Authors:
Richard W. Woodcock, Kevin S. McGrew, and Nancy Mather

Publisher:
Riverside Publishing
(800) 323-9540
www.woodcock-johnson.com

Initial Material Cost:
WJ III Complete Battery (Includes Cognitive Standard and Extended Test Books, Examiner's Manual, Examiner's Training Workbook, Audio Cassette, 25 Test Records and 25 Response Booklets, 5 BIA Test Records, Achievement Form A Standard and Extended Test Books, Examiner's Manual, Examiner's Training Workbook, Audio Cassette, 25 Test Records and 25 Response Booklets, WJ III Compuscore and Profiles Program (Windows and Macintosh), Technical Manual, and Scoring Guides): $967
Achievement Battery (includes Achievement Form A or B Standard and Extended Test Books, Examiner's Manual, Audio Cassette, 25 Test Records and 25 Response Booklets, Scoring Software (Windows and Macintosh), Technical Manual, and Scoring Guides.): $444
Cognitive Abilities Battery (includes Cognitive Standard and Extended Test Books, Examiner's Manual, Audio Cassette, 25 Test Records and 25 Response Booklets, 5 BIA Test Records, Scoring Software (Windows and Macintosh), Technical Manual, and Scoring Guides): 601

Representativeness of Norming Sample:
Normative data for the WJ-III were gathered from 8,818 people in over 100 U.S. communities. The preschool sample, (ranging in age from 2 to 5 years but not enrolled in kindergarten) included 1,143 children. The sample was selected to be representative of the U.S. population from 2 to 90 years and older.

Languages:
English

Type of Assessment:
Direct child assessment

Age Range and Administration Interval:
For 7 WJ-III Cognitive and 12 WJ-III Achievement tests, 2 to adult; for the remaining tests, school-age to adult. Achievement tests come in two equivalent forms to allow repeat administrations.

Personnel, Training, Administration, and Scoring Requirements:
Each test takes approximately 5 to 10 minutes. Examiners must provide evidence that they meet the highest standards required for using educational and psychological tests. Tests must be administered and interpreted by a highly trained individual. A computer-scoring program generates the scores.

Summary
Initial Material Cost: 3 (> $200)
Reliability: 3 (.65 or higher)
Validity: 3 (.5 or higher)
Norming Sample Characteristics: 3 (normed within the past 15 years, nationally representative)
Ease of Administration and Scoring: 3 (administered and scored by a professional).

Description: The WJ-III consists of two assessment instruments, the Woodcock-Johnson III Tests of Cognitive Ability (WJ-III COG) and the Woodcock-Johnson III Tests of Achievement (WJ-III ACH). These instruments provide a comprehensive set of norm-referenced tests for measuring intellectual abilities and academic achievement. The instruments include a standard battery and an extended battery. The tests in the extended battery are included to allow for in-depth diagnostic testing of different aspects of an ability or achievement area. The WJ-III COG consists of a standard battery of 10 tests and an extended battery of 10 tests. Seven of the 20 COG tests are recommended for use with preschool children and can be used with children as young as 2 years of age. Those COG tests include: Test 1, Verbal Comprehension; Test 2, Visual-Auditory Learning; Test 3, Spatial Relations; Test 4, Sound Blending; Test 5, Concept Formation; Test 6, Visual Matching; and Test 17, Memory for Words. The WJ-III ACH consists of a standard battery of 12 tests and an extended battery of 10 tests. Twelve of the 22 ACH tests are recommended for use with preschool children and can be used with children as young as 2 years of age. Those ACH tests include: Test 1, Letter-Word Identification; Test 3, Story Recall; Test 4, Understanding Directions; Test 7, Spelling; Test 9, Passage Comprehension; Test 10, Applied Problems; Test 12, Story Recall-Delayed; Test13, Word Attack; Test 14, Picture Vocabulary; Test 15, Oral Comprehension; Test 19, Academic Knowledge; and Test 21, Sound Awareness. The examiner can tailor the administration by selecting the tests that best tap the abilities and skills of interest for a particular child. Tests can be grouped to yield meaningful summary scores.

Uses of Information: The WJ-III is designed to provide age-based or grade-based norm-referenced individual test and broad ability and achievement scores. This information can be used for a variety of purposes, including diagnosis of academic strengths and weaknesses, educational programming, assessing growth, program evaluation, and research.

