I’d like to hear from users of the WJ III. Have you found that it correlates with classroom expectations? I’ve tested many, many students who do quite well on the WJ III only to hear from teachers that these students are having extreme difficulty with the classroom curriculum. What have been your experiences with predicting school success with Woodcock-Johnson scores?
Re: Woodcock-Johnson III - validity
to Cindy m- to predict classroom success, you need curriculum based assessement, like high stakes state mandated testing, not an individual achievement test like the WIAT or WJIII, they are based on national norms, and won’t tell you how a child will do in your curriculum. Informal reading inventories, and assessments based on your curriculum will tell you more. the diagnosis of LD, or other learning issues is another matter-look at LD in Depth.
Re: Woodcock-Johnson III - validity
SAR, that is an excellent point! Just today, I had an email from someone who said their child’s WJ said one thing but the child performed much lower on the state assessment. And the state assessment IS what matters for graduation purposes. So I absolutely agree that these kinds of scores should be considered as well.
Janis
Amazing that you would ask this question! I have talked to a school psychologist in the last few days who is of the opinion that the WJ-III gives limited info on kids in K-2 due to the fact that they have to do little to get a good score. She said she uses alternate assessements to justify LD placement. We discussed DIBELS as an informal assessment that is a good indicator of early LD, and of course, Gray Oral Reading Tests (GORT-4), Comprehensive Test of Phonological Processing (CTOPP), Test Of Word Reading Efficiency (TOWRE) are all standardized measures that can work instead of the WJ for reading LD placement. Test of Written Language (TOWL) is a good choice for that area.
I also had the opportunity to see scores for a student who had had both the WJ-III and the WIAT, and the WJ scores were higher. So I’d probably go with the WIAT if forced to use one test.
On a personal note, my own child has been tested with both the WJ and the other tests mentioned and the WJ clearly did not show the issues that the other tests did. I would never again allow her placement to be based on the WJ-III.
Janis