A comparison of learning disabled college students' achievement from WRAT and PIAT grade, standard, and subtest scores

Abstract

Although there have been a number of studies that compared the test results of the Wide Range Achievement Test (WRAT) and the Peabody Individual Achievement Test (PIAT), none had been accomplished with a group of college-aged learning disabled students. Indeed, few researchers had investigated populations over 16 years of age, and none had compared grade scores and standard scores with appropriate subtest scores as derived from these two instruments. With the recent emphasis on postsecondary education for the learning disabled, it is deemed critical that researchers should develop a data base for study of this population. The current research demonstrated that although both tests purport to measure academic achievement in reading, spelling, and arithmetic, in reality, significantly different scores are derived when WRAT (1965WRAT ( , 1978 norms are compared to PIAT (1970) norms as stated in grade scores and standard scores. These significant differences in the grade and standard scores clearly indicate that the WRAT and the PIAT, particularly in regard to arithmetic and to a lesser degree to reading, are not interchangeable instruments of academic achievement.

Concerns regarding the Wide Range Achievement Test (WRAT).

“…Silverstein (1978) undertook a direct investigation of the standardization of the WRAT, and with an American sample found that the 1976 WRAT norms tended to overestimate actual achievement level. Cordoni & Snyder (1981) suggested that the WRAT overestimated achievement, especially in arithmetic, for their sample of over-16-year-olds. Pikulski and Shanahan (1982) diagnostically evaluated disabled readers with ages ranging from 7 years 2 months to 15 years 11 months.…”