No description available.

no abstract available / Teacher Education / M.Ed. (Specialisation in Guidance and Counselling)

The purpose of this study was to do a comparative analysis of the Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children-Revised (WISC-R), a test of intelligence which is frequently used with Mexican American students, and its Spanish translation the Escala de Inteligencia Wechsler Para Ninos-Revisada (EIWN-R). The WISC-R was administered in English to 109 bilingual English proficient Mexican American students, and the EIWN-R was administered in Spanish to 109 other than English proficient or monolingual Spanish speakers. Language proficiency was determined according to students scores on the Language Assessment Scales (LAS). The groups were matched by sex, school and grade. Students tested were students who were referred for testing because of academic difficulties or students placed in Special Education classes who are required to be re-evaluated every three years. Using Confirmatory factor analysis, the first objective was to determine if the factor structures underlying the EIWN-R and the WISC-R are equivalent to the factor structure of the WISC-R normative population. The correlation matrices of both groups were compared to the correlation matrix of the normative population. Factor structures of the WISC-R and the normative population were found to be statistically different, while the factor structures of the EIWN-R and the normative group were not found to be different. The second objective was to determine if the subtest means of the WISC-R and EIWN-R were significantly different. To determine this, the subtest means of both groups were subjected to MANOVA. Significant differences between subtest means were found on four of the subtests. A MANOVA was also utilized for the third objective which set out to determine if significant differences in performance are present in the EIWN-R between those students who are placed in Special Education programs and those students who are not placed. So as not to confound the results, the EMR population was removed from the sample. Significant differences in the placed and the non-placed groups were found on eight of the eleven subtests. Implications of research findings are discussed as well as future trends regarding the assessment of language minority students.

This study was designed to investigate the relationship between discrete areas of cognitive processing and academic achievement in minority children. There have been many questions about the fairness of current testing practices as they have been applied to students from differing ethnicities. These students are entitled by law to a meaningful, nonbiased assessment of their abilities. The minority children targeted for study were bilingual Hispanic students. Cognitive processing tasks were drawn from established measures of perceptual-motor development, auditory recall, and nonverbal intellectual ability. Academic achievement was measured by two comprehensive tests, one that was English-based and another that was Spanish-based. One hundred fifty-eight students enrolled in eleven third grade classrooms were examined. The subjects participated in group administrations of the Bender Visual-Motor Gestalt Test, Raven's Standard Progressive Matrices, and a bilingual version of the Digit Span subtest from the Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children-Revised. The Spanish-based achievement test was La Prueba Riverside de Realizacion en Espanol. The English-based achievement test was the Iowa Test of Basic Skills. Data were first analyzed by a stepwise multiple regression procedure to determine which of the experimental measures would predict academic achievement. Results indicated that the strongest predictor of academic achievement were scores from the test of nonverbal intellectual ability, which held true for both achievement tests. Scores in immediate auditory recall in English predicted achievement in certain achievement areas, but only on the Spanish-based test. Scores on the perceptual-motor test also predicted achievement on the Spanish-based test only. Auditory recall in Spanish did not predict achievement in any area on either test. The study concludes with a discussion of the viability of the independent measures as a meaningful, comprehensive test battery to be used with minority children in schools. Implications for future research and administrative planning are discussed.

The purpose of this study was to establish the concurrent validity of the Kaufman Assessment Battery for Children (K-ABC) with the Wechsler Intelligence Battery for Children-Revised (WISC-R). The study postulated that ethnicity would be a significant factor in the performance of learning disabled, Anglo and Hispanic students on the K-ABC compared with the WISC-R. Subjects were 33 Anglo and 34 Hispanic students ranging in age from 5 though 12. All students in the study were certified learning disabled and were administered the K-ABC and the WISC-R within one calendar year. Three null hypotheses were tested: (1) There is no significant difference between Anglo and Hispanic performance on the WISC-R Verbal and K-ABC Sequential IQs (Intelligence Quotients), (2) There is no significant difference between Anglo and Hispanic performance on the WISC-R Performance and the K-ABC Simultaneous IQs, and (3) There is no significant difference between Anglo and Hispanic performance on the WISC-R Full Scale and the K-ABC Mental Processing Composite Test IQs. The K-ABC was found to be concurrently valid based on the WISC-R. The range of correlations between the K-ABC and the WISC-R coincided with that necessary to establish a significant positive correlation. The WISC-R Full scale IQ scores for both Anglos and Hispanics correlated with the K-ABC Mental Processing Composite IQ (r =.57, p.05). The WISC-R Verbal scale scores for Anglos and Hispanics correlated (r =.55) with the K-ABC Sequential scale. Anglo and Hispanic scores on the WISC-R Performance scale correlated (r =.75) with the K-ABC. Ethnicity was not found to be a factor in low Hispanic test performance. The results showed no significant difference between the performance of Anglos and Hispanics. Comparisons were also made between the WISC-R and K-ABC performance of Anglos and Hispanics as a function of age, sex, grade and socioeconomic status (SES). Significant differences were found as a function of SES on both the WISC-R Full and Performance scales. Specifically, the higher the SES, the higher the Full and Performance scale IQs. On the K-ABC, SES and grade positively correlated with scores on all three scales. Sex was also positively related to Sequential scale scores with girls scoring slightly higher than boys.

