Predicting Grade 1 Success with a Selected Kindergarten Screening Battery

Abstract

The purpose of this investigation was to identify the best combination of tests or subtests in a psychoeducational screening battery which would predict kindergarten children's Grade 1 achievement. The subjects were 48 male and 37 female kindergarten children. The predictor variables in the test battery were: pupil rating scale (PRS), test of visual-motor integration (VMI), visual aural digit span test (VADS), human figure drawing (HFD), Evanston Early Identification Scale (EEIS), Bender Gestalt Test (Bender) and 'global' teacher rating in kindergarten (TRK). The criterion measures were: reading (report card mark), mathematics (report card mark), a 'global' teacher rating in Grade 1 (TR1) and the Metropolitan Readiness Test (MRT). Correlation and stepwise regression analysis indicated that (a) different subsets of the predictor variable best predicted each of the criterion measures; (b) the total VADS score is the contributory variable for the reading report card mark; (c) the 'global' teacher rating in kindergarten is effective in predicting academic readiness; (d) the VMI is contributory to measuring academic readiness; (e) the Bender did not contribute a significant amount to the prediction of academic readiness; (f) the PRS verbal score can be used with a kindergarten population; and (g) the human figure drawings have little predictive significance in a screening battery.