Cecil Randy Reynolds (born 1952) is an American psychology professor best known for his work in psychological testing and assessment.
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Reynolds was born on February 7, 1952 at the US Naval Hospital in Camp Lejeune, North Carolina. His father, Cecil C. Reynolds, was a career marine, enlisting in 1929 and retiring in 1960. His mother, Daphne, owned and taught at a private preschool and kindergarten for 25 years, later becoming a published poet and author of children's books. Reynolds attended New Hanover High School, graduating in 1969, and turned down a Presidential appointment to the United States Naval Academy by Richard Nixon, after being drafted by the New York Mets. He played on various minor league teams within the Mets organization, making 3 all-star teams in different leagues, prior to a career-ending injury in 1974, the year of his first major league contract.
Reynolds then returned to his education, earning his B.A. in Psychology in 1975 from University of North Carolina at Wilmington. He then attended University of Georgia (UGA), earning a M.Ed. in Psychometrics in 1976, an Ed.S. in School Psychology in 1977, and a Ph.D. in Educational Psychology in 1978 while studying under Alan S. Kaufman and Ellis Paul Torrance (he was inducted into the UGA Hall of Fame for lifetime achievement in 2006). He completed his internship at the Medical College of Georgia, being mentored there by Lawrence Hartlage.
In summer of 1978 he took his first academic position at the University of Nebraska where he remained for 3 years, where he wrote the grants to obtain the Buros Institute for the University, and became the first Director of the Buros Institute after its founder, Oscar Krisen Buros (Reynolds was Acting-director during the search for a permanent new director, 1979–1980,and worked as Associate Director in 1980-1981) prior to being driven south to Texas A&M University (TAMU) by the bitter Nebraska winters. In 2006, he was named the Buros Institute Distinguished Reviewer of the Year. Dr. Reynolds taught courses primarily in the areas of psychological testing and diagnosis and in neuropsychology in addition to supervising clinical practica in testing and assessment. He remained at TAMU from summer of 1981, where he was a Professor of Educational Psychology, a Professor of Neuroscience, and a Distinguished Research Scholar, until his retirement from the university on July 31 of 2008. In September 2008, he was honored by the Texas A&M University Board of Regents with the title of Emeritus.
Dr. Reynolds holds a diplomate in Clinical Neuropsychology from the American Board of Professional Neuropsychology, of which he is also a past president, a diplomate in Pediatric Neuropsychology from the American Board of Pediatric Neuropsychology, and was a diplomate in School Psychology of the American Board of Professional Psychology, prior to retiring his diplomate in 2004. He is a past president of the National Academy of Neuropsychology, APA Division 5 (Evaluation, Measurement, and Statistics), APA Division 40 (Clinical Neuropsychology), and APA Div. 16 (School Psychology). He is a Fellow of APA Divisions 1, 5, 15, 16, 40, and 53. He maintained a clinical practice for more than 25 years, primarily treating children who had been sexually assaulted as well as individuals with traumatic brain injury. His current consulting work is restricted to his forensic practice.
The American Psychological Association (APA) honored him with Early Career Awards from the Division of Educational Psychology and separately from the Division of Evaluation, Measurement, and Statistics. He received the Lightner Witmer Award from the APA's Division of School Psychology as the outstanding yound school psychologist in the association as well. In 1999, he received the APA Division of School Psychology's Senior Scientist Award. He is Past-President of three APA divisions, School Psychology (16), Clinical Neuropsychology (40), and Evaluation, Measurement, and Statistics (5). He is editor-in-chief of the APA journal Psychological Assessment with a 6-year term, beginning January 1, 2009. He was editor-in-chief of Applied Neuropsychology, from 2004–2008, and serves (or has served) on the editorial boards of 16 scientific journals. He served 12 years as editor and editor-elect of the Archives of Clinical Neuropsychology, the official journal of the National Academy of Neuropsychology. Reynolds has served as Associate Editor of the Journal of Special Education and of School Psychology Quarterly. He is a Past-president of the National Academy of Neuropsychology as well and has received the Academy's Distinguished Clinical Neuropsychologist Award, the Distinguished Service Award, and the President's Gold Medal for service to the Academy. In 1999, the APA Division of School Psychology recognized Reynolds with its Senior Scientist Award. He received the 50th Anniversary Razor Walker Award from the University of North Carolina at Wilmington for his service to the youth of America. He has been named a Distinguished Alumnus of the Year by both of his alma maters, the University of North Carolina at Wilmington and the University of Georgia, the latter also electing him to their academic Hall of Fame. In 2002 he served as a Distinguished Visiting Professor at Wilford Hall, the USAF showcase hospital and training facility at Lackland AF Base in San Antonio, Texas, where he conducted grand rounds. Dr. Reynolds also conducted grand rounds at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester MN on the issue of diagnosing learning disorders, and has served as a discussant at pediatric grand rounds on several occasions at the annual meeting of the National Academy of Neuropsychology. He has received multiple other national awards for research accomplishments and service as well, including, in 2010, the American Psychological Association's Division of School Psychology Jack I. Bardon Award for a Lifetime of Distinguished Service.
