Achievement Tests
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Designed to measure the skills and
abilities acquired through direct instruction
or intervention.
Can measure both lower order and high
order cognitive processes.
Reading (from higher to lower order)
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Passage Comprehension
Reading Fluency
Sight Recognition
Word Attack Skills
Letter Identification
Types of Achievement Tests:
Screening Tests
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Brief measures of achievement that typically
assess lower levels of cognition
WRAT-3 (1993)
 basic reading, mathematics, spelling
 5 to 75 years
 15-30 minutes
WIAT Screener (1992)
 basic reading, mathematics reasoning,
spelling
 5 to 19 years
 30-60 minutes
Types of Achievement Tests:
Comprehensive Tests
To be classified as comprehensive:
 Assess 3 or more subject areas
 Include at least 2 different subtests for
each subject area
 Assess both lower and higher levels of
cognitive skills within each subject area.
 Example: Woodcock Johnson Tests of
Achievement III (2001)
Administering the WJ-III Standard
Battery
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Appropriate for ages 2 to 90 years.
Approximately 60-70 minutes to administer
(Writing samples takes 15-20 minutes to
administer and all other subtests take 5-10
minutes).
Materials needed: pencil with eraser, tape
recorder, stop watch, testing easels.
Examiner should sit diagonally across from
examinee.
Order of administration – generally follow the
prescribed order, but it is o.k. to change order if
needed.
Administering the WJ III Standard
Battery: Basal and Ceiling Rules
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Basal and ceiling rules differ across subtests.
Some subtests define the basal as the six lowest
consecutive items administered that were
passed.
When stimulus material is visible on the
examinee’s page, administer the entire page
even if the ceiling has been reached.
If the examinee answers an item correctly past
the point of obtaining a ceiling, continue testing
until a new ceiling is reached.
WJ-III Broad Reading Cluster
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Measures reading decoding, reading
speed, and using syntactic and semantic
cueing systems when reading for
meaning.
Tests:
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Letter-Word Identification
Reading Fluency
Passage Comprehension
WJ-III Broad Math Cluster
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Measures math achievement including
problem solving, number facility,
automaticity with facts and reasoning.
Tests:
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Math Calculation
Math Fluency
Applied Problems
WJ-III Broad Written Language
Cluster
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Measures spelling, writing rate, and
written expression
Tests:
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Spelling
Writing Fluency
Writing Samples
WJ-III Broad Oral Language Cluster
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Measures linguistic competency, listening
ability, and oral comprehension.
Tests:
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Story Recall
Understanding Directions
Cross Academic Clusters
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Academic Skills
 Letter-Word Identification
 Spelling
 Math Calculation
Academic Fluency
 Reading Fluency
 Writing Fluency
 Math Fluency
Academic Applications
 Passage Comprehension
 Applied Problems
 Writing Sample
Levels of Interpretation
1.
2.
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Qualitative
Level of Development
Age or grade equivalents
Levels of Interpretation (cont.)
Degree of Proficiency
Relative Proficiency Index
3.
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RPI can differ from standard scores or percentiles
because std. scores and percentiles are a rank order
and do not take into account the examinee’s
proficiency with a task compared to other’s his/her
age/grade.
Age/Grade Profiles
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Instructional Zone is a special application of the RPI
Range of easy (96/90) to difficult (75/90)
Levels of Interpretation (cont.)
4.
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Comparison with Peers
Percentile Rank
Standard Scores
Standard Error of Measurement
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68% confidence interval; 95% by doubling
SEM
Classification of Standard Scores
and Percentile Ranks
Std. Score
Range
131 and above
121 to 130
111 to 120
90 to 110
80 to 89
70 to 79
69 and below
Percentile Rank WJ III
Range
Classification
98-99.9
Very superior
92 to 97
Superior
76 to 91
High Average
25 to 75
Average
9 to 24
Low Average
3 to 8
Low
0.1 to 2
Very Low
Interpretation of the Standard Score &
Percentile Rank Confidence Intervals
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If the confidence bands for any two tests of
clusters overlap at all, assume that no difference
exists between the subject’s two abilities.
If a separation exists between the ends of two
test bands that is less than the width of the
wider of the two bands, assume that a possible
difference exists between the subject’s two
abilities.
If the separation between the two bands is
greater than the width of the wider band,
assume that a real difference exists between the
two abilities.