Instruments

The fourth edition of the Wide Range Achievement Test (the WRAT-4) is the latest offering in a test series first published in 1946.  The WRAT-4 is a norm-referenced test that measures the basic academic skills of word reading, sentence comprehension, spelling, and math computation. It was standardized on a representative national sample of over 3,000 individuals ranging in age from 5 to 94 years. The normative sample was selected according to a stratified national sampling procedure with proportionate allocation controlled for age, gender, ethnicity, geographic region, and parental/obtained education as an index of socioeconomic status. Alternate forms, designated the Blue Form and the Green Form, were developed and equated during standardization by use of a common-person research design. Derived scores were developed for both age- and grade-referenced groups. Standard scores, percentile ranks, stanines, normal curve equivalents, grade equivalents, and Rasch ability scaled scores are provided.

The Blue Form and the Green Form can be used interchangeably with comparable results, permitting retesting within short periods of time without the potential practice effects that may occur from repeating the same items. The alternate forms also can be administered together (i.e., Combined Form) in a single examination. For those interested in a more qualitative assessment of academic skills, the Combined Form provides an additional opportunity for performance observance.

The WRAT-4 has four subtests: Word Reading measures letter and word decoding through letter identification and word recognition; Sentence Comprehension measures an individual's ability to gain meaning from words and to comprehend ideas and information contained in sentences through the use of a modified cloze technique; Spelling measures an individual's ability to encode sounds into written form through the use of a dictated spelling format containing both letters and words; and Math Computation measures an individual's ability to perform basic mathematics computations through counting, identifying numbers, solving simple oral problems, and calculating written mathematics problems.  In addition to providing derived scores and interpretive information for the subtests, the WRAT also yields a Reading Composite score, obtained by combining the Word Reading and Sentence Comprehension standard scores.

The websites listed link to the WRAT-4 as well as its documentation.

Authors provide instrument validity and/or reliability information.