Criterion-related validity of the WRAT-R and K-TEA with teacher estimates of actual classroom academic performance

The validity of most psychological and educational tests is established using correlational procedures examining the linear relationship between performance on the two instruments. Concurrent validity developed in this manner is commonly viewed as verification of the acceptability of a test. Few studies exist examining the degree to which test performance covaries with real-life performance appraisals. This study examined the concurrent validity of the WRAT-R and the K-TEA with teacher estimates of actual classroom levels of performance in reading and mathematics. Participants were 134 third and fourth graders enrolled in a regular education setting. In addition, this study compared the test performance of average students on two widely used standardized educational achievement tests in order to determine whether the tests yielded significantly different performance estimates relative to grade level functioning.     

Subject-specific components of academic self-concept and self-efficacy

The internal/external (I/E) frame of reference model posits that academic self-concept in a particular subject is based in part on how achievement in that subject is perceived to compare with achievements in other school subjects. Support for the model comes from Australian, Canadian, and U.S. studies, but not from a recent Norwegian study. The Norwegian study, however, used a self-efficacy measure instead of a self-concept measure. In the present investigation the I/E model was evaluated with both self-concept and self-efficacy responses, but support for the model was found only for self-concept responses. The results were interpreted in relation to the role of frames of reference used in forming self-concept and self-efflcacy responses.