Reliability: (1) Internal consistency reliability: Split-half reliabilities were calculated for all but the timed tests and tests with multiple-point scoring systems. Reliabilities for children 2 and 3 years of age ranged from .56 (for children 2 years old for Story Recall) to .98, with almost all of the correlations at the .80 level or above. The publishers recommend using cluster scores (groupings of 2 or more tests) because the cluster scores consistently have higher reliability. (2) Test-retest reliability: Studies of test-retest reliabilities for children 2 and 3 years old for the timed tests were not described in the technical manual, but for children 7 to 11 years old ranged from .76 to .94. One study of test-retest reliability over periods of 1 year or more was reported for children 2 to 7 years at first testing. For the tests appropriate for children 2 and 3 years old, reliabilities ranged from .57 (for Memory for Words 1 to 2 years after the first testing) to .96 (for Letter-Word Identification less than 1 year after the first testing) 1.

Validity: (1) Content validity: The tests and clusters are based on the Cattell-Horn-Carroll (CHC) theory of cognitive abilities. The WJ-III’s content validity rests on its adherence to the CHC theory. Content was also designed to test core curricular areas and areas specified in federal legislation. Test items were developed with contributions from experts with the goal of measuring both narrow and broad abilities. Reviewers also conducted item reviews for bias to identify any items that might be potentially sensitive to women, individuals with disabilities, and cultural or linguistic minorities. Any items flagged by the reviewers were revised or deleted. The authors provided additional evidence for content validity by presenting data that demonstrate the growth and decline of cognitive and achievement abilities across the lifespan. (2) Concurrent validity: The authors also presented data demonstrating that tests from the same cluster are highly and significantly correlated and those from different clusters correlate at a lower level. For example, for children 2 to 3 years old, the Verbal Comprehension (a test of comprehension-knowledge) and Picture Vocabulary (a test of oral expression) tests are correlated at .92, but Verbal Comprehension and Concept Formation (a test of fluid reasoning) were only correlated at .32. The authors also provided evidence for the concurrent validity of the tests in a preschool sample (children ranged in age from 1 year, 9 months to 6 years, 3 months). In that study, correlations among the WJ-III standard scale generally ability tests appropriate for preschool children and the Wechsler Preschool and Primary Scale of Intelligence-Revised ranged from .66 to .73, and with the Differential Ability Scales the correlations ranged from .57 to .67.

Method of Scoring: The general test and individual item scoring rules are summarized in the Examiner’s Manuals and on the test easels (the flip books used for testing). Whether the child passes or fails an item is recorded in the test record. Raw scores are computed by summing the number of correct responses. Raw scores are entered into the computer scoring program which generates norm-referenced scores.

Interpretability: The types of scores that are available include: grade equivalents, age equivalents, relative proficiency indexes, cognitive-academic language proficiency levels, percentile ranks, and standard scores. The Examiner’s Manuals provide a great deal of information about how to interpret the individual test scores, cluster scores, and discrepancies between scores in two different cognitive and ability areas.

Training Support: Training videos and workbooks are available from the publisher. The publisher offers national and regional group training sessions as well as individual training sessions. Technical support is also available by telephone and online.

Adaptations/Special Instructions for Individuals with Disabilities: The Examiner’s Manuals describe accommodations that can be made for testing young children, English language learners, and individuals with various difficulties and impairments (including reading, attention, hearing, visual, and physical impairments).

Report Preparation Support: The Report Writer software summarizes the test findings into a clinically useful report.

References:

Mather, N. and R.W. Woodcock. Examiner’s Manual: Woodcock-Johnson III Tests of Cognitive Abilities. Itasca, IL: Riverside Publishing, 2001.

Mather, N. and R.W. Woodcock. Examiner’s Manual: Woodcock-Johnson III Tests of Achievement. Itasca, IL: Riverside Publishing, 2001.

McGrew, K.S. and R.W. Woodcock. Technical Manual: Woodcock-Johnson III. Itasca, IL: Riverside Publishing, 2001.

Schrank, F.A. and R.W. Woodcock. WJ III Compuscore and Profiles Program (computer software). Itasca, IL: Riverside Publishing, 2001.