Academic Assessment Report for Justin

Examiner: Ms. Tammy R. Grant

A standardized academic assessment was administered to Justin on 11/15/2014. This testing was
completed as a training exercise for a Psychoeducational Assessment course that I am taking at
Webster University. As such, test scores will not be considered valid & cannot be used for
educational decision-making.
Justin is 13 years old, 3 months, and in the eight grade. According to his mom, Justin could be a
better student if he stopped playing and focused on his work. Ms. LaVeika stated that the primary
problem that she sees is that Justin rushes threw his work, if he even remembers to do it.
Justin earned three Fs on her report card. Justin indicated that he likes school, but did not
indicate a favorite subject.
Justin exhibited the following test-taking behaviors on 11/15/2014. Justin was aware that he
would be tested but recently has been dealing with the illness of his mother; which I feel has had
some effects on the entire family. As I transported Justin to the St. Louis County library I learned
that he was feeling fine and was a little nervous about taking the test. I assured him that the
information gathered from the test would not affect him academically. I explained that it was
primarily for me to learn how to give a test. I stated that I just needed for him to do his very best.
Justin whom is a playful energetic thirteen year older, acknowledge my response and continued
to stare out of the window. Once at the library we positioned ourselves in the Quite section of
the library. Justin maintained consistent eye contact and was attentive and responsive to all
requests. However, Justin appeared to become even more nervous during the first subtest. I credit
this behave to my close observation of him. To elevate this I stopped taking notes and read the
manual. As, Justin became more comfortable, I observed Justin twisting his hair as he read each
question. Justin completed the first three subtest. It was during the fourth subtest that I observed
Justin fidgeting and having some labor in breathing. Justin suffers with asthma and I thought that
he could have been having an attack. I stopped the test at Story 9. I asked Justin would he like to
take a little break. Justin declined. However, he was no longer able to maintain eye contact with
me and his tone of voice was more constricted or formal. Having one last test, I insisted that he
get a sip of water. When Justin returned to the table, I questioned how he was doing. I asked
question such as; was it too hot in the building, Could he see the print on the test booklet (note:
Justin moved closer to the test booklet as if he could not see.), was he feeling sick. Justin
response to all of my questions was no. We then continued with the last subtest in which, Justin
appeared to become very excited while taking the test.
Justins reading skills were assessed using the Test of Reading Comprehension Fourth Edition
(TORC-4). Standard scores will be the type of scores reported, with a mean of 100 and a
standard deviation of 15, meaning scores falling between 85 and 115 are considered to be in the
average range.
The test has five subtests, all of which measure word identification and contextual meaning. The
first subtest is the Relational Vocabulary. Here a student is required to silently read another four
words and choose two words that are related to the first set of three words. Sentence Completion
which is the second subtest, ask the student to silently read a list of word pairs and chooses the

word pair that best completes the sentence. The third subtest is Paragraph Construction. After
silently reading a list of sentences that are not in logical order, the student must then rearrange
the sentences to form a coherent paragraph. The Text Comprehension ask students to silently
read a short passage and then answer five multiple-choice questions relative to the passage. The
last subtest is the Contextual Fluency. This subtest measures how many individual words
students can recognize, in 3 minutes, in a series of passages taken from the Text Comprehension
Subtest. Each passage, printed in uppercase letters without punctuation or spaces between words,
becomes progressively more difficult in content, vocabulary, and grammar. This is a format
pioneered by J.P. Guilford to represent reading in his Structure of Intellect model. As students
read the segments, they draw a line between as many words as they can in the time allotted.
Studies in the TORC-4 manual indicate that the test has high reliability and strong validity,
especially criterion-prediction validity. The five subtest are as followed and the task required by
the student:
TORC-4
Standard Score
>130
121-130
111-120
90-110
80-89
70-79
<70

Subtest Scaled Score

17-20
15-16
13-14
8-12
6-7
4-5
1-3

Classification
Very Superior
Superior
Above Average
Average
Below Average
Poor
Very Poor

In summary, formal and informal information obtained during this assessment revealed the
following. Justin's academic achievement in the areas of reading is in the Average range. The
sum of the scaled scores achieved by Justin was a 46. Although Justin did not indicated a favorite
subject, the Contextual Fluency subtest was his highest score (14), indicating a relative strength. .
Justin scored a 9 in the areas of Relational Vocabulary and Sentence Completion. Paragraph
Construction and Text Comprehension was found to be a relative weakness which was reflected
in scored a 7; however, his score still fell in the average range & thus is not an area of concern.