Reliability and validity of the WRAT with Mexican-American children

The reliability and validity of the WRAT were investigated with 191 Mexican-American children. Internal consistency reliability coefficients for the WRAT were found to be high and comparable to those reported in the WRAT manual. Correlations between the WRAT subtests and those of the MAT all were significant and suggested moderate to high relationship between these two measures. It was concluded that the WRAT meets minimum requirements of reliability and validity with Mexican-American children.     

Pattern analysis on the PIAT

Reynolds and Gutkin's approach to pattern analysis on the PIAT is modified to allow for the fact that multiple comparisons are involved. The modified strategy uses Bonferroni is ts to control the familywise Type I error rate.     

Predicting academic performance of Anglo and Mexican-American kindergarten children

Sixty-two kindergarten children from three cultural/language backgrounds (Anglo, English-speaking; Mexican-American, English-speaking; and Mexican-American, Spanish-speaking) were screened for school readiness with three techniques: a series of Piagetian-based mathematical tasks, a number proficiency measure, and kindergarten teachers' ratings. One year later, first-grade performance was assessed through standardized tests and teachers' ratings. The predictive accuracy of kindergarten measures varied according to ethnicity and language background of the children. Kindergarten measures were significantly predictive of Anglo English speakers, but were somewhat less accurate for the Mexican-American English-speaking group. Importantly, the kindergarten measures, including the teachers' ratings, were generally nonpredictive for Mexican-American Spanish speakers, although the tests were not language or culture specific. The importance of language as a factor in school screening is underscored. Findings raise serious questions as to the appropriateness of early screening of children from different language and cultural backgrounds.     

Bannatyne patterns of Caucasian and Mexican-American learning disabled children

Investigated the measurement properties and practical utility of Bannatyne's (1974) recategorized WISC-R scores. Reliability coefficients, standard deviations, and standard errors of measurement were calculated for the Spatial, Conceptual, and Sequential recategorized scores. These data were utilized to determine how large a difference between each of these scores was needed by individuals in order to reach statistical significance at the.05 and.25 levels. Analyses of the recategorized scores of Caucasian learning disabled children indicated that, as a group, these students were characterized by the Spatial > Conceptual > Sequential pattern which was predicted by Bannatyne (1974). The same was not found to be true for a group of Mexican-American learning disabled children. When the scores of individual children were analyzed, a large majority of both the Caucasian and Mexican-American groups failed to demonstrate the Spatial > Conceptual > Sequential pattern. Implications for using the Bannatyne pattern as a diagnostic tool with learning disabled children are discussed.     

Comparison of behavioral ratings of Anglo-American and Mexican-American gifted children

Behavioral ratings on four subscales of the Scales for Rating the Behavioral Characteristics of Superior Students (SRBCSS) were completed on groups of Anglo-(N=491) and Mexican-American gifted students (N=34). Significant ethnicity differences were found on the Learning and Motivation scales, with Anglos being rated higher. There were no significant differences between groups on the Creativity and Leadership scales. Results are discussed in terms of implications for use of SRBCSS as an identification instrument and as a measure for future research.     

Correlations among the WISC-R,PIAT, and DAM

The WISC-R, PIAT, and DAM were examined to ascertain relationships among the three instruments. Moderate to high correlations were found when PIAT scores were compared to WISC-Rg iqs, while DAM standard scores correlated moderately with PIAT and WISC-R scores. Correlations indicate that information yielded by the PIAT may be obtained through WISC-R results, while the DAM may be tapping other abilities not adequately assessed by either of the other two measures.     

The concurrent validity of the Expressive One-Word Picture Vocabulary Test for Mexican-American children

The Expressive One-Word, Picutre Vocabulary Test (EOWPVT) and the Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test-Revised (PPVT-R) were administered to 50 bilingual, Mexican-American children in grades 3-5. The students' relative performance on these two vocabulary tests, as well as their error patterns, was examied. The results revealed that the EOWPVT has adequate concurrent validity with the PPVT-R, and that on both tests the students' scores were almost two standard deviations below the normative mean. The outcome indicating that the expressive vocabulary score was higher than the receptive vocabulary score is explained in terms of differences of item content and in the composition of the norm samples for the two tests. Items that generated high error rates are identified to facilitate appropriate interpretation of the EOWPVT when used with Mexican-American children.     

Reliability of the Raven coloured progressive matrices for Anglo and for Mexican-American children

The present study investigated the internal consistency reliability estimates of the Raven Coloured Progressive Matrices (CPM) for Anglo and Mexican-American third-grade boys from low socioeconomic status background. The results showed that the reliability estimates of the CPM for the two ethnic groups were acceptably high and extremely similar in magnitude. In light of these findings, plus previous cross-cultural reliability studies of the CPM, it appears that the CPM is a promising nonverbal intelligence measure when used with children of culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds.     

Cooperative-competitive social orientation and school achievement among Anglo-American and Mexican-American children

Researchers have suggested that the relatively poor academic performance of Mexican-American compared to Anglo-American children may result from cultural differences in cooperative-competitive social orientation. To test the relative contribution of cooperative-competitive social orientation as a personality predictor of school achievement, the cooperativeness-competitiveness, field independence, locus of control, self-esteem, and school achievement of 45 Anglo-American and 125 Mexican-American fourth, fifth, and sixth grade children were assessed. The results indicate (1) competitiveness is positively related to school achievement among the Anglo-American children but not the Mexican-American children; (2) among the Anglo-American children competitiveness is a better predictor of school achievement than field independence, locus of control, and self-esteem; (3) the personality variables are moderately but not independently related to school achievement within both cultural groups; and (4) the between-culture variance in the personality variables does not account for the between-culture variance in school achievement. Implications of the present results for understanding within- and between-group differences in school achievement are discussed.     

