The Wisc-R as a Predictor of Academic Achievement: A Longitudinal Analysis

Prediction of long-term academic achievement is an important characteristic of tests that measure intellectual ability. While it has been demonstrated that the scores from standardized achievement tests can be predicted, it was not known if SRA Achievement Series scores could be predicted from WISC-R IQs. The purpose of the present study was to examine if the WISC-R IQs (Verbal and Performance) could accurately predict SRA Reading, Mathematics, and Language Arts scores for a sample (N=198) of female and male subjects at five grade levels. Results revealed that both the Verbal and Performance WISC-R IQs made a statistically significant contribution to the prediction equations for Reading and Mathematics at grades 1 through 5 and for Language Arts at grade 2. Only the Performance IQ score contributed significantly to Language Arts at grades 3, 4, and 5. Separate equations for females and males were developed for Reading at grades 1 and 3 and for Language Arts at grades 2, 3, and 4. The standard error of estimate for each equation made it impractical, from a practitioner’s point of view, to use only WISC-R IQ scores to ascertain an individual’s expected performance on the SRA Achievement Series. Prediction of SRA scores could perhaps be improved through the use of additional information from an individually administered achievement test and previous group achievement test results