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HAMAT: Hammill Multiability Achievement Test
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The Hammill Multiability Achievement Test (HAMAT) is one of the most content-driven achievement tests available today. The HAMAT is designed to be used
by psychologists, educational diagnosticians, counselors, and other professionals concerned with the assessment of academic achievement.
The HAMAT provides four expertly designed subtests in the areas of most
interest:
Reading, Writing, Mathematics, and Facts. The content of these
subtests was derived
from extensive, careful, and comprehensive review of curricular materials, in-depth
consultation with school personnel, and analysis
of popular group- and individually
adminstered achievement tests.
As a result, PRO-ED can now provide test users with exactly what they have
been asking
for: a quick, timely assessment of student ability that accurately reflects the content of
today’s school curriculum:
• The Reading Subtest consists of a series of carefully constructed paragraphs, based
on the cloze procedure. In the cloze procedure, words are selectively deleted from a
paragraph. The student must select one word from a group of words to best complete a sentence. Reading skills measured: reading comprehension and word knowledge.
• The Writing Subtest requires the student to write sentences from dictation, stressing correctness. Writing skills measured: spelling, punctuation, and capitalization.
• The Mathematics Subtest measures the student’s mastery of number facts and ability to complete mathematical calculations. Primary mathematic skill measured: calculation.
• The Facts Subtest requires the student to answer questions that are based on the
content of social studies, science, history, and literature curricula. Primary knowledge
measured: basic facts taught in school.
Percentiles, standard scores, and age and grade equivalents are provided. Percentiles
are easily understood by parents and others with whom the
examiner might want to
share the results. Subtests’ standard scores have
a mean of 100 and a standard deviation
of 15. The General Achievement
Quotient (GAQ) also has a mean of 100 and a standard deviation of 15. Age
and grade equivalents show the relative standing of individuals’ scores.
The HAMAT was built with the American Psychological Association’s standards
for technical adequacy clearly in mind. The test was normed on 2,901 students residing in 30 states.
The demographic characteristics of the normative sample are representative of
the U.S. population as a whole.
The sample characteristics were stratified by age and keyed to the demographic
characteristics reported in the 1997 Statistical Abstract of the United States. Reliability
of the HAMAT was investigated using estimates of content sampling, time sampling,
and scorer differences. Internal consistency reliability coefficients (content sampling)
all exceed or round to .90. Time sampling was investigated using the test¬retest technique. Test¬retest coefficients range from .83 to .94 for the subtests; the composite exceeds .94.
The magnitude of the coefficients reported from all the reliability studies suggests that
there is little error in the HAMAT and the examiners can have confidence in
the results.
Extensive evidence of the validity of HAMAT test scores is provided for content-description
validity, criterion-prediction validity, and construct-identification
validity.
Most states require examiners to compute discrepancy scores between IQ and some achievement score as part of the process used to qualify individuals for services within
the classification of Learning Disability. Because most states
require the use of three
methods to test the degree of underachievement, the HAMAT manual presents all methods
used for calculating discrepancy scores.
That means discrepancy scores can be calculated
to make comparisons between HAMAT scores and the scores from virtually all of the popular tests of cognitive aptitude. In addition, the HAMAT was linked (co-normed) with the Hammill Multiability Intelligence Test (HAMIT) to allow examiners to compute regression based discrepancy scores.
Complete HAMAT Kit includes: Examiner’s Manual, 25 Form A Student Response Booklets,
25 Form B Student Response Booklets, 25 Form A Profile/Examiner Record Forms, and
25 Form B Profile/Examiner Record Forms, all in a sturdy storage box. (©1998)
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