Date of Graduation

Summer 2020

Degree

Master of Science in Psychology

Department

Psychology

Committee Chair

Steven Capps

Abstract

The Wechsler Individual Achievement Test-Third Edition (WIAT-III) and the Woodcock-Johnson III Tests of Achievement (WJ III ACH) are two commercial standardized tests of academic achievement that are utilized in many settings, including educational, research, and clinical settings. Both measurements purport to measure academic achievement across a variety of curricular areas. Both instruments yield subtest and cluster or composite scores in the modes of percentile ranks, standard scores, stanines, normal curve equivalent scores, and age/grade equivalent scores. In the current study, similar subtest and composite or cluster standard scores were correlated to determine the degree of convergent validity between the two tests. The sample consisted of adults, mostly college aged (n = 27). Results indicate that the two instruments are measuring similar constructs, with statistically significant correlations found between 10 out of 13 total composites/clusters and subtests that were compared. Results also indicate statistically significant differences among almost all of the mean standard scores of composites/clusters and subtests of the two assessments, suggesting that the instruments are measuring similar constructs of academic achievement in significantly different ways. Mean comparisons between the sample and the normative population indicate that this is a special sample.

Keywords

Weschler Individual Achievement Test, Woodcock-Johnson Tests of Achievement, academic achievement, achievement, convergent validity

Subject Categories

Education | Psychology

Copyright

© Trent Howard Walters

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