College of New Rochelle
The Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children-Third Edition (WISC-111; Wechsler, 1991) and the Kaufman Test of Educational Achievement (K-TEA; Kaufman & Kaufman, 1985) are commonly used in the identification of children for special educational services. However, there is little evidence about the relationship between these two tests among children with handicapping conditions. This study examined the relationship between the WISC-Ill IQs and K-TEA standard scores in a sample of 72 children with emotional handicaps. The results revealed a significant positive relationship between scores on these instruments.
Children suspected of having learning or emotional handicaps are given a battery of tests by psychologists and educational evaluators. The typical battery includes an individual intelligence test such as the Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children-Third Edition (WISC-111; Wechsler, 1991) and an individual achievement test. The Wechsler scales have long been the tests of choice for the evaluation of children referred for assessment in schools (Kamphaus, 1993). The Kaufman Test of Educational Achievement (K-TEA; Kaufman & Kaufman, 1985) has been found to be a useful instrument for the assessment of academic skills of children from 6 through 16 years of age (Sattler, 1992). Since these instruments are used to make placement decisions that profoundly affect the lives of children and their parents, research data are needed to support their use with children with specific handicapping conditions.
The WISC-111 is described as having substantial correlations with measures of academic achievement (Kamphaus, 1993). The WISC-111 manual reports correlations of .74 between the WISC-I11 Full Scale IQs and group achievement test scores, with Verbal IQ correlations of .74 and Performance IQ correlations of 3 7 . In evaluating students for special education placement, however, individual achievement tests rather than group achievement tests are used. The WISC-I11 manual includes data on the correlations between the WISC-I11 and only one individual achievement test, the Wide Range Achievement Test-Revised (WRAT-R; Jastak & Wilkinson, 1984). Correlations between Full Scale IQs and Reading, Spelling, and Arithmetic scores were .53, .28, 3 3 , respectively, for a group of children with learning disabilities and attention deficit disorders. Hishinuma and Yamakawa (1993) reported slightly higher correlations (S1 to .76) between the WISC-I11 IQs and WRAT-R scores for a sample of gifted and handicapped children. Vance, Mayes, Fuller, and Abdullah (1994) found even higher correlations between the WISC-111 and most recent version of the WRAT, the Wide Range Achievement Test-3 (WRAT-3; Wilkinson, 1993) in a varied population referred for special education services. Correlations with Full Scale IQs ranged from .68 for Spelling to .72 for Reading and .82 for Arithmetic. Teeter and Smith (1993)
reported significant correlations between
Correspondence concerning this article should be addressed to Claire Lavin, Graduate Psychology Program, College of New Rochelle, New Rochelle, NY 10805.