Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Identification, Testing & Assessment Confused about WIAT III results -- can you help?

Hi,

I am new to this community. My daughter (now age 8, 2nd grade) took the WISC IV almost two years ago and scored very well (FSIQ = 138). I did not know anything about the General Ability Index (GAI) at the time, but have since learned that hers is 150 -- enough to qualify for the IQ portion of DYS eligibility criteria.

A few days ago, I took her back to the same psychologist to take the WIAT-III. I just got the results and am hoping someone can help me interpret them.

Reading Scores Reported are from ***Sixth Grade*** Selections

Language and Reading
-- Word Reading: Standard Score 144; Percentile 99.8.
-- Reading Comprehension (Sixth Grade Reading Selections): Standard Score, 138; Percentile 99.
-- Oral Reading Fluency (Sixth Grade Selections): Standard Score 131; Percentile 98.

Math
-- Numerical Operations: Standard Score 119; Percentile 90
-- Math Problem Solving: Standard Score 133; Percentile 99

Spelling and Written Language
-- Spelling: Standard Score 115; Percentile 84
-- Sentence Composition: Standard Score 149; Percentile >99.9
-- Essay Composition: Standard Score 134; Percentile 99

Composite Wechsler Individual Tests

-- Reading Comprehension and Fluency = 139 (99.5 percentile)
-- Written Expression = 141 (99.7 percentile)
-- Mathematics = 128 (97th percentile)

My confusion lies in the fact that the Reading scores are based on "Sixth Grade selections," even though my daughter is in 2nd grade (she's an advanced reader). Does anyone familiar with the WIAT III know if the percentiles noted in the results reflect the child's true age or, if the questions are from 6th grade, is the percentile based on 6th grade?

I am wondering if the tester gave her selections from a lower grade, would she have gotten a higher percentile? Is it customary in the WIAT III to give selections from a higher grade level?

Also, I don't see an overall score for the entire test. Should there be one?

The narrative discussion of the results all sounds very positive saying "reading comprehension and word reading was greater than 12th grade level" and "reading fluency was at the beginning of seventh" grade."

Thanks for your help. I am going to call the tester, but now it's now the weekend and I probably won't be able to reach her until Monday.

Just confused about how the above-grade selections influence the percentile reported. I would have liked to see a 99.9 percentile composite score, but wonder if a 99.5 percentile composite with 6th grade questions would amount to 99.9 for a 2nd grader. I hope that makes sense.

Hi Dottie,

Thank you so much for your insight -- truly appreciated. Based on what you've said, it does sound like she used age norms. I'll verify just to be sure.

From looking at the DYS criteria for achievement, it looks like there should be a "total composite" score, which is not on here. I'll need to ask for that.

So, what is the likelihood that if my daughter was retested (perhaps on a different test like the Woodcock Johnson), she could move from 99.7 to 99.9 on a section? Is gaining a couple tenths of a percentile a difficult thing to accomplish? (Probably not worth pursing, given that I'd have to pay for another test.)

I also find the spelling score interesting -- my daughter is pretty photographic with spelling, so it's interesting that that was one of her lower scores. Odd. I guess she might have misspelled something in her essay.

Just a follow-up: I contacted the examiner to see whether she had scores for "Total Reading" and "Total Achievement," which weren't on her original report. Apparently "Reading Comprehension and Fluency" and "Total Reading" are different composites on the WIAT III. She calculated them for me and the score in "Total Reading" is indeed in the 99.9th percentile. So happy I asked!

That's what I thought as well, until I found this chart of all the subtests and composites: http://www.spedforms.com/erforms/preview.asp?test_name=Wechsler%20Individual%20Achievement%20Test%20-%20III%20(WIAT-3)&category=Achievement

I also learned of the difference between computer scoring and hand scoring, and that they don't always come out the same (although apparently it's not a statistically significant difference). Confusing.

Any advice on filling out this application is welcome! I also need to figure out who to ask for references. Do you think teachers are the best?

Hi Witty! My advice for the application is to just start typing, skip what seems daunting and come back to it. Your goal is to really give them a better understanding of who your dd is.

For references I would ask a teacher if you have one that has made remarks about your dd and how she stands out. For that matter, anybody that has been wowed by her would probably be a good idea.

Good luck!