Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Identification, Testing & Assessment Understanding results of Woodcock-Johnson test

My home-schooled daughter was recently tested to see if she was at grade level when she entered school. After the Woodcock-Johnson III Normative Test of Achievement (Version 3.1), the school said she definitely won't have trouble with the grade 8 class work. They didn't spend much time explaining the test scores, though. I can somewhat figure out what the GE and AE are, but they seem astonishingly high for my Grade 7.9 daughter. I have no clue what the W score is, or East to Diff, or the PR. I know she is bright, but does a GE of 13 or 15 or 17 really mean she is college level? Or an AE of >24 or >30 mean she is at an adult level? I find that a bit hard to believe. What does an age level with a hyphen mean, like 17-2? The only thing that was at grade level was her Passage Comprehension, which surprised me, as she usually reads adult-level books, if she can find ones that are appropriate for her maturity level. I thought her math skills were more average and at grade level, but those came out high, which also surprised me. Can anyone help me understand these scores? The numbers are, from left to right, the
Raw, W, GE, EASY to DIFF, RPI, PR (68% Band) and AE:

Brief Achievement - , 554, 15.2, 13.0, >18.0, 100/90, 98 (97-99), >30
Broad Reading -, 534, 13.0, 9.3, 16.4 98/90, 90 (85-93) 20
Broad Math -, 538, 13.0, 11.1, >18.0 99/90, 94 (91-96) >30
Brief Reading -, 539, 13.0, 9.5, 17.2 98/90 90 (83-94) 21
Brief Math -, 545, 13.0 11.6, >18.0 99/90 90 (86-94) >30
Math Calc Skills - , 535, 14.8, 11.3, >18.0 98/90 96 (94-98) >24
Academic Skills -, 554, 16.2, 13.0, >18.0 100/90 >99 (98->99) >30
Letter-Word ID 72, 563, 15.4, 13.0, >18.0 100/90 97 (94-99) >30
Reading Fluency 71, 524, 11.7, 8.8, 14.4 98/90 81 (74-86) 17-2
Calculation 31, 546, 13.0, 13.0, >18.0 99/90 94 (87-97) >23
Math Fluency 135, 524, 15.8, 10.0 >18.0 98/90 95 (93-97) >25
Spelling 53, 554, 17.7, 13.8 >18.0 100/90 99 (97->99) >30
Passage Comprsn. 35, 515, 7.9, 5.3 13.0 90/90 50 (35-65) 13-4
Applied Problems 50, 545, 13.0 10.9 17.5 99/90 81 (75-86) 26

I am new to this site and to the issue of giftedness and the WJ test. I have many of the same questions that you have, and I found the following paper/article to be very helpful:

http://media.wiley.com/product_data/excerpt/90/04714199/0471419990.pdf

The paper does a very good job of explaining the terms used in a WJ report, and even includes a few examples of sample questions used in each section.

I think you'll find the article helpful. Dan

Thanks, that was the first clear thing on the internet I've been able to find to help interpret the results. Very helpful.

Hi, I don't know if you're still looking for some clarification on this subject, but I give, score, and interpret the WJ Achievement on a regular basis (4-5 times a month), so I figured I'd shed some light on this for you. Average standard score is 100, with the average range being 90-109.

It looks like they left out some common subtests, which I find odd, but whatever, moving right along. No one uses the grade/age equivalents, they're considered pretty much useless. They tend to put the numbers in terms that people unfamiliar with standardized test scores can understand, but they're never used for any kind of interpretation, because they're typically pretty far off, so no, those numbers don't mean your daughter scored in the college/adult ranges. You'll notice that just about everything was in the 90s, the average range. Her two 81 scores... Reading fluency would indicate that she struggles to process info quickly (not that she can't do it, it just isn't very fast), and applied problems would be practical applications of math, such as money problems, clock reading, distances traveled, etc. The other score that wasn't average was her 50 in passage comprehension, which is extremely low. I would suspect examiner error on that one. If this were a test of cognitive abilities (IQ, basically), a score that is 2 standard deviations below the mean (70 or lower) would indicate mental retardation. 51 is more than 3 standard deviations below the mean. Either it wasn't administered correctly, scored correctly, or she wasn't trying on that one (or didn't understand the task). There's no reason someone with average scores on just about everything else would suddenly be scoring in mentally retarded ranges for only one subtest unless there was an external reason. Hope this helps.

thanatos8285, is the PR (68%) in her report actually percentages or scores? My report says SS (68%) so I was wondering if that was a difference? It seems odd that she would have such average (below 100) on everything and be at 50 (Intellectual Disabled range) in passage comprehension yet the school thought she would definitely not have trouble with 8th grade work.

Hello, I do not mean to hijack your thread. But I have the many of the same questions. I was trying to post my DS9 score to get help understand them for a IEP meeting tomorrow. But my post do not seem to post. Could some explain what I am doing wrong?

Edit: I see Stinkerbell's thread went up:
http://giftedissues.davidsongifted....p_with_understanding_res.html#Post149194

Others -- this is an old thread. The OP is long gone.