An Examination of the Concurrent Validity of the Basic Academic Skills Samples (BASS)

Abstract

This study is a concurrent validation of the Basic Academic Skills Samples (BASS) in which the Gates-MacGinitie Reading Tests and the Metropolitan Achievement Test (MAT) were used as criterion measures. A total of 413 students in grades 1 through 6 were administered the BASS, the Gates-MacGinitie, and the MAT. Computed across grade levels, correlations between relevant BASS subtests and standardized achievement tests were.85 for reading,.79 for math,.81 for spelling, and.61 for written expression. In all instances correlations for specific grade levels were lower than those computed across grade levels, but there were no identifiable correlational patterns across grade levels. Depending on the particular subtests employed, there was between 42% and 62% overlap in the students who fell into the bottom 15% of a specific BASS subtest and the corresponding achievement test. Although the relationships among the BASS, the Gates-MacGinitie Reading Tests, and the Metropolitan Achievement Test were reasonably strong it appeared that the BASS and the standardized measures did not identify identical populations of at-risk students.