Stephanie Carlson, professor, and Phil Zelazo, Lindahl Professor, both at the Institute of Child Development, and Reflection Sciences, the company they recently founded, were featured in New Test for Private-School Assessments in the Wall Street Journal on September 4. The testing is being conducted as part of a pilot program run by Carlson and Zelazo and the Independent School Admission Association of Greater New York (ISAAGNY).

The pilot program, being used in ten private schools, includes an assessment tool developed by Carlson and Zelazo, called the Minnesota Executive Function Scale, to gauge development of executive function skills in young children. Carlson and Zelazo’s research shows that the development of executive function skills is relevant to later school achievement. As Zelazo states in the article: “These basic foundational skills turn out to be a better predictor of long-term outcomes than intelligence as it’s usually assessed.”

Carlson and Zelazo founded Reflection Sciences in collaboration with the U of M Office of Technology Commercialization. Reflection Sciences, LLC provides information, training and assessment tools on executive function. The Minnesota Executive Function Scale has been shown to be a reliable and valid assessment tool from early childhood to age 85.