In 1994, he was one of 52 signatories on Mainstream Science on Intelligence,[1] an editorial written by Linda Gottfredson and published in the Wall Street Journal, which presented a scientific consensus regarding (then) current findings on intelligence to assist in clarifying and differentiating mainstream consensus findings on the issue from some of the more scientifically controversial statements in Herrnstein and Murray's volume, The Bell Curve (in which he was miscited as "Cyril" Reynolds).
Remarkably, two of his scientific papers (Reynolds and Richmond, 1978, and Reynolds, 1984) have become the most cited articles in the history of their respective journals, the former in the Journal of Abnormal Child Psychology and the latter in the Journal of Special Education.
He is best known however for his scholarly work in the general area of cultural bias in psychological testing and in the development of methods of psychological test interpretation. His early proliferation of papers on the cross-cultural validity and reliability of psychological and educational tests for ethnic minorities born and reared in the United States clearly refuted the popular claims of bias in psychological testing advocated in the lay press. He also developed recommendations and research methods for evaluating such claims on an objective, scientific basis (e. g., Reynolds, 1983). His later works focused on elaborating these research methods and findings with a variety of tests and measurements and expanding methods for the conduct of such research. Simultaneously, especially in the 1990s and beyond, he began a series of works on the refinement of methods of diagnosis in psychology and in neuropsychology that have led him to become one of the most prolific authors and developers of innovative pscyhological testing techniques in the history of the field.
Other well-known publications include The Handbook of School Psychology, the Encyclopedia of Special Education, and the Handbook of Psychological and Educational Assessment of Children, among more than 50 total books and over 300 scholarly publications. He authored the widely used Test of Memory and Learning (TOMAL),the Revised Children's Manifest Anxiety Scale, as well as co-authored the Behavior Assessment System for Children (BASC, now in its second edition, the BASC-2) along with Randy Kamphaus. The BASC-2 is the most frequently individually administered psychological test in the United States public schools. Again with Randy Kamphaus, he is senior author of the Reynolds Intellectual Assessment Scales, and is author or coauthor of 24 commercially published psychological tests (e. g., Clinical Assessment Scales for the Elderly, Comprehensive Trailmaking Test, Koppitz-2 Developmental Scoring System for the Bender-Gestalt Test, Test of Irregular Word Reading Efficiency, Test of Memory and Learning, Developmental Test of Visual Perception for Adolescents and Adults, the Developmental Test of Auditory Perception, DAP: IQ, Test of Verbal Conceptualization and Fluency, and the School Motivation and Learning Strategies Inventory, among others) being one of the most prolific, and most often cited, authors in the profession.
Reynolds, C.R., & Richmond, B.O. (1978). What I Think and Feel: A revised measure of children’s manifest anxiety. Journal of Abnormal Child Psychology, 6(2),271-280.
Reynolds, C.R. (1984). Critical measurement issues in assessment of learning disabilities. Journal of Special Education, 18, 451-476.
Reynolds, C.R. (1983). Test bias: In God we trust, all others must have data. Journal of Special Education, 17(3), 214-268.