Details

Overview

The WJ III DRB is a comprehensive measure of reading achievement. The WJ III DRB tests correspond to the five essential components of Reading First at either the cluster or test level. Several interpretative clusters are available.

The WJ III DRB assesses specific attributes of reading achievement and important abilities related to reading, giving the examiner valuable diagnostic information. Important comparisons can be made between clusters and tests that help to determine the reasons for reading difficulties.

Administration

50-60 minutes

Technical Qualities

Validity
A test's validity depends on two factors: 1) how closely its norming sample represents the population to which the test results will be compared, and 2) how carefully the data were gathered from that sample. The WJ III^® sample was selected to represent, within practical limits, the U.S. population from ages 24 months to 90+ years. Normative data for the test were gathered from 8,818 subjects in over 100 geographically diverse communities in the United States. Individuals were randomly selected within the stratified sampling design that controlled for 10 specific community and individual variables and 13 socioeconomic status variables. The sample consisted of 1,143 preschool subjects; 4,784 kindergarten to twelfth-grade subjects; 1,165 college and university subjects; and 1,843 adult subjects.

The WJ III uses continuous-year norms to yield normative data at 10 points in each grade. It provides age-based norms by month from ages 24 months to 19 years and by year from ages 2 to 90+ years. And it provides grade-based norms for kindergarten through 12th grade, 2-year college, and 4-year college, including graduate school.

Reliability

The WJ III  DRB clusters show strong reliabilities, most at .90 or higher.

System Requirements

Windows^®
Microsoft^® Windows 98/NT 4.0/2000/Me/XP Operating System and Windows 7 Ultimate, Premium, and Professional, 486 processor, 16 MB of free RAM, CD-ROM drive, 5 MB of free hard disk space, VGA resolution monitor, printer supported by Microsoft Windows

Macintosh^® Classic
Apple^® Macintosh computer with a PPC processor, Apple system software version 8.6 through 9.2.2, 16 MB of free RAM, CD-ROM drive, 10 MB of free hard disk space, Macintosh-compatible printer

Macintosh OS X
Apple Macintosh computer with a PPC processor, Apple system software version 10.2 through 10.2.8, 16 MB of free RAM, CD-ROM drive, 10 MB of free hard disk space, Macintosh-compatible printer, Microsoft Word application to maintain the rich text format in the reports