877025

WIDE RANGE

ACHIEVEMENT TEST 4

(WRAT4)

Matt Heininger and Nessa Feinstein

Description of WRAT4

 Norm-referenced achievement test that

measures the basic academic skills of word

reading, sentence comprehension, spelling,

and math computation.

 Also called a “quick and dirty” test of

achievement.

WRAT-4: Brief History

 The WRAT was originated and developed by

Sidney W. Bijou and Joseph Jastak in 1930’s

and early 40’s.

 Concept was to expand on existing measures

of cognitive and academic performance.

 Eventually the WRAT was first published in

1946.

WRAT-4: Brief History

Since first published, there have been several

revisions:

 WRAT-3 - 1993

 WRAT-4 - 2006

WRAT-4: Brief History

 Since then and throughout the years earlier

editions of the WRAT have experienced

universal, widespread use throughout various

settings.

 Over these years, it’s popularity among users

is attributed to its ease of administration,

scoring, and provision of a significant amount

of information gained through a brief

investment of testing time.

WRAT-4: Goals and objectives

 The WRAT-4 has preserved these features, as

it continues to measure basic content areas

necessary for effective learning,

communication, and thinking: reading, spelling

words, and computing solutions to math

problems.

 The WRAT-4 is a quick, simple, and

psychometrically sound measure of

fundamental academic skills.

WRAT-4: Goals and objectives

It assists in:

 Diagnosing learning disabilities

 Assessing academic progress over time

 Evaluating achievement/ability discrepancies

 Checking progress in remedial programs

 Determining instructional needs

 Assessing children whose performance is below that of

their peers

 Evaluating of individuals referred for learning,

behavioral, and vocational difficulties

WRAT-4: Updates

 To increase strength and usefulness in these

areas of assessment and assistance in these

categories (grades K-12), the WRAT-4 is

enhanced by the addition of grade-based

norms.

 Age-based norms have also been extended

beyond age 75 to the age of 94, in order to

assess the basic literacy of older adults.

WRAT-4: Updates

 Thus, the age range of the WRAT-4 is 5-94

years of age.

 Furthermore, there’s a new measure of

reading achievement:

 Sentence Comprehension (subtest)

WRAT-4: Population

 Standardized on a representative national

sample of over 3,000 individuals ranging from

5-94 years.

 The normative sample was selected with

proportionate allocation controlled for age,

gender, ethnicity, geographic region,

parental/obtained education as an index of

socioeconomic status.

WRAT-4: Administration

 Alternate forms of the test, designated blue

form and green form.

 Can be used interchangeably with comparable

results, allowing for retesting within a short

period of time to prevent the potential practice

effects of repeating the same items.

 The alternative forms can be administered

together in a single examination.

WRAT-4: Administration/Time

 Administration – Time:

1. Approximately 15-25 minutes for individuals 5-7 years

old.

2. Approximately 35-45 minutes for those 8 years or older

 Administration of test usually done

individually; specific subtests can be

administered in groups.

WRAT-4: Four Subtests

 Word Reading

 Sentence Completion

 Spelling

 Math Computation

 WRAT also yields a Reading Composite

score, obtained by combining the Word

Reading and Sentence Comprehension

standard scores.

Word Reading

 Measures letter and word decoding

 Made up of two sections:

 Part 1: Letter Reading, which consists of 15

letters

 Part 2: Word Reading, which consists of 55 words

Word Reading

 Administration Procedures

 Ages 7 and younger: Administer Part 1 first,

followed by Part 2.

 Discontinue testing after 10 consecutive incorrect

responses.

 Ages 8 and older: Administer Part 2 first.

 Discontinue after 10 consecutive incorrect responses.

 If the participant has correctly answered 5 or more

items on the Word Reading section before meeting

discontinue criterion, do not administer Letter Reading

Section. Otherwise, continue with Part 1.

Sentence Comprehension

 Measures an individual’s ability to gain

meaning form words and to comprehend ideas

and information contained in sentences

through the use of a modified cloze technique.

 Contains 50 items.

Sentence Comprehension

 Administration Procedure:

 Determining the Starting Point: a conversion table on the front page of the test form lists the ranges of Part 2 (Word Reading) raw scores, the starting point corresponding to each range, and the sample items to be administered.  Should only be administered to those who obtained a

score of 5 or more on Part 2.

 Participant must be at least 6 years old or in Grade 1.

 Alternate procedure: start at item 1 and continue until participant responds incorrectly to 7 consecutive items.

 Single word responses are highly encouraged.

Sentence Comprehension

 Administration Procedures:

 If the participant does not answer the first 5 items

correctly, test backwards from the starting item

until s/he obtains 5 consecutive correct answers.

 Then return to the last item administered before

starting to test backwards and administer the next

item.

