Predicting Academic Achievement: Preliminary Analysis of the McCarthy Scales

Abstract

This preliminary study determined the extent to which the McCarthy Scales of Children's Abilities ( I ) , the McCarthy Screening Test ( 2 ) , and a McCarthy shorr form ( 3 ) predict achievement scores after a year for 50 kindergarren students from a predominantly white, middle-class community who were ~ n d ~ v ~ d u a l l y administered the hicCarthy Scales in March 1978. About a year later in March 1979, 23 students of the initial 50 were administered the Peabody Individual Achievement Test. The large attrition was accounted for by absences or conflict of schedules on test days. Scores for the McCarthy Screening Test, which includes the right-left orientation, verbal memory, draw-a-design, numerical memory, conceptual grouping, and leg coordination subtests, and the McCarthy Short Form, which includes rhe counting and sorting, pictorial memory, number questions, verbal fluency, numerical memory, and tapping sequence subtests, were also obtained. The Pearson correlations of the full McCarthy Scales and two abbreviated forms with the scores from the Peabody appear in Table 1.' Correlations of the General Cognitive Index with various Peabody achievement scales ranged from .48 ( p < .05) to .76 ( p < .01). The verbal scale correlated .58, .56, and .61 with Spelling, General Information, and Total score. Quantirative and memory scores correlated .58 and .16 respectively with Reading recognition. The McCarthy short form scores correlated .58, .57, and .63 with Peabody scores on Mathematics, Reading recognition and Total.. These values should be considered preliminary data as the sample size is small. Given moderate correlations yielded by the McCarthy Scales and the McCarthy short form with achievement, these instruments might effectively be used for screening and readiness. If other studies yield similar results, one might administer the short form first and continue with the rest of the McCarthy if the shorr form score is lower than a predetermined cut-off point. Information might be useful for those in need of further evaluation.