HAMAT: Hammill Multiability Achievement Test

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Ages: 7-0 through 17-11
Testing Time: 30 to 60 minutes
Administration: Individual

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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:

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• 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.

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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 testretest technique. Testretest 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.

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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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