"The Columbia Mental Maturity Scale (CMMS) was developed because of the great need for an instrument with which to fairly evaluate the intelligence of children handicapped by cerebral palsy and other motor or verbal impairments. Though the form and presentation of the CMMS are adapted to meet the difficult task of adequately testing such children, the authors of the Scale state that the CMMS "...is, of course, entirely suitable for use with normal subjects" (5. p.1). So it appears that the CMMS may be safely administered to all children, normal or handicapped. In this study the Scale has been used to measure the intelligence of mentally deficient children"--Introduction. / Typescript. / "August, 1955." / "Submitted to the Graduate Council of Florida State University in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts." / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 19-20).

Written at a time when the number of students taking standardized tests in U.S. public schools is at an all-time high, this dissertation presents and analyzes the contribution of standardized testing to intellectual identity formation as portrayed within the oral histories of four adults from the post-"A Nation at Risk" (1983) and pre-"No Child Left Behind" (2001) eras. The study uses methods from discourse analysis and oral history research to find stories that serve as artifacts of the history of standardized testing and related educational and testing policies. Each oral history is unique and has a connection to the University of Iowa and its role in the history of testing. The five participants share stories exploring their experiences with the SAT, ACT, Iowa Test of Basic Skills, intelligence tests, and tests for Attention Deficit Disorder and placement exams. Each story explores what can happen to a person's intellectual identity when standardized testing forms relationships with that individual's history with trauma, race, class, gender, hetero-normativity and self-esteem. By design, this study is less focused on providing broad extrapolations than in placing individual oral histories in conversation with one another and contextualizing them within the history of intelligence testing and achievement testing. It does so with the goal of conveying the long-term effects of standardized testing on each of the four storytellers, and suggests researchers have not given enough attention to examining ways standardized tests interact with how individuals shape their intellectual identity. In doing so, it complicates the arguments of standardized testing advocates who claim the tests can achieve cultural neutrality even though they have sprung from norms and methods and measures deemed valuable by a culture. This study invites future research on similar questions, including how a belief in the objectivity of standardized testing imbues it with credibility and shapes the expectations we have of others and ourselves.

The Stanford-Binet: Fourth Edition represents a new dimension in intelligence testing from the traditional Binet Scales. Based on a 3 level hierarchical model this represents a significant departure from the age scale format of previous revisions. Several abbreviated batteries are suggested. This study uses the "Quick Screening Battery" consisting of four subtests (Vocabulary, Quantitative, Pattern Analysis, and Bead Memory). Results are presented as Standard Age scores (SAS) for fifteen subtests in four Areas (Verbal Reasoning, Quantitative Reasoning, Abstract/Visual Reasoning and Short-term Memory), and the global 'g' Test Composite score. Thirty kindergarten children randomly assigned to two groups took both the Stanford-Binet: Fourth Edition and the Stanford-Binet: Form L/M in a counter balanced design. Nine hypotheses and one question are discussed. Statistical calculations for data analysis were arrived at through SPSSX/PC V2.0 (Noursis 1988). Correlations between Form L/M IQ and the Test Composite (r = .72), Verbal Reasoning (r = .71) and Abstract/Visual Reasoning (r = .41) reached significance at 0.05 or better. Other correlations showed similar trends as that found in the literature. The study gives promise for the "Quick Screening Battery" as a tool for screening young children.

Recent adaptationist accounts of human mental and physical health have reinvigorated the debate over the evolution of human intelligence. In the tradition of strong inference the current study was developed to determine which hypothesis; Rushton’s (2000) differential K theory, or Miller’s (2000a) fitness indicator model (F), better accounts for general intelligence ('g') in an undergraduate university population (N = 194). Due to the lengthy administration time of the test materials a newly developed 18-item short form of the Ravens Advanced Progressive Matrices (APM-18; Sefcek, Miller, & Figueredo, 2007) was used. There was a significant positive relationship between K and F (r = .31, p < .001), however no significant relationships were found between 'g' and either K or F (for each, r = -.06, p ≥ .05). While contrary to both hypotheses, these results may be explained in relation to antagonistic pleiotropy and a potential failure to derive within species comparisons directly from between species comparisons.

This study was an investigation of profile patterns on WISC-III subtest scores of Canadian gifted children. Profiles of students were compared to core profile types identified by Glutting, McDermott, and Konold (1997) and Konold, Glutting, McDermott, Kush, and Watkins (1999). From the literature reviewed, it was felt that conducting a profile analysis based on empirical research would override some of the criticisms inherent in the practice of profile analysis The sample consisted of 88 children ages 6 through 13 years. Subjects were included who scored at least 120 on the Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children (WISC-III). Sixty of the participants were gathered from Choice School; the remaining 28 were from the Psychoeducational Research and Training Centre at the University of British Columbia. The results of the profile analysis indicated that 34% of the cases were considered to be clinically unique or rare. The profile analysis of the entire sample of Canadian gifted students indicated that a much higher percentage of profiles were considered to be clinically unique or rare when compared to the normative sample. Future research needs to include larger samples of gifted children.