School AMPS

School Version of the AMPS (School AMPS)

Purpose: 

To evaluate a student’s quality of schoolwork task performance (e.g., cutting, pasting, writing, drawing, computing)

The School AMPS is used to:

  • Test a student in his or her usual classroom setting as he or she is performing schoolwork tasks that have been assigned by the teacher, and have been prioritized by the teacher or client (23 standardized schoolwork tasks can be observed)
  • Measure the degree to which a student’s schoolwork task performances are free of increased physical effort, decreased  efficiency, safety risk, and/or need for assistance
  • Score the quality of 16 school motor and 20 school process performance skills
  • Facilitate occupation-focused documentation and occupation-based intervention planning

Key characteristics: 

  • The School AMPS can be used to test students 3 years and above
  • The School AMPS is appropriate for use with any student who has or is at risk for experiencing challenges with schoolwork task performance; the School AMPS may also be used to test healthy well students
  • School AMPS observation results can be interpreted from both criterion- and norm-referenced perspectives (norm-referenced interpretation is currently available only for ages 3 to 12 years)
  • Computer-generated results can be used to document baseline quality of schoolwork task performance, the effectiveness of OT interventions, and changes in schoolwork task performance over time
  • The School AMPS can be administered in 1 hour or less
  • The School AMPS can be used in any relevant classroom environment where there are at least four students and a teacher
  • The School AMPS was developed using many-facet Rasch analysis methods
  • The School AMPS has been standardized on an international sample of 1592 students with and without disabling conditions or educational or medical diagnoses

What the School AMPS “is not”:

  • The School AMPS is not designed to be used to evaluate for the presence of underlying neuromuscular, biomechanical, cognitive, or psychosocial impairments (e.g., strength, motor planning and praxis, memory, executive functions, sensory processing)

Who can administer the School AMPS?

  • The valid and reliable use of the School AMPS requires that person using it is an occupational therapist who has attended a specialized training course in the standardized School AMPS administration procedures and has calibrated as a valid and reliable School AMPS rater