Predicting First-Grade Reading Achievement

The purpose of this study was to determine the best combination of tests or subtests in a research battery which, when administered to beginning first-grade students, would enable the most efficient prediction of reading achievement. One thousand fifty-two children were randomly selected from all first-grade classrooms within the state of Missouri. The research battery consisted of: the Cognitive Abilities Tests; the Developmental Test of Visual-Motor Integration; the Pre-Reading Screening Procedures; the Stanford Early School Achievement Test; the Alphabet and Numbers subtest of the Metropolitan Readiness Tests; the Boehm Test of Basic Concepts; and the Behavior Rating Scale. The criterion measure used was the Gates-MacGinitie Reading Tests. The findings of this study led to the following conclusions: 1) the ability to recognize upper-and lower-case letters and beginning sounds was the best single predictor of reading achievement; 2) measured intelligence, when compared statistically to the other variables in the study, was the second best predictor of reading achievement; and 3) classroom teachers are able to assist in the prediction of their students' end-of-year reading achievement through the use of the Behavior Rating Scale.