 Continue testing until the participant answers 7

consecutive items incorrectly or completes item 50.

Sentence Comprehension

 Administration of Sample Items:

 Although there are a given amount of sample

items for each starting point, you can give more if

the participant needs more practice.

 Sample items may be given as many times as the

participant needs until they understand the task.

Spelling

 Measures an individual’s ability to encode sounds into written form through the use of a dictated spelling format containing both letters and words.

 Two parts:

 Part 1: Letter Writing, which consists of name writing and 13 dictated letters.

 Part 2: Spelling, which consists of 42 words.

 Administration Issues:

 Pronunciation of word before administering item.

 Ask the participant to clarify any illegible words.

Spelling

 Administration Procedures:

 Ages 7 and younger: Administer Part 1 first then

Part 2

 Discontinue Part 2 after 10 consecutive spelling

errors.

 Ages 8 and older: Administer Part 2 first

 Discontinue after 10 consecutive misspelled words.

 If the participant correctly spelled 5 or more items on

the spelling section before meeting the discontinue

criterion, skip the letter writing section.

Math Computations

 Measures an individual’s ability to perform

basic mathematics computations through

counting, identifying numbers, solving simple

oral problems, and calculating written

mathematics problems.

 Two Sections:

 Part 1: Oral Math, which consists of 15 items.

 Part 2: Math Computation, which consists of 40

items.

 No calculators allowed!

Math Computation

 Administration Procedures:

 Ages 7 and younger: Administer Part 1 followed

by Part 2.

 Allow the participant 15 minutes to complete Part 2.

 Ages 8 and older: Administer Part 2 first.

 After 15 minutes, check the participant’s responses. If

the participant does not have at least 5 correct

responses, then administer Part 1.

Math Computation

 Example

 Solve for n

5n + 7 = 42

n = _____

 24% of 97 = _____

Internal Consistency Reliability

 The median coefficient alpha subtest

coefficients, by age, range from .87 to .93 for

all four subtests.

Alternative Form Reliability –

Immediate Retest

 Reliability ranges from .82 to .90.

 The subtest reliability coefficients for the total age and grade samples increase slightly when participants aged 18 and older are removed from the sample.

 An analysis of the subtest reliability coefficients for the total group shows slightly lower reliabilities for sentence comprehension (.78) and word reading (.86) than for math computation (.88) and spelling (.89).

Alternate Form Reliability –

Delayed Retest

 Averaged by age:

 7-18 year old: .86

 19-94 year old: .84

 All ages combined: .84

Internal Validity

 Average raw scores on the four subtests

increase with age and grade level until middle

age and later decline – developmental

changes (maturation).

Correlation to other Tests of

Achievement

 WIAT-II:

 Word Reading: .71

 Decoding: .71

 Reading Comprehension: .61

 Reading Composite: .78

 Spelling: .64

 Number Operations: .92

Correlation to other Tests of

Achievement

 Woodcock-Johnson III:

 Mathematics Calculation: .64

 Spelling: .75

 Broad Reading: .73

 Reading Comprehension: .60

 Basic Reading: .66

Correlation to other Tests of

Achievement

 Kaufman Test of Educational Achievement-II

Comprehensive Form

 Letter/Word Recognition: .76

 Reading Comprehension: .42

 Reading Composite: .58

 Spelling: .89

 Math Computation: .75

Correlation to Cognitive Tests

 Was compared to:

 Wide Range Intelligence Test

 Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children – IV

 Stanford-Binet Intelligence Scales – 5

 Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale – III

 Kaufman Brief Intelligence Test – II

 Reynolds Intellectual Assessment Scales

 The scores for cognitive measures were corrected for restriction of range with formula from Guilford and Fruchter (1978).

Correlation to Cognitive Test

 The correlation between the full scale IQs and

the scores of the individual subtests of the

WRAT4 indicate a moderate relationship.

 The median correlations range from .57

(Spelling) to .72 (Reading Composite).

 Expected results for comparison between

achievement and cognitive tests.

Scoring of WRAT-4

Scoring done electronically with

WRAT-4 Scoring Program

(WRAT4-SP).

 Generates reports after hand-entry of

raw subset scores from the WRAT4

Blue, Green, and Combined forms.

WRAT-4: Strengths

 Ease of administration and scoring; takes very

little time.

 Psychometrically sound.

 Has excellent standardization.

 Correlates well with other achievement and

cognitive tests.

 In clinical studies, separates people with learning

or cognitive deficits from people without.

WRAT-4: Weaknesses

 Only screens for strengths and weaknesses.

 Does not measure other important achievement

abilities.

 In later adolescent and adult years, WRAT-4 does

not adequately measure skills of readers that are

above-average or advanced.

 Only a small number of appropriate items for

younger children being tested.