Identifies developing literacy abilities.
Valuable companion to TOWL-4!

• Age Range: 4.0 through 11.11 years  
• Time: 30-50 minutes

The TEWL-3 is a revision of the widely-used TEWL-2, with item prompts now in color. It includes two forms, each with a Basic Writing and Contextual Writing subtest. Items are grounded in research literature, and other evidence of developing literacy ability, including curriculum guidelines and classroom activities. 

TEWL-3 Subtests and Composites
Basic Writing– Measures understanding of language, and the ability to use the writing tools of language. Basic Writing subtests can be administered independently, or in conjunction with Contextual Writing subtest. Age-based norms for ages 4.0 through 11.11. Grade-based norms for Grades 2 through 6.70 items, scored 0, 1 or 2.

• Metalinguistic knowledge  
• Directionality  
• Organizational structure
• Awareness of letter features 
• Spelling   
• Capitalization
• Punctuation
• Proofing  
• Sentence combining
• Logical sentences

Contextual Writing– Two sets of pictures are provided, one for younger (ages 5.0 through 6.11), and one for older (7.0 through 11.11) children. Measures ability to construct a story from all new picture prompt. Age-based norms for ages 5.0 through 11.11. Grade-based norms for Grades 2-6. 20 items, scored 0 to 3.

• Story format   
• Cohesion  
• Thematic maturity
• Ideation   
• Story structure

Overall Writing– Combines the index scores from the Basic Writing and Conceptual Writing subtests.  Measures overall writing ability.  Students with high scores demonstrate strengths in:

• Composition   
• Syntax  
• Mechanics
• Fluency   
• Cohesion  
• Text structure

Reliability
For age and grade, internal consistency reliability (alpha) coefficients of all scores meet or exceed .90 for all ages, with most meeting or exceeding .95. For alternate form reliability, only 4 of 42 coefficients do not meet or exceed .90. All four are in the mid-to-high 80s. Stability reliability of all scores approximates or exceeds .90. Across all forms of reliability, the reliability of the composite index is in the mid-to-high 90s.

Validity
Extensive content validity data are presented. Using the TEWL-3 to predict scores on the Woodcock-Johnson III and the Wechsler Individual Achievement Test, second edition resulted in sensitivity indexes of .86 and .91 respectively, specificity indexes of .89 and .88 and ROC/AUC of .96 and .96.  Classification accuracy was .88 for both tests.

Construct-identification validity is presented based on correlations with age, grade, cognitive ability, achievement and group discrimination, and on the correlation of individual test iems with total test scores.

Norms
The TEWL3 norms represent more than 2,085 children from 30 states and British Columbia, Canada.  Characteristics of the normative group correspond to those for the 1990 Census data, relative to geographic region, gender, ethnicity, Hispanic status, household income, educational attainment of parents, and exceptionality status.  Data are matched to Census projections for 2010 and 2015.  Item sequence was determined by item difficulty and item discrimination.

The TEWL-3 Kit includes 10 each of the Administration/Record Books Form A and Form B, Student Workbooks Form A and Form B, 3 Picture Cards and a Manual.