Parent-Professional Congruence: Is It Necessary?

Considerable attention has been given to the issue of parent-professional congruence, specifically in connection with reliability of assessments. Concerns regarding the trustworthiness of parental assessments have guided research to focus on the conventional issues of interrater reliability and rater interchangeability. However, this conventional perspective may be misdirected and counterproductive. It is argued that the focus should be the reliability of the pooled assessment information from parents and professionals. A more appropriate generalizability theoretic model, which would maximize social, ecological, and construct validity, is proposed. An illustration with data from an early childhood assessment system is provided.