Introduction to the WIAT-III Presented by George McCloskey, Ph.D. Philadelphia College of Osteopathic Medicine georgemcc@pcom.edu gmccloskz@aol.com

New Age Range (temporary): 4-0 to 19-11 Adult Norms planned for 2010 WIAT-III: What’s New? New Age Range (temporary): 4-0 to 19-11 Adult Norms planned for 2010

WIAT-III: What’s New? Materials Record Form Longer – 52 pages, but space is well-used to improve ease of administration All administration and item directions are in the Record Form; no need to refer to the manual during testing

Quick Administration Guide for Each Subtest on Record Form

General Directions for Each Subtest on Record Form

Correct Answer Key for Each Subtest Item on Record Form

WIAT-III: What’s New? Materials Stimulus Booklet Only one booklet, not two Contains only items; no subtest directions in easel Items on both sides of easel pages; work through one side then flip over to continue More durable construction

WIAT-III: What’s New? Materials Oral Reading Fluency Booklet Durable, reusable, washable booklet; student reads from this booklet Word Reading and Pseudoword Decoding Cards New items but no design changes

WIAT-III: What’s New? Materials Response Booklet Longer - 32 pages Used for 9 different Subtests Improved Item layout for Numerical Operations

WIAT-III: What’s New? Materials Examiner’s Manual Administration and scoring; analysis and interpretation Not used for test administration Appendices contain expanded scoring guidelines for specific subtests

WIAT-III: What’s New? Materials Technical Manual on CD only Contains Norms Tables Information about psychometric properties

WIAT-III: What’s New? Materials Scoring Assistant Provided as part of basic kit Expanded capabilities Item Scoring (interactive scoring guide for Essay Composition) Item skill analyses Goal & Objective statements

Derived Scores for Composites and Subtests Standard Score Percentile Rank Normal Curve Equivalent Stanines Grade Equivalent Age Equivalent Growth Scale Values Status Scores WIAT-III offers two types of scores: Status Scores, such as standard scores, percentile ranks, normal curve equivalents, and stanines are relative standing scores. These scores indicate position of examinee’s raw score in relation to the distribution of scores in a specific grade level or age group. Grade Equivalents, Age Equivalents, and growth scale values are considered Growth Scores or developmental scores. They locate an examinee’s raw score on a developmental continuum that spans the full range of grade levels and age groups. Growth Scores

Assessment in a Three Tier Model Educators need to be aware of psychometric pitfalls in attempting to assess response to intervention using standard scores from norm-referenced tests.

Attempting to Assess Response to Intervention Using Standard Scores 100 100 ? 78 Time 1 Time 2

Attempting to Assess Response to Intervention Using Standard Scores 100 78 Time 1 Time 2

Attempting to Assess Response to Intervention Using Standard Scores 100 78 ? Time 1 Time 2

Attempting to Assess Response to Intervention Using Standard Scores Time 1 Time 2 100 78 70

Attempting to Assess Response to Intervention Using Standard Scores The score graphs demonstrate the fact that the use of age- or grade-referenced standard scores to monitor performance across time will not effectively characterize progress in situations where the amount of progress made is less than the average amount of progress made by same-age or same-grade peers.

Constructing Grade Equivalents 30 25 20 15 10 Interpolate K.6 1.6 2.6 3.6 4.6 5.6 6.6 2.9

Word Reading Subtest 109 102 100 82 (1.6) (6.3) (7.1) Time 1 11/03 Grade 4.3 Time 2 6/04 Grade 5.10 Time 3 3/06 Grade 7.7

WIAT-III: What’s New? Growth Scale Values Growth Scale Values can be used to monitor progress instead of Standard Scores or Grade Equivalent Grow Scale Values are psychometrically sound and reflect change in a more accurate manner than Grade Equivalents

Assessing Response to Intervention Using Growth Scale Values 453 503 360 445 Time 1 Time 2

WIAT-III: What’s New? Growth Scale Values When interpreting student performance: Use Standard Scores to report how the student is performing compared to same age or same grade peers Use Growth Scale Values to reflect intra-individual growth

Subtest Administration Order Whenever possible, subtests should be administered according to the order of subtests in the Record Form Simply skip any unwanted subtests Alterations to the order should be based on clinical need (not examiner preference) Every effort should be made to administer subtests in one session.

