Standardized achievement tests are one type of instrument used to determine whether students are eligible for special education. One threat to valid eligibility decisions is a poor match between tests and curricula. The contents of word identification and spelling subtests from the PIAT-R, WJ-R, K-TEA, DAB-2, and TWS-2 were compared with three reading and three spelling basal series. All reading tests showed increasingly negative bias from grades 1 to 6. The pattern for spelling was not consistent. None of the spelling tests adequately measured high frequency words. Implications of these findings for the special education process are discussed.
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