The Development and Investigation of a Graphic Scoring System for Obtaining Derived Scores for the WJ-R and Other Tests

Abstract

A recent revision of the Woodcock-Johnson Psychoeducational Battery (WJ-R) has been published for use by practitioners in the field of psychoeducational assessment. One criticism of the WJ-R is the lengthy scoring process that must be used to derive standard scores or percentile ranks for multiple tests and clusters. This scoring process limits the use of select portions of the WJ-R in screening programs, where immediate derived scores frequently are needed. Thus, the WJ-R was determined to be a good instrument for field testing a prototypical graphic scoring system designed to reduce scoring complexity. Participants were 25 undergraduate students from a large midwestern university who had no prior experience with the administration and scoring of psychoeducational assessment instruments. After a 10-minute standardized training experience, each of the participants scored 20 different hypothetical scores using a graphic scoring system. Analysis of interrater reliability and mean scores suggested that the prototype graphic scoring system was a generally efficient, reliable, and accurate method for obtaining standard scores for the WJ-R and other tests.