TESTS BUILT FROM PIAGET'S AND GESELL'S TASKS AS PREDICTORS OF FIRST-GRADE ACHIEVEMENT

Abstract

KAUFMAN, ALAN S., and KAUFMAN, NADEEN L. Tests Built from Piaget's and Gesell's Tasks as Predictors of First-Grade Achievement. CHILD DEVELOPMENT, 1972, 43, 521-535. 80 children who were tested in kindergarten on the Gesell School Readiness Tests, a battery built from Piaget's tasks and the Lorge-Thorndike Intelligence Tests, were given the Stanford Achievement Test at the end of first grade. The tests were found to be excellent predictors of achievement: the Piaget and Gesell batteries each correlated .64 with SAT Composite; Lorge-Thorndike MA correlated .58. A measure of kindergarten teething level proved to be a poor predictor of achievement. The results offer empirical support to Ilg and Ames's claim that the Gesell battery is an excellent predictor of school readiness.