What is the KTEA-3? The Kaufman Test of Educational Achievement explained

The KTEA-3, short for the Kaufman Test of Educational Achievement, Third Edition, is an individually administered academic achievement test published by Pearson in 2014. It measures reading, mathematics, written language, and oral language skills in people aged 4 through 25, and it is one of the standard tools school psychologists use when evaluating students for specific learning disabilities. This article explains what the KTEA-3 measures, how it is administered and scored, how it fits into learning disability evaluations, and how an achievement test differs from a reasoning test such as an IQ test.

Pearson describes the KTEA-3 as a broad measure of listening, speaking, reading, writing, and math skills. It is "norm-referenced," meaning a student's performance is compared with the performance of a large, representative sample of peers rather than judged against a fixed passing score. The publisher's sample score report lists 19 subtests, organized into six skill areas.

• Reading: Letter and Word Recognition, Nonsense Word Decoding, Reading Comprehension, and Reading Vocabulary cover everything from identifying letters to answering questions about passages.

• Reading fluency: Word Recognition Fluency, Decoding Fluency, and Silent Reading Fluency are timed tasks that measure how quickly and accurately a student reads real words, made-up words, and simple sentences.

• Mathematics: Math Concepts and Applications presents real-life problems involving number concepts, time, money, and measurement, while Math Computation and Math Fluency measure written calculation skill and speed.

• Writing: Written Expression uses a story format in which the student completes a narrative by writing letters, words, sentences, and eventually an essay. Spelling and Writing Fluency round out the writing area.

• Oral language: Listening Comprehension, Oral Expression, and Associational Fluency assess how well a student understands spoken language and expresses ideas aloud.

• Language processing: Phonological Processing measures the ability to manipulate sounds within words, and two "rapid automatized naming" tasks (Object Naming Facility and Letter Naming Facility) measure how quickly a student can name familiar objects and letters, a skill linked to reading development.

Subtests combine into composite scores. The Academic Skills Battery composite summarizes overall achievement, and it sits alongside Reading, Math, Written Language, and Oral Language composites plus supplemental composites such as Sound-Symbol, Decoding, Reading Fluency, Reading Understanding, Orthographic Processing, Comprehension, Expression, Oral Fluency, and Academic Fluency. According to Pearson, the KTEA-3 also includes norm-referenced error analysis, which lets an examiner classify the specific kinds of mistakes a student makes, and it comes in two parallel forms, A and B, so a student can be retested without seeing the same items twice.

The KTEA-3 is designed for individuals aged 4 years 0 months through 25 years 11 months, according to the publisher. A trained examiner administers it one-on-one, either in the traditional paper format or digitally through Pearson's Q-interactive system. Pearson lists the test at qualification level B, which generally means the purchaser needs graduate training in assessment or a related credential. Administration time for the Academic Skills Battery composite ranges from about 15 to 85 minutes, with younger children completing fewer and shorter subtests than older students. Examiners rarely give all 19 subtests; they select the areas relevant to the referral question.

Results are reported as "standard scores" with a mean of 100 and a standard deviation of 15, the same metric used by major IQ tests. A standard score near 100 is average for the student's age or grade, and roughly two thirds of students score between 85 and 115. The KTEA-3 also produces percentile ranks, age and grade equivalents, normal curve equivalents, stanines, and Growth Scale Values, which track a student's absolute skill growth across repeated testings. Because both age-based and grade-based norms are available, an examiner can ask whether a student is keeping pace with same-age peers or with classmates in the same grade.

Under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act, a specific learning disability is identified partly through inadequate achievement in one or more of eight areas: oral expression, listening comprehension, written expression, basic reading skill, reading fluency skills, reading comprehension, mathematics calculation, and mathematics problem solving. The federal regulation at 34 CFR 300.309 spells these out, and the KTEA-3's subtest lineup maps closely onto that list, which is a large part of why achievement batteries like this one anchor school evaluations.

The regulation allows two broad routes to identification beyond documenting low achievement. A team may consider whether the child fails to make sufficient progress under research-based intervention, an approach known as "response to intervention." Alternatively, the team may consider whether the child shows a pattern of strengths and weaknesses in performance or achievement relative to age, grade-level standards, or intellectual development. In practice, the second route means comparing KTEA-3 scores with scores from an ability measure such as the WISC. Pearson's scoring reports include achievement and ability comparisons for exactly this purpose. The older "ability-achievement discrepancy" model, which flagged a learning disability when achievement fell well below measured IQ, works the same way, though many states have moved away from relying on discrepancy alone. No responsible evaluator diagnoses a learning disability from a single score; the KTEA-3 contributes one line of evidence within a broader evaluation.

