Redundancy in the Iowa Tests of Basic Skills

Abstract

The latest revision of the Iowa Tests of Basic Skills (ITBS), Forms 7 and 8, consists of 11 subtests, nine of which are combined to yield three subtotal scores and one composite score. As part of one school district's testing program, the ITBS was administered to one group of beginning fourth grade students and one group of beginning eighth grade students. A factor analysis was performed for each of the two groups on Levels 10 and 14 of the ITBS. The intercorrelations provided by the 1977 fourth and eighth grade national standardization sample for these same levels were also factor analyzed. Results of all the analyses showed that there was essentially one common factor with little evidence that the user would gain much non-redundant information from the 15 scores yielded by the ITBS.

Get full access to this article

View all access options for this article.

References

CTB/McGraw-Hill . Comprehensive Tests of Basic Skills. Monterey, CA: California Test Bureau, 1974.

Gardner, E. R. , Merwin, J. C. , Callis, R. R. , and Madden, R. Stanford Achievement Test: High School Basic Battery. New York: Harcourt, Brace Jovanovich, 1965.

Harris, L. A. Review of the Iowa Tests of Basic Skills, Forms 5 and 6. in O. K. Buros (Ed.), The eighth mental measurements yearbook. Highland Park, NJ: The Gryphon Press, 1978.

Hieronymous, A. N. and Lindquist, E. F. Iowa Tests of Basic Skills, Forms 5 and 6: Manual for administrators, supervisors and counselors. Boston : Houghton Mifflin, 1974.

Hieronymous, A. N. , Lindquist, E. F. , Hoover, H. D. , Oberley, K. R. , Lewis, T. B. , Neckere, E. D. , Santos, B. N. , Peterson, J. J. , Whitney, M. A. , Renk, R. A. , Strayer, F. H. , and Plake, B. S. Iowa Tests of Basic Skills: Forms 7/8. Iowa City, IA: Houghton Mifflin, 1979.

Houghton Mifflin. Preliminary technical manual (2nd ed.). Iowa City, IA: Author, 1979.

Klein, A. E. Further evidence on the redundancy of the Stanford Achievement Test. EDUCATIONAL AND PSYCHOLOGICAL MEASUREMENT, 1979, 39, 1061-1065.

Klein, A. E. Redundancy in the Comprehensive Tests of Basic Skills. EDUCATIONAL AND PSYCHOLOGICAL MEASUREMENT , 1980, 40, 1105-1110.

Madden, R. , Gardner, E. F. , Rudman, H. C. , and Kelley, T. L. Stanford Achievement Test, Primary I Battery. New York: Harcourt, Brace Jovanovich, 1973.

10.

Merrifield, P. and Hummel-Rossi, B. Redundancy in the Stanford Achievement Test. EDUCATIONAL AND PSYCHOLOGICAL MEASUREMENT, 1976, 36, 997-1001.

11.

Pyrczak, F. Review of the Iowa Tests of Basic Skills, Forms 5 and 6. In O. K. Buros (Ed.), The eighth mental measurements yearbook. Highland Park, N.J.: The Gryphon Press, 1978.