The Peabody Individual Achievement Test - Revised consists of a revision of the 1970 PIAT with more updated norms, items, and content. The instrument assesses achievement in terms of General Information, Reading Recognition, Reading Comprehension, Mathematics, Spelling, and Written Expression; Written Language may also be assessed using a composite of the Written Expression and Spelling subscales.
The purpose of this essay is to describe and discuss the PIAT-R. To this end, the essay presents information related to the norming, reliability, validity and scoring of the instrument; item analysis information is also provided along with the findings of two critical reviews of the instrument. The essay concludes with a personal analysis listing the advantages and disadvantages of the instrument as well as recommendations regarding its applicability and use.
The normative or standardized sample of the PIAT-R consisted of 1,563 children and adolescents (kindergarten through Grade 12) drawn from 33 communities located in the northeast, north central, south, and western United States. Alaska and Hawaii were excluded.
Several factors were taken into account in developing the sample so as to make it as representative as possible. These factors were: gender, geographic region, socioeconomic status, race, and ethnicity. Specifically, the most current Census data were used to make sure that the proportion of the sample in each of the just delineated sociodemographic categories corresponded to the proportions in the general United States population.
The sample itself was obtained by providing participating schools with parental consent forms. Parents completed these forms, (using them not only to grant consent but also to supply information regarding the child's birth date, age, grade, race, sex, and parental education level) and returned them to the school.
From the pool of completed and returned forms, all factorial comb...