PSOF rater preparation
Cross-Domain Calibration
Nine domains in one sitting. The point is not to teach you to notice, you already do that. The point is to line up what a rating of 2 means in your room with what it means in every other room in the study. That shared meaning is what makes the instrument measurable.
Time
About 25 minutes
Practice
Scenes with feedback
Gate
Scored gate
Rating essentials
The one rule
"Rate how often it occurred, not how severe it looked when it did."
"Resolution is not absence."
0
Never
Did not occur
1
Rarely
1–2 times
2
Sometimes
3–5 times
3
Very Often
6+ times or most days
N/A
N/A
No opportunity to observe
- Observation period
- "What each form covers: typical patterns observed over the previous ten school days."
- Collection windows
- "When you complete forms: fall, winter, and spring."
- Counting
- "Count across all ten days. A single unusual day counts once; it never sets the rating on its own. Rate only what you directly observed."
- N/A
- "No opportunity to observe. Never for uncertainty."
- Compensation
- "The workaround is the data."
- The four traps
- Severity, Hidden compensation, Interpretation, Low salience.
- The three-part sentence
- "What I saw was ___. It happened about ___ times in the last ten school days. That is a ___."
- Optional notes
- "Use the form's optional notes to record task context, setting, or timing."
How the gate works
- For each domain you read a short orientation, then rate one practice scene with immediate feedback against the calibrated anchor.
- After all nine domains you rate fresh scenes in the scored gate, with no feedback. Agreement within one rating level counts as agreement.
- 80% agreement earns your credential and unlocks PSOF Digital.
- Miss it and you review only your weakest domains, then retake once. Attempts remaining: 2.