What is the Woodcock Johnson Tests of Cognitive Abilities?
The Woodcock Johnson Tests of Cognitive Abilities are IQ tests devised by Woodcock and Johnson in the late 1970’s. The Woodcock Johnson Tests were revised most recently in 2014 and this latest version is commonly called the WJ IV test. The Woodcock Johnson Tests of Cognitive Abilities can be given to children from the age of 2 through adulthood. The Woodcock Johnson tests cover a wide range of cognitive skills.
The Woodcock Johnson III and Woodcock Johnson IV Tests of Achievement are 22-section achievement tests, which assess both academic achievement (what children have learned in school) and cognitive development. They are sometimes paired with an intelligence test to qualify children for gifted and talented programs.
The Woodcock Johnson IV test, or Woodcock Johnson Fourth Edition, was recently released as the newest and most recent version of the Woodcock Johnson test. The Fourth Edition serves to replace the Woodcock Johnson III, or Third Edition. This older version was used for some time until replaced by this newest version.
Historically, the Woodcock Johnson test has been used for a broad range of ages from young children to elderly individuals. For kids, the test is often used to determine whether they are eligible for entry into a gifted or advanced program. As a result, doing well on the test can be important for the child’s educational future.
The Woodcock Johnson Tests of Cognitive Abilities contain the greatest breadth of cognitive abilities of any standardized body of tests. These tests help to identify learning problems. It helps to measure aspects of seven different broad CHC abilities (Cattell–Horn–Carroll theory, commonly abbreviated to CHC, is a prominent psychological theory on the structure of human cognitive abilities). Finally, it offers a new Gf-Gc Composite [This measures intellectual level (or intellectual development) from Fluid Reasoning (Gf) and Comprehension-Knowledge (Gc) tests alone] for comparison with other cognitive abilities, oral language, and achievement.
Understanding relative strengths and weaknesses in comparison to the Gf-Gc Composite can lead to individualized instruction designed to target identified learning needs. The examiners can use the Cognitive Abilities tests alone, but if combined with the Oral and Achievement tests, it will increase diagnostic capability and sensitivity, providing greater insight into your child’s abilities and needs.
When students are given the Woodcock Johnson Tests of Achievement, the examiner may administer the Standard Battery questions or the Extended Battery, depending on what the school district requires. Subtests in the Extended Battery are often given if the district wants to evaluate a child’s reading, math, writing, language or other skills. The test also contains new domain-specific scholastic aptitude CLUSTERS that allow for efficient and valid predictions of academic achievement, providing even more feedback for specific help that can be given for your child. The tests of achievement help compare your child’s levels of achievement to academic knowledge.
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Skill Assessment
The skills tested on the Woodcock Johnson Tests of Cognitive Abilities are:
- Comprehension-Knowledge
- Long-Term Retrieval
- Visual-Spatial Thinking
- Auditory Processing
- Fluid Reasoning
- Processing Speed
- Short-Term Memory
- Quantitative Knowledge
- Reading-Writing Ability
Breakdown for Woodcock Johnson
The following tests are included in the Woodcock Johnson IV Tests of Achievement Standard Battery:
- Test 1: Letter-Word Identification
- Test 2: Applied Problems
- Test 3: Spelling
- Test 4: Passage Comprehension
- Test 5: Calculation
- Test 6: Writing Samples
- Test 7: Word Attack
- Test 8: Oral Reading – NEW
- Test 9: Sentence Reading Fluency
- Test 10: Math Facts Fluency
- Test 11: Writing Fluency
The following tests are included in the Woodcock Johnson IV Tests of Achievement Extended Battery:
- Test 12: Reading Recall – NEW
- Test 13: Number Matrices- NEW
- Test 14: Editing
- Test 15: Word Reading Fluency – NEW
- Test 16: Spelling of Sounds
- Test 17: Reading Vocabulary
- Test 18: Science
- Test 19: Social Studies
- Test 20: Humanities
The following tests are included in the Woodcock Johnson IV Tests of Achievement CLUSTERS:
- Brief Achievement
- Reading
- Written Language
- Reading Fluency
- Reading Rate
- Mathematics
- Math Problem Solving
- Reading Comprehension Extended
- Reading Comprehension
- Broad Reading
- Basic Reading
- Broad Achievement
- Broad Mathematics
- Math Calculation Skills
- Broad Written Language
- Basic Writing Skills
- Written Expression
- Academic Skills
- Academic Applications
- Academic Fluency
- Academic Knowledge
- Phoneme – Grapheme Knowledge
The following tests are included in the Woodcock Johnson IV Tests of Oral Language Standard Battery:
- Test 1: Picture Vocabulary
- Test 2: Oral Comprehension
- Test 3: Segmentation –NEW
- Test 4: Rapid Picture Naming
- Test 5: Sentence Repetition
- Test 6: Understanding Directions
- Test 7: Sound Blending
- Test 8: Retrieval Fluency
- Test 9: Sound Awareness
The following tests are included in the Woodcock Johnson IV Tests of Oral Language CLUSTERS:
- Listening Comprehension (Spanish) –NEW
- Broad Oral Language (Spanish) –NEW
- Oral Language (Spanish) –NEW
- Speed of Lexical Access –NEW
- Phonetic Coding –NEW
- Vocabulary* –NEW
- Oral Language
- Broad Oral Language
- Oral Expression
- Listening Comprehension
* Obtained when used with the WJ IV Tests of Cognitive Abilities
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