304 ESSENTIALS OF KTEA™-3 AND WIAT®-III ASSESSMENT

the appendices include Contributors, Intercorrelation Tables, Conversion Tables, Other Scoring Tables, Interpretive Tables, Error Analysis Norms, and Charting Growth Scale Values.

The flash drive also includes Audio Files, Hand Scoring Files, the Qualitative Observations Form, and the Letter Checklist, with instructions, a page of lowercase letters and a page of uppercase letters for the examinee to read, and a record form for each page. We have learned that the answer to about half the questions asked by new users of the KTEA-3 is, “It’s on the flash drive.” We consider the flash drive material to be a significant asset of the KTEA-3.

LIMITATIONS OF THE KTEA-3

Although we find the KTEA-3 to be a valuable, flexible, and generally sound test, no test is without limitations.

Test Development

Table 5.2 provides data on the highest possible subtest scores for the oldest examinees and for examinees in grade 12. Although most subtests have a ceiling that is at least 2 SD above the mean at Grade 12, the ceilings for Nonsense Word Decoding, Reading Comprehension, Listening Comprehension, and Letter Naming Facility range from 124 to 129. At the highest age range, 12 of111111111 the 19 subtests have ceilings ≤150.

Similarly, there is insu cient floor on some subtests for students younger than age 6 as shown in Table 5.3. For students younger than age 6, raw scores of 0 correspond to standard scores ranging from 78 to 40. For Pre-Kindergarten through grade 1, raw scores of 0 correspond to standard scores ranging from 73 to 40. See Table 5.3 for specific data. It is not until age 11:8 that all subtests (with the exception of Nonsense Word Decoding) have a complete floor (standard score 40) and ceiling (standard score of 160). Nonsense Word Decoding does not have both a complete floor and ceiling at any age. Before selecting any achievement test for a student, the examiner should always see what scores would be earned by a recently deceased child of the same age as the examinee (Dumont & Willis, 2009; Goldman, 1989).

Although Form A and Form B generally produce similar standard scores by age or grade, some large di erences do occur. For Spelling, at 5:0–5:2, a raw score of 0 corresponds to standard scores of 55 for Form A and 80 for Form A (Table 5.4).

Although we find them very useful, and better than those on most other tests, including the KTEA-II, and we commend the normative data, the KTEA-3 error analysis procedures may be challenging for examiners who do not have any background in curriculum and instruction. There are occasional instances in which a student may miss an item for the wrong reason (for example, an addition error in the subproducts of an otherwise flawless long multiplication example), which require the examiner to override the o cial categorization of the item.

The KTEA-3 provides very good tests of silent reading fluency and oral reading fluency with word lists and lists of phonetically regular nonsense words. It does not

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Table 5.2 Ceiling for Students Age 21:0–25:11 and Grade 12: Highest Possible Subtest Scorea

aSpring grade norms are reported here. The values for Fall grade norms (available in

Table D.1 of the KTEA-3 Technical & Interpretive Manual) for 12th-grade students are very similar to those reported here.

Note: From Tables D.3 and E.1 of the KTEA-3 Technical & Interpretive Manual (Kaufman & Kaufman with Breaux, 2014b). The maximum standard score on all subtests is 160. Scores >130 (+2 SD) are in the High range and scores 116 to 130 (+1 to +2 SD) are in the Above Average range.

include a test of oral reading fluency with passages. The KTEA-3 includes tests of phonological processes, reading of phonetically regular nonsense words, and reading fluency with nonsense words. A test of spelling dictated nonsense words would have completed the phonetic assessment, but there had to be a limit to the number of subtests.

Standardization

The normative samples of adults are smaller than those for the younger students. The number of examinees per year of age is 100 for age 4, 160 for each year from 5 through

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Table 5.4 Raw Scores Corresponding to Standard Scores of 100 by Winter Grade Norms on the WIAT-III: Five Untimed Subtests Without Weighted or Transformed Scores

From Tables D.2 of the WIAT-III Technical Manual with Adult Norms (Pearson, 2010a). Raw

111111111

scores with tenths shown as decimals were interpolated.

10, 120 for each year from 11 through 16, 120 for ages 17 and 18 (an average of 60 per year of age), 75 for ages 19 and 20 (an average of 37.5 per year), and 75 for ages 21–25 (an average of about 15 for each year of age).

Had the sample of older students been larger, it would have been helpful to have separate norms for postsecondary students in 2- and 4-year programs. The age based norms for older students were based on the roughly same proportions as the U.S. Census of high-school students and dropouts, students who had graduated from high school and not continued their educations, students who had begun 2-year programs, and students who had begun 4-year programs.

Reliability and Validity

As noted below, under Interpretation, assessment of oral language, especially on achievement tests, is problematic. On the KTEA-II (Kaufman & Kaufman, 2004a), the Oral Language Composite had variable correlations with the various oral language measures on other achievement tests. Interpretation of oral language achievement measures on tests of academic achievement should always be undertaken carefully and thoughtfully. The KTEA-3 Technical & Interpretive Manual (Kaufman & Kaufman with Breaux, 2014b) provides correlations of KTEA-3 oral language subtests with only one oral language instrument subtest, the Clinical Evaluation of