Independent researchers have also examined what the battery measures. A 2019 factor analysis published in Contemporary School Psychology by Jason Parkin and Craig Frisby described the KTEA-3 as a popular battery for assessing academic skills and found that a strong general factor runs through its subtests, along with evidence for a distinct naming-facility component.

The KTEA-3 carries the names of Alan S. Kaufman and Nadeen L. Kaufman, a husband-and-wife team who rank among the most influential figures in modern psychological testing. The Buros Center for Testing lists the KTEA-3's publication history as running from 1985, when the original K-TEA appeared, through the 2014 third edition, with Kristina Breaux joining the Kaufmans as an author of the current version. Pearson describes the KTEA-3 as the most current version of the KTEA. The Kaufman name also appears on a well-known brief ability measure, the KBIT, which screens verbal and nonverbal intelligence rather than academic skills. Together the two instruments illustrate the ability-versus-achievement division that structures most psychoeducational evaluations.

The KTEA-3's closest competitor is Pearson's own Wechsler Individual Achievement Test. Both are individually administered, norm-referenced achievement batteries scored on the mean-100 scale, both offer digital administration, and both are marketed for learning disability evaluations. The differences are practical. The current WIAT-4, published in 2020, covers ages 4 through 50, so it reaches adults well beyond the KTEA-3's ceiling of 25 years 11 months. The KTEA-3 counters with its two parallel forms, which make retesting cleaner, and its pair of rapid naming tasks. Because the WIAT was co-normed with the Wechsler intelligence scales, evaluators who use a WISC often reach for the WIAT, while the KTEA-3 remains a strong choice when parallel forms or its error-analysis system matter. In most evaluations either battery can do the job, and examiner familiarity often decides.

An achievement test and an intelligence test answer different questions. The KTEA-3 measures what a person has learned: how well they read, spell, write, and calculate after years of instruction. An intelligence test measures reasoning abilities that are far less dependent on curriculum, such as solving novel problems, holding information in mind, and seeing patterns. The two usually correlate, yet the gap between them is often where the diagnostic information lives, as the pattern-of-strengths-and-weaknesses approach shows.

For adults who want a rigorous measure of the reasoning side, the RIOT IQ test (the Reasoning and Intelligence Online Test) was developed by RIOT IQ with psychometrician Dr. Russell T. Warne for ages 18 and up. It includes 15 subtests across six cognitive indices (verbal reasoning, fluid reasoning, spatial ability, working memory, processing speed, and reaction time), takes about 52 minutes, and reports scores on the same mean-100, standard-deviation-15 scale the KTEA-3 uses. It is a measure of reasoning ability rather than school achievement, and it does not replace an individually administered diagnostic evaluation like those built around the KTEA-3. You can take it at riotiq.com.

No. The KTEA-3 measures learned academic skills such as reading, math, and writing. IQ tests measure reasoning abilities. Evaluators often administer both and compare the results.

Pearson lists 15 to 85 minutes for the Academic Skills Battery composite, depending on the student's grade level. Adding supplemental subtests lengthens the session.

Composite and subtest standard scores have a mean of 100 and a standard deviation of 15, so scores from about 85 to 115 fall in the broad average range for a student's age or grade.

They are two parallel versions of the test with different items measuring the same skills. Using the alternate form on retest reduces practice effects when progress is re-evaluated.

Pearson sells it at qualification level B, so administration is limited to professionals with graduate-level assessment training, such as school psychologists, special educators with testing credentials, and related specialists.

Norms extend through age 25 years 11 months, so it suits young adults in college or early careers. Older adults needing an achievement measure are typically given the WIAT-4, which is normed to age 50.

1. Pearson. (2014). Kaufman Test of Educational Achievement, Third Edition (KTEA-3). Pearson Assessments. pearsonassessments.com

2. Pearson. (2014). KTEA-3 parent report sample [PDF]. Pearson Clinical. pearsonclinical.asia

3. Pearson. (2020). Wechsler Individual Achievement Test, Fourth Edition (WIAT-4). Pearson Assessments. pearsonassessments.com

4. U.S. Department of Education. (2006). 34 CFR 300.309: Determining the existence of a specific learning disability. Individuals with Disabilities Education Act. sites.ed.gov

5. Buros Center for Testing. (n.d.). Kaufman Test of Educational Achievement, Third Edition [Test review listing]. University of Nebraska-Lincoln. marketplace.unl.edu

6. Parkin, J. R., & Frisby, C. L. (2019). Exploratory factor analysis of the Kaufman Test of Educational Achievement, 3rd edition. Contemporary School Psychology, 23(2), 138-151. eric.ed.gov

Hero photo: A freshly sharpened pencil, sharpener, and shavings on an open school exercise book. Photo by Angelina Litvin, via Wikimedia Commons (originally Unsplash), released under CC0.