The Construct Validity of the Einstein Assessment of School-Related Skills

Abstract

The Einstein Assessment of School-Related Skills (Gottesman & Cerullo, 1988) was developed to aid professionals in the educational, medical, and health-care fields in identifying children at risk for or experiencing learning problems in grades kindergarten through 5. Their brief (7 to 10 minute) screening instrument was constructed to measure reading, arithmetic, auditory memory, language-cognition, and visual-motor abilities. The items that compose the Einstein are in many cases similar to those found in achievement tests. Therefore, the Einstein should be, in part, a measure of school achievement. However, given the processes used in its development, the Einstein should function as a more effective screening device than traditional achievement measures. This study was undertaken to determine the extent to which the Einstein is a school achievement measure and to determine whether it predicts special education placement better than traditional achievement measures. For students in grades k-3, Einstein scores were correlated with reading and mathematics tests and with teacher ratings. The scores on the Einstein and on the achievement measures were also correlated with the presence or absence of school-diagnosed learning difficulty. Results showed the Einstein to be significantly related to achievement and generally to predict learning difficulty as well as or better than the achievement measures.