
In April 2002, the manual underwent minor re-editing and reformatting in preparation for posting on the
Intervention Centralweb site as a free, downloadable Adobe Acrobat file. The content, though, is
essentially unchanged from the 1995 edition of ADHD: A School-Based Evaluation Manual.

About The Author…
Jim Wright is a school psychologist who lives and works in Syracuse, NY. He is
presently a program developer and staff trainer for the School-Based Intervention Team
(SBIT) Project for the Syracuse CitySchool District. He also serves as the Co-Chair of
the Central New York School Violence Prevention Network, an affiliation of school- and
community-based professionals who meet monthly to share strategies for ensuring that
schools remain safe places to learn. Jim has presented extensively to teachers, school
administrators, and parents in the Syracuse area and throughout New York State oneffective academic and behavioral interventions, curriculum-based assessment, and
violence prevention.
You can email Jim at: jim@jimwrightonline.com

Terms of Use…
This resource guide, ADHD: A School-Based Evaluation Manual, is available for nonprofit educational
purposes only. Reproduction for resale is expressly prohibited without written permission from the author.
Copies may be made foreducational purposes. This document is available solely from the Intervention
Central web site (http://www.interventioncentral.org).

ADHD: A School-Based Evaluation Manual

Jim Wright (www.interventioncentral.org)

1

Section I: Schools and the Assessment of Attention-Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder ........................ 3
Introduction....................................................................................................................... 3
History of ADHD As a Disorder.............................................................................................. 3
Current Clinical Definition of ADHD ........................................................................................ 4
Contributions of DSM to a School-based Assessment of ADHD: TheDebate ............................... 5
Support for the DSM........................................................................................................ 5
Criticisms of the DSM....................................................................................................... 7
Relation of DSM to the School-based ADHD Assessment..................................................... 8
ADHD in the Schools ........................................................................................................... 8
Medical versus Multi-Disciplinary Diagnosis ..................................................................... 10
Purpose of the Manual .................................................................................................. 11
Section II:Conducting the School-Based ADHD Assessment ....................................................... 13
Introduction ..................................................................................................................... 13
Multitrait, Multimethod Assessment .................................................................................... 13
Dimensions of Bandwidth and Fidelity...