Bracken School Readiness Assessment, Third Edition (BSRA-3)

DESCRIPTION. The Bracken School Readiness Assessment, Third Edition (BSRA-3) is an individually administered test for children aged 3 years 0 months to 6 years 11 months. The BSRA-3 assesses a child’s school readiness by evaluating their understanding of 85 concepts. It is intended for use by teachers, clinicians, and parents. The assessment is available in English and Spanish. The test can be given using paper and pencil or a computer.

The BSRA-3 consists of five subtests: Colors, Letters, Numbers/Counting, Sizes/Comparison, and Shapes. The child’s responses can include pointing or short verbal answers. The test takes 10 to 15 minutes to administer. Scores for the English version include raw scores, percent mastery scores, standard scores, standard score confidence intervals, percentile ranks with descriptive classifications, and age equivalents. The Spanish version provides raw scores and percent mastery. A Parent/Teacher Conference Form is included, which provides information for parents and teachers on the concepts the child has and has not mastered and suggested activities to support the child’s learning.

DEVELOPMENT. The BSRA-3 is based on the Bracken Basic Concept Scale-Third Edition: Receptive (BBCS-3:R). The BSRA-3 consists of the first five subtests of the BBCS-3:R. The BSRA-3 has updated norms, items, and artwork; improved floor levels for younger children; fewer subtests; and alignment with early childhood standards in the United States. Revisions were based on feedback from practitioners in early childhood education and changes in state and federal regulations. Specific changes in the BSRA-3 include fewer subtests (from six to five), a separate Parent/Teacher Conference Form, and the addition of an “Activities to Support Your Child’s Learning” section on the Conference Form.

A tryout sample of 529 children aged 3-0 to 6-11 evaluated the following: performance across different ages; subtests for item difficulty; subtest content; identifying children with typically developing language as compared to those with language impairments; and identifying items that contained content, gender, or cultural bias.

TECHNICAL DETAILS. The normative sample for the BSRA-3 consisted of 80 children in each 6-month age group (160 per 1-year age level) for a total of 640 children. The publisher describes the normative sample as being representative of the U.S. population with regard to geographic region, gender, ethnicity, and socioeconomic status.

INTERNAL CONSISTENCY RELIABILITY. The internal consistency reliability for the total test is reported as .98, based on split-half reliability coefficients.

VALIDITY. Evidence for content validity was demonstrated through expert review, analysis of early childhood educational standards for all U.S. states, and examination of response processes during the development of the BSRA-3.

Evidence for construct validity was provided through a series of studies.

• The first study compared the performance of 51 children described as typically developing on the BSRA-3 and the BSRA, administered in that order, 1-25 days apart. The correlation between School Readiness Composite scores on the BSRA-3 and the BSRA, corrected for restricted range, was .85.
• A second study compared the performance of 55 children described as typically developing on the BSRA-3 and the Preschool Language Scale Fourth Edition, administered in that order, 0-22 days apart. Correlation coefficients ranged from .61 to .66.
• A third study examined the performance of the two clinical groups. A subset of 35 children with language impairments was matched with a control group of children described as typically developing. Cohen’s d was reported as .89, indicating good discrimination between these groups.
• A fourth study compared 64 children ages 7-1 to 12-8 who were diagnosed with intellectual disability with 80 children from the normative sample’s oldest age band of 6-9 to 6-11. The effect size was reported as 1.18.

COMMENTARY. The BSRA-3 is a comprehensive test of reading and language arts skills for kindergarten through third grade. The test developers report having made an attempt to analyze and determine which reading and language arts skills are needed for success at each of the grade levels as well as an attempt to sequence those skills appropriately within the BEAR. However, the technical manual simply does not offer enough information on how these skills were chosen to help the user be sure that the test is assessing fundamental skills. Page 1 of the Basic Early Assessment of Reading (BEAR) technical manual does mention that the test measures skills identified as important by the National Reading Panel “and other reading experts,” but no elaboration is given on this statement and within the manual little effort is made to help the test user understand who these “other reading experts” might be or how they themselves have pinpointed fundamental skills for reading and language arts instruction.

SUMMARY. The BSRA-3 is a reasonably good choice for assessing the preschool needs of children. It also has value, as part of a more involved assessment, when looking at children who might be considered for early school entrance. Drawings are well done, colorful, and expected to appeal to children. Technical information about the English version is adequate but additional studies, with more children, across geographical areas, reporting false positives and false negatives, are always needed with these instruments.

REVIEWER’S REFERENCE

• Bracken, B. A. (1998). Bracken Test of Basic Concepts-Revised. San Antonio, TX: The Psychological Corporation.
• Cohen, J. (1988). Statistical power analysis for the behavioral sciences (2nd ed.). Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum.
• Zimmerman, I. L., Steiner, G., & Pond, R. E. (2002). Preschool Language Scale Fourth Edition. San Antonio, TX: The Psychological Corporation.