Although the Wide Range Achievement Test and the Gates-MacGinitie Test are both tests of reading, the two are very different. The Wide Range Achievement Test is a test of decoding and word recognition, while the Gates-MacGinitie is a test of reading vocabulary and comprehension. Taken together, they provide complementary information.

To provide a uniform basis for test interpretation, we offer the following rules:

1. No matter how far below or above the norm a student may be, she/he should always be tested with the tests appropriate for her/his age-grade level, not where she/he is placed in the curriculum. Thus, in August 1994, Brendan was given the Gates-MacGinitie Test Level 5/6, despite the fact that, in the curriculum, he was performing more like a third grader. In May 1995, he was tested again at level 5/6. But in May 1996, he was given test level 7/9, because, by age, he was old enough to have arrived at grade 7.

2. Alternate forms of the test must be given in successive years at the same test level. So, in August, 1994, Brendan was given Form L for Level 5/6, and in May 1995 he was given Form K.

Thus the graph in Figure 1 shows the results of three successive test administrations for Brendan, each with a different test. Therefore, we may be confident that his growth represents validly generalizable knowledge and skill, and not the learning of responses to specific test items.

The third edition of the Wide Range Achievement Test consists of a single test with two alternate forms. (The second edition provided two test levels, one for ages 5 to 11-9 and the other for ages 12 to 75.) Brendan was given the Blue Form of the WRAT3 in the summer of 1994, the Tan Form in May 1995 and the Blue Form, again, in May 1996. So it is possible that his last score in Figure 4 could be inflated by familiarity with the words on the Blue Form.