Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Identification, Testing & Assessment WJiii Achievement Scores are in!

So the tester did a great job! She did well with DS during testing and she provided a report with interpretation and recommendations and a detailed chart of scores. I can't put all the scores b/c I'm on my phone. But wanted to tell you all for broad math DS scored in the 92nd percentile and for broad reading in the 84th percentile. Those were with no accommodations at all. So I guess he misses DYS by 6 percentile points but she recommended late 3rd early 4th grade work for DS so I assume that will help with school advocacy. Only 55 bucks !

Oh and I'll need people's input DS reading fluency which is really low relative to other scores. It's grade level where as his comprehension is very high. Anything in "fluency" was "low" relative to his other scores in math as well but I think that is get likely the dysgraphia. Sure do wish they'd find a cure for that !

My 6 year old with DCD (and probably motor dysgraphia) had the same issue with the fluency scores, in that they were all a bit lower, but esp. writing fluency was lower at 80th percentile (everything else was above the 90th percentile). I think all of his reading scores were about the same with fluency being maybe 1 percentile lower. I don't understand why they call it reading fluency if it involves the child circling answers with a pencil. His CBM reading fluency was 130 wpm (weird considering how slow he speaks in normal conversations) which is 99th percentile. So I think the WJ reading fluency really doesn't have a strong relationship to other measures of reading fluency, like simply timing a child reading and counting the correct words per minute. His WJ reading fluency was a two or three percentiles lower compared to CBM.

Sorry about the scores not making DYS cut-offs but at least you have something to show the school. And it was cheap! DS's school actually did the WJ achievement themselves but they act like they couldn't care less about the scores. They basically disregarded the entire test.

Oh is that how is done? I could see DS but couldn't see what he was doing for each test. That's a relief to hear actually! I didn't realize there was circling words involved - believe it or not that would slow him down! What is CBM?

It's interesting how they score differently on different tests and on different days (especially my DS). On the WIAT he scored in the 95th percentile for reading comp but for passage comp on the WJ he only scored in the 83rd percentile. He's so inconsistent!

Thanks, it's a bit of a bummer but I knew it was a bit if a long shot. Maybe we'll do a portfolio. The tester made specific recommendations like any "reading tasks under third grade would be too easy" she breaks down what grade levels would be too easy, whoch would be moderate and which would be too difficult. Hopefully the school will use the info to some extent.

I think with the reading fluency section they read statements and then answer "yes" or "no". And it's timed. Someone correct me if i'm wrong. If a kid has any sort of handwriting or processing speed issue, it would slow them down.
Yes, reading is involved, but it also involves handwriting and processing speed, kind of like filling out a worksheet. DD's oral reading fluency is over 200 wpm but she would probably do horrible on the WJ reading fluency because she's so slow with processing and writing.

CBM is curriculum based measurement--it's another assessment used to check reading fluency. I used it all the time when I tutored reading. You set a timer for 1 min, give the kid a numbered passage, and mark their errors. Then subtract the errors from the total words they read. So for DS, 130 is 130 correct words per minute.

Each of the subtests labelled "fluency" in the WJ-III Achievement Tests requires some type of handwritten answer and they are also all timed - and they are the only subtests that are timed. That's why kids with fine motor dysgraphia will often have a pattern of relatively low subtest scores on the fluency subtests.

If it's any consolation, my ds' scores on the type of achievement tests kids take later on in school. Terra Nova etc - the tests that are used within many school districts for class placement in middle school and high school (where ds had accommodations for his dysgraphia) have consistently ranked where you'd expect based on his ability levels.

polarbear