Start and Stop Points Generally acceptable to choose an earlier or later start point if the grade-appropriate start point is too easy/difficult HOWEVER – If you choose an earlier start point and then child gets credit on grade-appropriate start item and next 2 items THEN full credit is rewarded on all items preceding grade-appropriate start point

ERASERS - WHY NOT??? “The student must write his or her responses using a pencil without an eraser. Students who participated in the standardization sample were required to use pencils without erasers because erasure marks can make the student’s response difficult to read and score. FOR THIS REASON, STUDENTS MUST CORRECT ERRORS BY MARKING OUT AND REWRITING.”

WIAT-III: What’s New? Subtests and Scores Reading 5 Subtests; 9 Scores Oral Language 2 Subtests; 7 Scores Written Expression 4 Subtests; 9 Scores Mathematics 5 Subtests; 5 Scores

Reading Subtests

Reading Subtests Early Reading Skills Word Reading Word Reading Pseudoword Decoding Reading Comprehension Oral Reading Fluency Word Reading Pseudoword Decoding Reading Comprehension

Reading Scores Early Reading Skills Word Reading Pseudoword Decoding Reading Comprehension Oral Reading Fluency Word Reading Rate Pseudoword Decoding Rate OR Accuracy OR Rate

Written Expression Subtests

Written Expression Subtests Spelling Spelling Alphabet Writing Fluency Sentence Composition Essay Composition Written Expression

Written Expression Scores Spelling Alphabet Writing Fluency Sentence Composition Essay Sentence Combining Sentence Building Word Count Theme Dev & Text Org Grammar & Mechanics

Oral Language Subtests

Oral Language Subtests Listening Comprehension Listening Comprehension Oral Expression Oral Expression

Oral Expression Scores Listening Comprehension Oral Expression Receptive Vocabulary Oral Discourse Comprehension Expressive Vocabulary Oral Word Fluency Sentence Repetition

Mathematics Subtests

Math Subtests Numerical Numerical Operations Operations Math Math Reasoning Math Problem Solving Math Fluency - Addition Math Fluency - Subtraction Math Fluency - Multiplication

Math Scores Numerical Operations Math Problem Solving Math Fluency - Addition Math Fluency - Subtraction Math Fluency - Multiplication

Achievement Testing vs Diagnostic Skill Assessment Achievement testing indicates overall level of performance in a very global manner Diagnostic skills assessment identifies specific component skill strengths and weaknesses Copyright 2007 George McCloskey, Ph.D.

Achievement Testing vs Diagnostic Skill Assessment Achievement testing focuses on composite scores Diagnostic skills assessment focuses on subtest and process scores Copyright 2007 George McCloskey, Ph.D.

Specific Composite Indexes / Clinical Clusters Level Interpretive Levels Framework Global Composite Level Specific Composite Indexes / Clinical Clusters Level Subtest Level Item Level Task Cognitive Capacities Level Copyright 2007 George McCloskey, Ph.D.

