Young Children's Achievement Test (YCAT)

The Young Children’s Achievement Test (YCAT) represents a major improvement in the early identification of children at risk for school failure. It yields an overall Early Achieve-ment standard score, and individual subtest standard scores for General Information, Reading, Writing, Mathematics, and Spoken Language. The YCAT was designed with both the child and the examiner in mind. The individual subtests for General Information, Reading, Writing, Mathematics and Spoken Language can be given independent of each other, leading to flexible testing sessions. Standard scores (with a mean of 100 and a standard deviations of 15), percentiles, and age equivalents are provided for both the subtests and the composite.

 

The YCAT was normed on 1,224 children representing 32 states and the District of Columbia. The information is clearly representative of the U.S. population as reported in the 1997 Statistical Abstract of the United States. Reliability was standardized using the coefficient alpha, test-retest, and interscorer procedures. Extensive evidence of the validity of YCAT test scores is proved for content-description validity, criterion-prediction validity, and construct-identification validity.

 

Finally, the YCAT items were examined to ensure that little or no bias relative to gender, disability, race, socioeconomic level, or ethnic group existed. Differential item functioning techniques were used to examine items for potential bias.