Examiner scoring of ambiguous WISC-R responses

Fabricated test protocols were used to study how effectively examiners agree in scoring ambiguous WISC-R responses. Clinical and school psychologists (N = 62) and graduate students (N = 48) scored WISC-R Similarities, Comprehension, and Vocabulary responses obtained in a group administration procedure. From over 15,000 responses obtained, only unusual, atypical, or ambiguous responses were selected; 726 responses were scored, with 11 groups of 10 raters each scoring 66 responses. Considerable scoring disagreement occurred. Unanimous agreement (within each group of 10 raters) was found on only 13% of the responses, while 80% of the raters agreed on 44% of the responses. Rates of scoring agreement were not related to level of rater experience, but were related to specific subtests. Higher rates of agreement were found on the Similarities and Comprehension subtests than on the Vocabulary subtest for both experienced and inexperienced raters. The results suggest that even with the improved WISC-R manual, scoring remains a difficult and challenging task.     

The relationship of the WISC-R and WRAT: A study based upon a selected population

So as to compare predicted achievement based upon WISC-R IQs and observed achievement by the WRAT standard scores, both instruments were administered by the same school psychologist to 282 urban students referred for psychological evaluation. The correlations obtained, even on this nonrandom population, were substantial, significant (p < .001), and should be useful to school psychologists in statistically relating intelligence test scores to school achievement.     

Does living with a female head-of-household affect the arithmetic achievement of black fourth-grade pupils?

It was the purpose of this investigation to examine the effects of living with a male or female head-of-household upon the arithmetic performance of fourth graders. No significant differences were found in mean scores between male and female pupils. Significant differences were found favoring those pupils living with male heads-of-households, particularly for female pupils and for pupils with IQ scores greater than 100. These findings should not be considered as simple cause and effect relationships, but rather as indicative of potential difficulty for some pupils.     

An examination of some bases of teacher satisfaction with school psychological services

Data were collected from a sample of school psychologists and teachers after termination of a teacher consultation experience. Stepwise regressions were performed on the data to determine which psychologist and teacher variables were related to teacher satisfaction with the school psychological consultation. The single most significant main effect on teacher satisfaction was the teacher's perception of the psychologist's facilitativeness.