Development of a Practice Profile to Examine Two Implementation Outcomes in Speech-Language Pathologists' Comprehensive Evaluations: Adoption and Fidelity

PURPOSE: This study aimed to develop and validate a practice profile to document speech-language pathologists' (SLPs') fidelity in comprehensive evaluation practices. The study tested the internal consistency of practice profile items, differences in fidelity scores across assessment methods, and discrepancies between fidelity and adoption measures. METHOD: The study involved 212 SLPs from six Wisconsin school districts participating in the Wisconsin Collective for Comprehensive Assessment implementation project. Participants completed self-ratings of their adoption and fidelity with eight assessment tasks. RESULTS: The practice profile demonstrated strong internal consistency, with Duhachek's alpha values exceeding 0.70 for most sets of items. Significant differences in fidelity scores were observed across assessment methods, with the following hierarchy: stimulability > norm-referenced = observation > academic standards > language sample analysis = dynamic assessment. Adoption scores were significantly higher than fidelity scores for five of the six assessment tasks, indicating a gap between intended and actual practices. CONCLUSIONS: The findings suggest the need for targeted training and development of tools to support high-fidelity implementation of assessment tasks, particularly for academic standards, language sample analysis, and dynamic assessment. Further research should explore how adoption and fidelity measures can support implementation efforts to promote best practices in speech-language pathology.