I am curious how others feel about the WJ-III (academic and cognitive tests) I have not used it a great deal yet but am concerned that it is scoring children too high.
For example, I tested a child with the Keymath (approximately 10 years old) and the WJ-III. I expected the WJ-III scores to be lower because standards for math performance have risen. To my surprise, the WJ-III gave the child a standard score about 10 points HIGHER than the Keymath in all areas.
Re: Woodcock Johnson III
Just because the standards for performance have risen it does not follow that the performance itself has risen. One of the WJIII trainings I went to mentioned some interesting stuff with regard to the norms and performance. It seems that when the test was last normed (WJR) decoding skills were essentially mastered at about fifth grade. So- fifth grade was about the place where the irritating phenomena of one item equals a grade level jump began in the table. When the WJIII was normed- the mastery level was at about eighth grade. I think the higher grade level scores reflect diminished levels of mastery in a sense. But then again- the grade levels are the least reliable scores yes?- so you shouldn’t be using them in quite that way. A grade level score only reflects what went on the norming sample- not what happens in the classroom. And the older your norms the less reliable they are- even if the scores feel better to you.
Robin
Re: Woodcock Johnson III
Cindy, when we used the old WJ we thought it tested high. Keep in mind that any test is a sample of behavior and that the real world is the real test. What are the teachers who know this child saying? Their understanding should match the test results. If the teachers are constantly telling you that your scores are high, you will have an answer to your question. Al
Re: Woodcock Johnson III
Just as a side bar, a recent (June ‘01) piece of research reveals that teachers consistently fail to identify children with mild to moderate academic difficulties when giving a global rating using the CIBS-R. I know that this is only one study, but perhaps one should be cautious with regard to teacher perceptions!
http://www.findarticles.com/cf_0/moHVD/3_22/76512416/print.jhtml.
Yes Cindy we’ve noticed the same thing, but with the WJ-R. We took a closer look at the math, and a bunch of us answered the operations questions as if we were a beginning grade 3 kid. So we got the regrouping in + and - correct, and a few x questions, and other stuff that a kid just out of grade 2 would know, and guess what “our” score was, grade 4.5! Key Math is still the best, and of course the most thorough, but is time consuming.
-Bob