Presenters:  Dawn P. Flanagan, Ph.D.  |  Vincent C. Alfonso, Ph.D.  |  Samuel O. Ortiz, Ph.D.

This institute provides a full-day training designed to help participants streamline their assessments and strengthen the psychometric defensibility of their evaluations. This conference brings the new Essentials of Cross-Battery Assessment and X-BASS, 4th Edition to life through real-world examples, practical decision rules, and time-efficient workflows you can use immediately.

Participants will learn how to conduct targeted, CHC-aligned cross-battery assessments, interpret data with greater precision, and apply tools from the updated X-BASS software to make clearer, more defensible SLD decisions. Whether you are new to XBA and X-BASS or looking to refine your practice, this next-generation approach will help you work smarter — not harder — while improving the quality and efficiency of your evaluations.

The new book, Essentials of Cross-Battery Assessment and X-BASS, 4th Edition (Flanagan, Ortiz, & Alfonso, 2026, Wiley), as well as key takeaways, handouts, and resources for each chapter, are included in the cost of this training.

What You Will Learn: Three Focused Sessions

Session 1

Work Smarter, Assess Better: Efficient, Next-Generation Cross-Battery Assessment with X-BASS

This session introduces the updated XBA framework from Essentials of Cross-Battery Assessment and X-BASS, 4th Edition. Participants will learn how to build targeted, CHC-aligned cross-battery assessments that are shorter, more focused, and more interpretively precise than traditional battery-based approaches. Using real-world case data and X-BASS workflows, this session walks through how to strategically select subtests, organize findings within the CHC framework, and generate interpretations that are both clinically meaningful and psychometrically defensible. Whether you are new to XBA or updating your practice to the fourth edition framework, you will leave with a clear, efficient, step-by-step process you can apply the very next day.

Key Takeaways:

●      How to build a targeted XBA using the fourth edition framework

●      CHC-aligned subtest selection across cognitive and achievement batteries

●      Using X-BASS to organize, interpret, and document cross-battery findings efficiently

●      Practical workflows for reducing over-testing without sacrificing diagnostic precision

Session 2

Is It Really SLD? Applying the Dual Discrepancy/Consistency PSW Method and X-BASS to Make Defensible Decisions

SLD identification is one of the most consequential — and most contested — decisions that multidisciplinary teams make. This session provides a systematic, step-by-step walkthrough of the Dual Discrepancy/Consistency (DD/C) method implemented within X-BASS — the only approach to SLD identification that is simultaneously consistent with IDEA 2004, grounded in CHC theory, and supported by a robust psychometric and research base. Participants will be walked through real cases and X-BASS decision rules, and learn to distinguish true SLD from low achievement, slow processing, or globally depressed ability — with documentation that withstands scrutiny.

Key Takeaways:

●      The logic and evidence base of the DD/C method

●      Step-by-step SLD identification using X-BASS, from referral to test selection, data entry, analysis, integration of data sources, and a final defensible SLD/not SLD decision

●      How to distinguish SLD from low ability, slow processing, and other achievement-influencing (exclusionary) factors

●      Documentation of SLD that is legally defensible and clearly communicable to multidisciplinary teams, including parents and teachers

Session 3

Don’t Let the Data Mislead You: C-LIM Updates and Extensions for Accurate Interpretation with Multilingual and Culturally Diverse Learners

When assessing culturally and linguistically diverse students, test scores are likely to be misinterpreted without the right tools. This session presents the updated and extended Culture-Language Interpretive Matrix (C-LIM) — a practical framework embedded in X-BASS that helps practitioners systematically evaluate the degree to which cultural and linguistic factors, rather than true cognitive or academic deficits, may be influencing test performance. Participants will learn to apply the C-LIM to real datasets, interpret score patterns across levels of cultural loading and linguistic demand, and make more equitable, accurate, and defensible decisions for multilingual and culturally diverse students.

Key Takeaways:

●      The research foundation and updated structure of the C-LIM

●      How to evaluate cultural loading and linguistic demand across cognitive and achievement subtests

●      Applying C-LIM within X-BASS to interpret score patterns for diverse learners

●      New C-LIM extensions and their implications for SLD identification in diverse populations