Customizing Parenting Education

The authors of this article discuss customizing parent education which requires customized assessment. At Auburn University, Kreg Edgmon and Wally Goddard developed a parent assessment based on the National Extension Parent Education Model (NEPEM) (Smith, Cudaback, Goddard, & Myers-Walls, 1994). All items in the parent assessment were tested with professional parenting educators across the country. This resulted in a pool of almost 500 parent assessment items. About 30 items were selected for each of the 6 dimensions of NEPEM. Computer programmers at the University of Arkansas Cooperative Extension then created a system for allowing parents to assess their parenting strengths online. Several unique features to this assessment system, which is entitled Parent Self-Assessment, are presented.