Academic and educational professionals use many assessments and tools to evaluate students throughout their careers. These tests can help determine progress and student placement for grade level.
Some of the most common academic assessment tests:
Behavioral Assessment System for Children (BASC)
This set of scales includes a teacher rating, parent rating, self-report of personality, student observation system, and structured developmental history. As a whole, these evaluations help understand the emotions and behaviors of children and young adults for conducting educational evaluations.
Gray Oral Reading Test
The Gray Oral Reading Test Fifth Edition assesses oral reading skills. This test is used to identify students behind their peers in reading and identify their academic strengths and weaknesses. The results can be used to design interventions to help students who are behind to catch up to their peers.
Kaufman Test
The Kaufman Assessment Battery for Children, also called the Kaufman test, is a clinical evaluation of educational achievement for students between the ages of 4 ½ and 25. It assesses three key areas: math, written, and oral. This tool may be used for educational evaluations or to understand better an individual’s total functioning level.
Nelson-Denny Reading Test
The Nelson-Denny reading test is one of the oldest assessment tools still in use. This individual achievement test is designed to measure the reading abilities of high school and college students. It is appropriate for identifying students behind their peers in reading but cannot be used to identify reading disorders.
Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children (WISC)
Also called the Wechsler Individual Achievement test, this assessment is individually administered to children between the ages of 6 and 16. In addition, there is an adult version for older students. The current iteration of this test is the fifth edition, which only takes between 48 and 65 minutes to complete. It generates an IQ score, providing data about a student’s cognitive abilities. The total score accounts for five areas: verbal comprehension, visual-spatial, fluid reasoning, working memory, and processing speed. This assessment tool is often used to gauge academic achievement.
Woodcock-Johnson Cognitive Abilities
The Woodcock-Johnson tests of cognitive abilities have both a standard and extended battery of exams. All of them can provide a detailed analysis of cognitive abilities based on nine broad abilities, including comprehension-knowledge, long-term retrieval, visual-spatial thinking, auditory processing, fluid reasoning, processing speed, short-term memory, quantitative knowledge, and reading-writing. The results indicate either general intellectual ability or brief intellectual ability.
Wide Range Assessment of Memory and Language
The second edition of the wide range assessment of memory and language is a memory abilities test. It looks at both immediate and delayed memory and new learning abilities. This test is designed for school-aged children or adult students and is composed of two verbal, two visual, and two attention-concentration subtests. In addition, this test provides indexes for verbal memory, visual memory, and attention concentration, which, taken together, yield a general memory index. There are also four recognition subtests.
Rey Osterrieth Complex Figure Test (ROFT)
The Rey-Osterrieth Complex Figure Test is an assessment in which examinees are asked to reproduce a complicated line drawing by copying it through recognition and then by recall. This test assesses visuospatial abilities, memory, working memory, attention, and planning. It is often used for neurological patients and to assess children’s cognitive development.
Clinical Evaluation of Language Fundamentals (CELF)
The Clinical Evaluation of Language Fundamentals determines language strengths and weaknesses. The scores assess language structure, language content, memory, and working memory. It is designed for students ages 5 to 21.
Connors’ Rating Scale
The Connors’ Rating Scale is generally used for learners with attention deficit hyperactive disorder and associated tendencies. The third edition of the test also addresses comorbid disorders such as oppositional defiant disorder and conduct disorder.
Autism Spectrum Rating Scale (ASRS)
This exam was designed to identify behaviors and symptoms of autism spectrum disorders (ASD) in children and adolescents. It may be used in an academic setting to evaluate a student.
Beery-Buktenica Developmental Test of Visual-Motor Integration
This test analyzes visual construction skills and can identify problems with visual perception, motor coordination, and visual-motor integration. It also looks at hand-eye coordination and fine motor skills. It is designed for students between the ages of two into young adulthood.
There are many academic assessment tools, and this list includes just a few of the most common ones used. However, another assessment may be appropriate depending on what aspect of achievement you want to gauge.
However, these tests are generally available and can provide detailed information about a student’s function, development, and academic achievements. This information can help determine a child’s academic capabilities, limitations, and barriers.
