Academic Achievement Battery Screening Form

The Academic Achievement Battery (AAB) Screening Form is a screening test designed to evaluate basic academic skills in reading, writing, and mathematics for English speakers between 4 and 85 years old. The test can be administered in under 45 minutes. The AAB Screening Form comprises four subtests:

• Letter/Word Reading
• Spelling
• Written Composition
• Mathematical Computation

The subtests vary in the number of sections, whether they can be group administered, and the age/grade level of examinees. The Written Composition subtest is administered only to examinees in Grade 3 and above. Although optional, the subtest is required to calculate the Screening Academic Achievement Battery Composite score. The content is a subset of the content in the Academic Achievement Battery Comprehensive Form.

AAB Screening Form Administration

The AAB Screening Form can be administered individually or to groups. The Letter/Word Reading, Spelling, and Mathematical Calculation subtests take 20–30 minutes to administer. The optional Written Composition subtest takes 15 minutes.

AAB Screening Form Scoring

The AAB Screening Form yields five scores:

• Letter/Word Reading
• Spelling
• Written Composition (optional)
• Mathematical Calculation
• Screening Academic Achievement Battery Composite

Computer scoring is available.

AAB Screening Form Materials

The AAB Screening Form comes with a print kit that includes:

• Professional manual with a fast guide
• 25 item booklets
• 25 response booklets
• Stimulus card
• Five free score reports on PARiConnect

A digital kit is also available.

AAB Screening Form Purpose

The AAB Screening Form was developed to assess “basic academic skills including reading, spelling, and mathematical calculation” with an optional writing subtest. The test is designed to identify academic strengths and weaknesses, for use in eligibility decisions, and to plan for specific interventions in some academic areas defined by the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA; 2004). It can be used in educational, clinical, vocational, and research settings.

AAB Screening Form Psychometrics

Reliability

The AAB Screening Form manual reports robust results for supporting the potential usefulness of the AAB as a screening test. Alpha coefficients were reported for each subtest and the composite based on age and two grade-based samples, with values ranging from .70 to .98, representing a high degree of internal consistency.

Validity

The validation process for the AAB Screening Form had four components:

• Intercorrelations
• Content-related evidence of validity
• Criterion-related evidence of validity
• Construct-related evidence of validity

Commentary on the AAB Screening Form

The AAB Screening Form is a test of basic academic skills for individuals whose primary language is English. The manual provides detailed descriptions of the test development and standardization processes. Overall strengths of the AAB Screening Form include the documentation of its development and standardization process, test booklets with clear instructions for administering and scoring the test, and reliability and validity evidence. However, the psychometric properties of a test are not static; they develop over time and may change with different test administrations and samples.

The AAB Screening Form is an individually administered assessment in which some subtests can be group-administered. It takes less than 45 minutes to administer for various ages. The test was designed to assess specific academic skills to inform eligibility and planning for educational interventions. The directions for administration and scoring are clear. Age- and grade-based norms are provided for each of the four subtests and a composite score. The reliability evidence is strong. Evidence supports the use of the scores to differentiate the performance of individuals with disabilities.

References

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