A comparison of the PIAT and WRAT: A closer look

A sample of 46 white fourth-grade pupils was administered the PPVT, WRAT, and PIAT, except for PIAT Reading Comprehension and General Information. Subjects were selected randomly from those pupils whom classroom teachers judged to be doing at least average academic work. Mean grade equivalents, as well as intercorrelations, were examined for PIAT and WRAT subtests. No sex differences were found for PPVT IQ, age, or most achievement scores. Mean grade equivalents generally ranged between the sixth-and seventh-grade levels. Nearly all PIAT-WRAT intercorrelations were positive and significant, and highest for the similarly labelled subtests. Substantial differences were noted in mean grade equivalents. WRAT Reading and Spelling exceeded their PIAT counterparts by approximately one grade level. In contrast, PIAT Mathematics exceeded WRAT Arithmetic by more than one grade level. The possible effects of differences in item content and task structures on performance were discussed. Implications for practitioners involved in psychoeducational evaluations were considered.     

Stability of the McCarthy scales of children's abilities over a one-year period for Mexican-American children

The focus of the present study was to examine the stability of the McCarthy Scales of Children's Abilities for a sample of 42 English-speaking and 42 Spanish-speaking Mexican-American preschoolers of low SES background. The subjects were retested after a period of one year, and a test-retest stability coefficient of .88 was observed for the General Cognitive Index for the English-speaking children and .77 for the Spanish-speaking children. It was concluded that the results of the present study provide some preliminary evidence that the McCarthy is a relatively stable instrument for English-speaking Mexican-American children.     

Further investigation of the correlations among the WISC-R,PIAT, and DAM

The authors replicated a study (White, 1979) in which high correlations were obtained among the Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children-Revised (WISC-R), the Peabody Individual Achievement Test (PIAT), and the Goodenough-Harris Draw-A-Man (DAM), and conclusions were drawn that all these instruments might not be necessary in the same test battery. The present study involved a larger sample (360 children). Much lower correlations among the instruments were obtained, although the pattern of correlation was similar. It was concluded that results of the White study may have overestimated the relationships between the variables because of factors unique to the sample. Test specificity appeared using the larger, normally distributed sample, suggesting a legitimate use of all three tests in a single battery.     

Home language as a predictor of first-grade achievement for Anglo- and Mexican-American children

The utility of kindergarten screening measures in predicting first grade achievement was examined for 246 children classified as Anglo-American-English as home language (AA-E), Mexican-American-English as home language (MA-E), and Mexican-American-Spanish as home language (MA-S). All children were administered the Boehm Test of Basic Concepts, Draw-A-Design and Draw-A-Child subtests of the McCarthy Scales of Children's Abilities, and a Criterion Referenced Test at the beginning of kindergarten and at the end of kindergarten. The SRA Achievement Series was then administered during first grade. Stepwise multiple regression analyses were conducted for each group of children employing each set of kindergarten measures as predictors. All resulting equations were significant (p < .001) and revealed differential predictive power of the kindergarten measures as a function of ethnicity and home language, content of the criterion measures, and time of assessment. The Criterion Referenced Test was found to be a significant predictor of first-grade reading scores and the Draw-A-Design subtest emerged as a significant predictor of first-grade math achievement for the MA-S children, whereas the Boehm consistently emerged as a significant predictor and accounted for substantially more variance in first-grade reading and math scores for the AA-E and MA-E children. For all three groups, beginning kindergarten measures accounted for more variance in first-grade achievement than end of kindergarten measures. The importance of utilizing language measures, as well as predictive validity techniques, was discussed in relation to future cross-cultural research.     

Validity of WISC-R IQS and factor scores in predicting achievement for Mexican-American children

The predictive validity of the WISC-R IQs and factor scores was examined with a sample of 64 Mexican-American children. All the correlations among the WISC-R factor scores and academic achievement as measured by the Wide Range Achievement Test (WRAT) were found to be low, ranging from .09 to .31. Significant relationships were observed only between WRAT Reading and Perceptual Organization (PO) factor, WRAT Arithmetic and PO factor, and Freedom from Distractibility (FD) factor and WRAT Arithmetic scores. In contrast to this, however, significant relationships were observed between IQ scores and achievement measures, suggesting predictive utility of the WISC-R IQs in predicting achievement for Mexican-American children.     

Bias in content validity on the Boehm Test of Basic Concepts for White and Mexican-American children

Item bias on Forms A and B of the Boehm Test of Basic Concepts was examined for a sample of White and Mexican-American kindergarten children. The method employed to detect biased items, as defined by an items-by-group interaction, was a two-way analysis of variance with followup being conducted with a Bonferroni-type procedure. Bias-in-item difficulty occurred for both groups, which does not conform to the current popular press view that bias is against ethnic minorities and not against the White majority. The finding that on some items the Mexican-American group out-performed the White group indicates the need to examine carefully the question of bias and to reconsider popular conceptualizations of the many issues of bias in educational and psychological testing.     

Diagnostic utility of the K-ABC and WISC-R/PIAT in determining severe discrepancy

The basic question addressed in this study was whether the discrepancies found between the Mental Processing Composite (ability component) and the Achievement subtests of the Kaufman Assessment Battery for Children (K-ABC) corresponded with the discrepancies found between the WISC-R Full Scale IQ and the PIAT subtests, or whether use of the K-ABC over the WISC-R and PIAT results in the identification of different students. The differences were evaluated using four standard score procedures for calculating a severe discrepancy. It was found that the K-ABC and WISC-R/PIAT approaches to the determination of a score difference resulted in the identification of different populations of students. The high average PIAT standard scores together with the lower subtest reliabilities appeared to be the primary source of disparity between the K-ABC and WISC-R/PIAT comparisons.