A Critical Review of the Kaufman Assessment Battery for Children (K-ABC)

Abstract

The Kaufman Assessment Battery for Children has been extolled in the lay media as an exceptionally well designed and developed psychoeducational instrument that measures both intelligence and achievement according to a factor analytic and theoretical model. This article reviews critically some of the problems associated with the K-ABC, and addresses the imperfect match between the test and its theoretical underpinnings, K-ABC technical and design problems related to the disproportionate subtest contribution of the Simultaneous Scale to the Mental Processing Composite, the manner in which K-ABC subtest specific variance was computed and used in interpretation, problems associated with prorating, and the usefulness of the K-ABC with various exceptional populations. A closer inspection of reportedly reduced white-nonwhite Mental Processing Composite discrepancies among subjects in the standardization sample is also made and partially explained by errors in sampling and the “cumulative deficit” phenomenon.