Reading Subtests

Early Reading Skills Item types originally included on WIAT-II Word Reading Subtest (Items 1-47): Letter Names (Items 1-11) Letter-Sound Relationship (Items 12, 13, 27-29) Rhyming (Items 14-17) Sound Awareness (Items 18-24) Sound Blending (Items 25, 26) Orthographic Awareness (Items 30-34)

Early Reading Skills Grades PK-3 34 Items (47 Items on WIAT-II) All students start with Sample A and Item 1 Administer ALL subtest items Use routinely for PK-1, for low functioning in grades 2 & 3 Total Raw Score to Standard Score

Word Reading Grades 1-12 75 Items (84 Items on WIAT-II) All students start with Item 1 Discontinue after 4 items (7 on WIAT-II) Time and Record number of items completed in first 30 seconds

Word Reading Student are told to read words aloud but not to read as quickly as possible Students can use their fingers but do not provide materials for place marking Credit should be given for regional or dialectal pronunciations of words Pronunciations must be fluent to receive credit. For dysfluent attempt, say “Say it all together.” If 2nd attempt not fluent, score 0.

Word Reading Total Raw Score to Standard Score Words Read in 30 seconds to Word Reading Speed Cumulative Percentage

Pseudoword Decoding Grades 1-12 52 Items (55 Items on WIAT-II) Items revised to measure a broader range of symbol-sound relationships All students start with Item 1 Discontinue after 4 items (7 on WIAT-II) Time and Record number of items completed in first 30 seconds

Pseudoword Decoding Student are told to decode words aloud but not to decode as quickly as possible Students can use their fingers but do not provide materials for place marking Credit should be given for regional or dialectal pronunciations of words Pronunciations must be fluent to receive credit. For dysfluent attempt, say “Say it all together.” If 2nd attempt not fluent, score 0.

Pseudoword Decoding Total Raw Score to Standard Score Nonsense Words Decoded in 30 seconds to Pseudoword Decoding Speed Cumulative Percentage

Reading Comprehension Grades 1-12 84 Items (140 Items on WIAT-II) Pre-passage items replaced with a new lower level reading passage All other passages retained from WIAT-II Oral reading sentence items deleted Supplemental scores dropped Administered in item sets like WIAT-II

Reading Comprehension Start administration with grade level item set; administer all items in the set Can start one set lower if student is known to be a very poor reader; otherwise, use reverse rule Can reverse only a maximum of 3 levels below grade level Reverse Rule: less than 2 points earned on items from 1st passage

Reading Comprehension Total Raw Score to Weighted Raw Score to Standard Score Note: The Weighted Raw Score Table is reversed from WIAT-II; Weighted Scores in outside column; Raw scores in body of table

Reading Comprehension

Reading Comprehension If the student performs poorly on lower item set Probably means they have a weakness in comprehension OR If the student performs well on lower item set Probably means they have a weakness in word identification and/or decoding and/or vocabulary

Reading Comprehension While Reading Comprehension Subtest Scores, in general, correlate highly between measures such as the WIAT-III, KTEA-II, and WJ-III, scores for individual students can vary greatly due to: Differences in Output Demands (free response [WIAT-II, KTEA-II] vs cloze [WJ-III]) Differences in Processing Demands (e.g., literal vs inferential item types and passage length variations resulting in different demands for reasoning, reading speed, working memory, and executive functions)

Oral Reading Fluency Grades 1-12 Student reads two passages Administer grade level passages Can start one grade level lower if student is known to be a very poor reader; otherwise, use reverse rule Reverse rule: If reading of 1st passage takes longer than the reverse rule time limit go back one level

Oral Reading Fluency Provide unknown words after 5 seconds A comprehension question is asked after the reading; these questions are not scored formally; the items are used to cue the student to read at a level that engages comprehension Student reads entire passage; record the total reading time per passage Keep track of and record word addition errors and other word reading errors

Oral Reading Fluency 2. Record errors as student reads Oral Reading Fluency Administration Steps: 1. Begin timing as student begins reading 2. Record errors as student reads Addition Errors: Any word added Other Errors: Words supplied after 5” of attempted reading of word (mark with G for “given”); mispronunciations, substitutions, omissions and transpositions

Oral Reading Fluency

Oral Reading Fluency Oral Reading Fluency Administration Steps: 3. End timing as student finishes passage and record stop time 4. Repeat administration steps for 2nd passage 5. Transfer Completion Time, Addition Errors, Other Errors, and Word Count Totals to the ORF Passage Subtotal Raw Scores Table on Page 46

