1. Achievement Tests
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)
Passage Comprehension
Reading Fluency
Sight Recognition
Word Attack Skills
Letter Identification

2. Types of Achievement Tests: Screening Tests
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

3. 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)

4. Administering the WJ-III Standard Battery
Appropriate for ages 2 to 90 years.
Approximately minutes to administer (Writing samples takes 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.

5. Administering the WJ III Standard Battery: Basal and Ceiling Rules
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.

6. WJ-III Broad Reading Cluster
Measures reading decoding, reading speed, and using syntactic and semantic cueing systems when reading for meaning.
Tests:
Letter-Word Identification
Reading Fluency
Passage Comprehension

7. WJ-III Broad Math Cluster
Measures math achievement including problem solving, number facility, automaticity with facts and reasoning.
Tests:
Math Calculation
Math Fluency
Applied Problems

8. WJ-III Broad Written Language Cluster
Measures spelling, writing rate, and written expression
Tests:
Spelling
Writing Fluency
Writing Samples

9. WJ-III Broad Oral Language Cluster
Measures linguistic competency, listening ability, and oral comprehension.
Tests:
Story Recall
Understanding Directions

10. Cross Academic Clusters
Academic Skills
Letter-Word Identification
Spelling
Math Calculation
Academic Fluency
Reading Fluency
Writing Fluency
Math Fluency
Academic Applications
Passage Comprehension
Applied Problems
Writing Sample

11. Levels of Interpretation
Qualitative
Level of Development
Age or grade equivalents

12. Levels of Interpretation (cont.)
Degree of Proficiency
Relative Proficiency Index
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
Instructional Zone is a special application of the RPI
Range of easy (96/90) to difficult (75/90)

13. Levels of Interpretation (cont.)
Comparison with Peers
Percentile Rank
Standard Scores
Standard Error of Measurement
68% confidence interval; 95% by doubling SEM

14. Classification of Standard Scores and Percentile Ranks
Std. Score Range
Percentile Rank Range
WJ III Classification
131 and above
Very superior
121 to 130
92 to 97
Superior
111 to 120
76 to 91
High Average
90 to 110
25 to 75
Average
80 to 89
9 to 24
Low Average
70 to 79
3 to 8
Low
69 and below
0.1 to 2
Very Low

15. Interpretation of the Standard Score & Percentile Rank Confidence Intervals
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.