Uses and Abuses of the ITPA

Abstract

In the February 1978 issue, the article by Samuel A. Kirk and Winifred D. Kirk, “Uses and Abuses of the ITPA,” contains an error. The description in the legend of Figure 1 should read, “Profile A, A case of chromosomal translocation classified as trainable mentally retarded but should be classified as a child with a learning disability; Profile B, A case of general mental retardation.”

The grammatic closure subtest of the ITPA as a screening device

“…The Illinois Test of Psycholinguistic Abilities' CITPA) Grammatic Closure subtest has been correlated to academic achievement in the areas of reading, mathematics and spelling as demonstrated in the reviews of numerous studies (Sedlack and Weener, 1973;Kirk and Elkins, 1974;Newcomer and Hammill, 1975;Kirk and Kirk, 1978 Criticisms of the ITPA In addition to Kirk and Kirk's objections to its misuse, criticisms of the ITPA centered around analyses determining the construct validity and the internal structure of the test's battery of subtests (Carroll, 1972;Hare, Hammill and Bartel, 1973;Cronkhite and Penner, 1975). Sedlack and Weener (1973) reviewed twenty factor analysis studies on the ITPA and stated "the most striking feature of all the factor analytic work done on the ITPA is its inconsistency."…”

“…• " (Kirk and Kirk, 1978). As proposed by Kirk and Kirk, construct validity of the Grammatic Closure subtest was not supported.…”

“…The Illinois Test of Psycholinguistic Abilities' CITPA) Grammatic Closure subtest has been shown to correlate with academic achievement in numerous studies as reviewed by Sedlack and Weener (1973), Elkins (1974), Newcomer and, and Kirk and Kirk (1978). The subtest takes ten minutes to administer in its entirety (Arnold and Reed, 1976) A pupil shall be assessed as having a language or speech disorder which makes him or her eligible for special education and related services when he or she demonstrates difficulty understanding or using spoken language to such an extent that it adversely affects his or her educational performance and cannot be corrected without special education services ••• Not only must those students with speech and language problems be identified, but judgment as to how a student's speech or language problem will affect academic progress must be made.…”

“…Sedlack and Weener (1973) reviewed twenty factor analysis studies on the ITPA and stated "the most striking feature of all the factor analytic work done on the ITPA is its inconsistency." Newcomer and Hammill (1976) considered the factor analytic data "so remarkably disparate that they preclude the formation of accurate conclusions ••• " To these points, Kirk and Kirk (1978) agreed. Sedlack and Weener suggested that future factor-analytic work should proceed from a careful a priori theoretical framework, should use a large number of subjects from different age and ability subpopulations and should be done by those with a thorough grasp of factor-analytic procedures.…”

“…In the studies reviewed by Kirk and Kirk (1978), eleven of the ITPA subtests inconsistently correlated to reading depending on the age (six to ten years) or grade Cfirst through fourth) of the subjects, and upon the method of reading instruction used during the ten year period (1962)(1963)(1964)(1965)(1966)(1967)(1968)(1969)(1970)(1971)(1972) investigated.…”