Oral Reading Fluency Oral Reading Fluency Administration Steps: 6. Calculate Oral Reading Fluency Total Raw Score, Oral Reading Accuracy Total Raw Score, and Oral Reading Rate Total Raw Score 7. Use Total Raw Scores to find Weighted Raw Scores in Appendices A.2, A.3 and A.4 8. Convert Weighted Raw Scores to Standard Scores using Table B.1 or C.1

Written Expression Subtests

Alphabet Writing Fluency Grades PK-3 Only Student writes letters of the alphabet for 30” Raw Score is number of legible letters produced in 30” If all letters are made before 30” record completion time

Alphabet Writing Fluency Scoring Criteria are in Appendix B.1 Scoring Criteria are extremely flexible in order to reduce scoring time and difficulty Typically used for Grades PK-2, can be used for lower functioning 3rd graders

Score = 18

Spelling Grades K-12 First 5 items are pre-spelling skills (12 items on WIAT-II) 63 Items (53 Items on WIAT-II) Start at Grade Level Start Point Can start 1 level below but give full credit if basal at Grade Level Start Point is met

Spelling Basal: score of 1 on all of the first three items in Start Point Set Reverse Rule: Incorrect on any of first 3 items administered; give items in reverse order until basal is met Discontinue after 4 items (7 on WIAT-II) Raw Score to Standard Score Intra-item error analysis optional

Sentence Composition Grades 1-12 5 Sentence Combining Items (Most from WIAT-II) and 7 Sentence Building Items (“Write a sentence using the word ___”) All students start with Sentence Combining Sample A and Items 1 and 2 Discontinue Sentence Combining if score of 0 on first 2 items

Sentence Composition If at least 1 point is earned on first 2 items, administer ALL remaining Sentence Combining items After completing Sentence Combining, ALL students take Sentence Building Sample A and Items 1 and 2 Discontinue Sentence Building if score of 0 on first 2 items

Sentence Composition If at least 1 point is earned on first 2 item, administer ALL remaining Sentence Building items Separate Raw Scores and Standard Scores for Sentence Combining and Sentence Building Add SC and SB standard scores and use as Raw Score to obtain Sentence Composition Standard Score

Sentence Composition Sentence Composition Scoring: Appendix B.2 provides Basic Rules of Written Grammar and Mechanics Sentence Combining Scoring (Appendix B.3): Prerequisite Scoring Criteria Does response include essential information? Does response simply restate original sentences? Does response have more than one sentence, run-on sentence or sentence fragment?

Sentence Composition Sentence Combining: If a sentence does not meet all 3 Prerequisite Criteria, score the sentence 0 Sentence Combining: If a sentence does meet all 3 Prerequisite Criteria, use the additional scoring criteria to determine the raw score for each scoring criterion: Semantics & Grammar Mechanics Extra Credit

Sentence Composition Sentence Building Scoring (Appendix B.4): Prerequisite Scoring Criteria Does response include the target word? Is the response a fragmented sentence? Is the target word use in a title or as the subject or object of the sentence? Sentence Building: If a sentence does not meet all 3 Prerequisite Criteria, score the sentence 0

Sentence Composition Sentence Building: If a sentence does meet all 3 Prerequisite Criteria, use the additional scoring criteria to determine the raw score for each scoring criterion: Semantics & Grammar Mechanics The Scoring Workbook provides unscored and scored samples

Essay Composition Grades 3-12 Writing from a prompt; identical to the WIAT-II Paragraph sub-item (My favorite game is…) All students write using same prompt 10 minutes maximum time Scoring Criteria in Appendix B.5 and B.6

