Abstract:
National Achievement Test is a standardized achievement test designed to be used with school children from Kindergarten through twelfth grade. It is recommended for use with two other tests, the Developing Cognitive Abilities Test and the School Attitude Measure, in order to assemble student profiles of how ability, attitude, and achievement are interacting, although it can be used alone. Its two lowest levels test basic skills such as reading, language, and mathematics, with social studies, and science being added at the end of the first grade. In the second grade, a section on reference skills is added. For the complete battery, testing time ranges from approximately three hours for younger students to approximately five and a half hours for older students. Questions are multiple-choice in format and usually present four possible response options. Answers are recorded on bubble sheets for computer scoring, which is done by the publisher. Scores are reported both by class and by student, and include grade equivalency, national percentile, stanine, and normal curve equivalent scores. The test was standardized on a sample of 150,000 students for the fall norms, and on a sample of 150,000 more students for the spring norms. Test content was taken from curricula in use across the country. No reliability or validity data is reported in the test review package.