PPVT-III cited for African American fairness; new ease of test administration and scoring

Two articles about the Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test-Third Edition (PPVT-III) have favorably noted the differences between it and predecessor PPVT-R.

Among these changes are PPVT-III’s increased fairness in measuring at-risk preschoolers from African American families and the new ease of administration and scoring.

Culturally appropriate

Julie A. Washington and Holly K. Craig published a PPVT-III performance study of African American children from Detroit, Mich., in the January 1999 issue of Language, Speech, and Hearing in Schools.

The authors assessed PPVT-III because their prior study of PPVT-R suggested outcomes that were "racially or economically biased."

African American PPVT-R student scores "... significantly skewed toward the low tail of the standard normal distribution."

Methodology

To test PPVT-III, fifty-five African American male and female subjects ages 3-9 through 4-7 were included in the final reported sample.

All were classified at-risk due to family incomes below the poverty line or social factors such as family density, single-parent household, or family histories.

Each was individually administered Form IIIB (randomly chosen) in a quiet room according to published guidelines. The results were scored in standard fashion.

Results

Washington and Craig’s new study found, "The mean standard score achieved for the typically developing children was 91, with a standard deviation of 11."

"Our earlier findings for the PPVT-R indicated that the results were significantly skewed when they were administered to a population of at-risk kindergartners and preschoolers."

"In contrast, the distribution of PPVT-III scores in this investigation resulted in a nonsignificant difference from the standard normal distribution."

PPVT-III’s cultural changes

The authors compared their respective PPVT-III and PPVT-R study results. Here are their principal findings.

• "The reported changes in construction of the PPVT-III had a significant, positive impact on the appropriateness of this test for assessment of receptive vocabulary with this urban, at-risk sample of African American preschoolers."
• "... these results suggest that the PPVT-III should be informative as part of a language assessment for characterizing receptive vocabulary skills of African American children."
• "... test construction issues that were identified as shortcomings for the PPVT-R, including item analysis and the elimination of items based on performance differences by race, appear to have overcome many of the shortcomings that were reported for earlier versions of this instrument."
• "The correlation between the language measures and PPVT-III seemingly underscores the success of PPVT-III in appropriately assessing the language abilities of the African American children in this investigation."
• "The results of this investigation suggest that differences in performance can be expected based on caregiver education and that PPVT-III is sensitive enough to detect those differences."

Easier administration

Reviewer Jonathan Campbell (1998) found PPVT-III "… much easier to administer than the PPVT-R due to (a) simpler basal and ceiling rules, and (b) improved organization of test protocols." "Administration forms are well organized, the directions are simple, and the basal and ceiling rule reminders appear at the top of each protocol page."

His review praised PPVT-III’s improved reliability, new norms, and the reordering of items within each of the seventeen sets.

In this edition, the three easiest items are placed first, the six most difficult are randomly placed in the middle, and three relatively easy ones conclude each item set.

This arrangement allows a subject to begin and end each set with some success.

Simpler scoring

Also, forms are better organized for easy scoring. The comprehensive Examiner’s Manual provides step-by-step instructions for raw score conversions to standard scores, examples of form scoring, scoring exercises, and tips on calculating confidence intervals.

References

Washington, J. & Craig, H. (1999). Performances of At-Risk, African American Preschoolers on the Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test-III. Language, Speech, and Hearing Services in Schools, 30, 75–82.
Campbell, J. (1998). Test Reviews. Journal of Psychoeducational Assessment, 16, 334–338.