Essay Composition Essays are scored for: Word Count Theme Development and Organization Introduction (0-2) Conclusion (0-2) Paragraphs (0-5) Transitions (0-5) Reasons Why (0-3) Elaborations (0-3) Grammar and Mechanics

Essay Composition The Scoring Workbook provides unscored and scored samples The Scoring Assistant Includes an interactive scoring guide that can be used to complete the scoring process

Essay Composition Raw Scores for Word Count, Theme Development & Text Organization (TDTO) and Grammar & Mechanics are converted into Standard Scores using B.1 or C.1 Word Count and TDTO Standard Scores are summed to derive the Essay Composition Raw Score to obtain the Essay Composition Standard Score in B.1 of C.1

Oral Language Subtests

Listening Comprehension Grades PK-12 Receptive Vocabulary retained – 19 items (16 items on WIAT-II) Oral Discourse Comprehension (27 items) replaces Sentence Comprehension format (10 items) Expressive Vocabulary moved to Oral Expression Subtest

Listening Comprehension ALL students start with Receptive Vocabulary (RV) Item 1 Discontinue RV after 4 consecutive scores of 0 All students go on to Oral Discourse Comprehension (ODC) ODC administered best using the audio CD

Listening Comprehension Grades PK-3 start with Item 1; Grades 4-12 start with Item 6 All items scored objectively 0 or 1 Apply Reverse Rule for Grades 4-12, move backward until 3 consecutive scores of 1 are obtained Discontinue ODC after 4 consecutive scores of 0

Listening Comprehension Raw Scores for RV and ODC are converted into Standard Scores for each using B.1 or C.1 RV and ODC Standard Scores are summed to derive the Listening Comprehension Raw Score to obtain the Listening Comprehension Standard Score in B.1 of C.1

Oral Expression Grades PK-12 Oral Word Fluency Expanded into a sub-area (2 items instead of 1) Sentence Repetition expanded to 15 items (9 items on WIAT-II) Expressive Vocabulary expanded to 17 items and moved to OE from LC

Oral Expression ALL students start with Expressive Vocabulary (EV) Item 1 Discontinue EV after 4 consecutive scores of 0 ALL students go on to Oral Word Fluency (OWF) and take both items ALL students go on to Sentence Repetition (SR) and start with Sample A and Item 1

Oral Expression Discontinue SR after 4 consecutive scores of 0 Raw Scores for EV and OWF and SR are converted into Standard Scores for each using B.1 or C.1 EV and OWF and SR Standard Scores are summed to derive the Oral Expression Raw Score to obtain the Oral Expression Standard Score in B.1 of C.1

Mathematics Subtests

Math Problem Solving Grades PK-12 Name changed from Math Reasoning Items increased to 72 (67 items on the WIAT-II) Pencil and paper are permitted, but calculators are not

Math Problem Solving Start points vary based on Grade Level Basal: score of 1 on first three items in Start Point Set Reverse Rule: Incorrect on any of first 3 items administered; give items in reverse order until basal is met. Discontinue after 4 items (6 on WIAT-II) Raw Score to Standard Score

Numerical Operations Grades K-12 Items increased to 61 (54 items on the WIAT-II) Starts with 7 Pre-calculation concept items for Grades K-1 Start points vary based on Grade Level Items completed in Response Booklet

Numerical Operations Basal: score of 1 on first three items in Start Point Set Reverse Rule: Incorrect on any of first 3 items administered; give items in reverse order until basal is met. Discontinue after 4 items (6 on WIAT-II) Raw Score to Standard Score

Math Fluency Addition and Subtraction Grades 1-12; Multiplication Grades 3-12 Items completed in Response Booklet Administer only 1 item set of each Fluency Subtest; 60 second time limit for all item sets

Referenced Resources Berninger, V. & Richards, T. (2003). Brain Literacy for Educators and Psychologists. Academic Press Marzano, Pickering, & Pollock (2001). Classroom Instruction that Works: Research-based Strategies for Improving Student Achievement. ASCD