VALIDITY AND RELIABILITY OF A SIMPLE DEVICE FOR READINESS SCREENING

Test (HEILRT), a rapidly administered screening test for readiness for first grade, was studied with 121 kindergarten pupils who were tested at the beginning of the academic year. The test could be ad-ministered in 15 to 20 minutes to groups of up to 30 children at a time. Reliability of the test was estimated to be.86 and rater reliability was.99. The test correlated highly positively (.79) with the Metropolitan Readiness Test, but not with age, number of siblings, or educational level of the mother. It was concluded that based upon the data, the HEILRT held promise as a readiness screening instru-ment for use with kindergarten children. EDUCATIONAL AND PSYCHOLOGICAL MEASUREMENT 1975, 35, 495-498. DECIDING the readiness of young children to begin work in school has long been an issue concerning educators. Standardized tests developed to assess the various facets of school readiness have tended to be quite long and arduous to administer to young children who are not used to testing and school routine (e.g., the Metropolitan Readiness Test and the Stanford Early School Achievement Test). Readiness testing could be more efficient if a reliable and valid initial screening instrument were available which broadly assessed readines