reliability of test?

[change]

Hi,

I searched the forum but couldn't find anything on this. Does anyone know which IQ test has a reputation for inflating a child's IQ? I just found out there was one but I couldn't find anything on the internet about which one it is and the Special Education. person at my school forgot which one it is too. (She just heard about it yesterday from her supervisor when she was trying to find out info for me.) I have an ARD tomorrow for my daughter and she was tested and her IQ has been the same more or less over the years and now all of a sudden it came back as borderline low IQ so she did not qualify for services because according to test results she is a huge overachiever. For example, on Stanford tests before this year, she would get mostly in the 80% on many areas.

Thanks.

 

[smallworld]

Which IQ tests has she taken all along?

The WISC is the one that school districts frequently use. There has been a recent change in versions, and my understanding is that the WISC-III (older test) generally gives higher scores than the WISC-IV (newer test).

Are you only looking at the full-scale IQ score or the subtests? If there is "scatter" (discrepancies) among the subtests, the subtests give a more accurate picture of cognitive strengths and weaknesses than the full-scale IQ.

 

[Martie]

There are a lot of ways to manipulate IQ scores. All attempt to discriminate against minority children less than they used to. I would ask for your child to be tested on the same instrument that has been used previously. That would provide a more valid comparison

Here is my NOT quotable opinion of the three most often used IQ tests:

Stanford-Binet: Heavily verbally load so more likely to produce low scores in children with subtle language based LDs

Weschler series: Has both performance and verbal parts so it is a better assessment for children who strengths are not language based.

Woodcock-Johnson: Has some novel reasoning tasks but may produce "odd" results for some students.

There are "brief" assessments available, and if IQ is an issue for some reason, I do not think a 10 minutes screening instrument is appropriate.

Martie