CTOPP-2

The Phonological Awareness Composite Score (PACS) comprises the standard scores of three subtests—Elision, Blending Words, and Sound Matching—for 4- through 6-year-olds, and Elision, Blending Words, and Phoneme Isolation for 7- through 24-year-olds. The PACS represents the examinee’s awareness of and access to the phonological structure of oral language.

The Phonological Memory Composite Score (PMCS) comprises the standard scores of two subtests—Memory for Digits and Nonword Repetition—for all individuals. The PMCS represents the examinee’s ability to code information phonologically for temporary storage in working or short-term memory.

The Rapid Symbolic Naming Composite Score (RSNCS) comprises the standard scores of two subtests—Rapid Digit Naming and Rapid Letter Naming—for all individuals. The RSNCS measures the examinee’s ability to include efficient retrieval of phonological information from long-term or permanent memory and execute a sequence of operations quickly and repeatedly.

The Rapid Non-Symbolic Naming Composite Score (RNNCS) comprises the standard scores of two subtests—Rapid Color Naming and Rapid Object Naming—and offers an alternative for young children, ages 4 through 6, not familiar with letters and numbers. The RNNCS measures the examinee’s ability to efficiently retrieve phonological information from long-term or permanent memory and to execute a sequence of operations quickly and repeatedly using objects and colors.

The Alternate Phonological Awareness Composite Score (APACS), an alternate composite for measuring phonological awareness, is available for 7- through 24-year-olds. It is formed by combining the scaled scores from Blending Nonwords and Segmenting Nonwords. The APACS measures the examinee’s phonological awareness exclusively with nonwords.

The CTOPP-2 yields six types of normative scores: age equivalents, grade equivalents, percentile ranks, subtest scaled scores, composite indexes, and developmental scores. Percentile ranks are easily understood by parents and others with whom the examiner might want to share the results. Subtest scaled scores have a mean of 10 and a standard deviation of 3. The composite score indexes have a mean of 100 and a standard deviation of 15. Age and grade equivalents show the relative standing of individuals' scores. A new Rasch-based developmental score is now available for the non-speeded subtests.

Reliability

Reliability of the CTOPP-2 subtests and composites was demonstrated by average internal consistency coefficients presented for the subtests, exceeding .80 in all cases except Nonword Repetition, which had an average alpha of .77. The average internal consistency coefficients for the composites were all .85 or higher, a highly desirable level for reliability.

Validity

Validity of the CTOPP-2 subtests and composites was demonstrated by correlations to measures directly related to the constructs measured by the CTOPP-2. The average coefficients for the subtests range from .49 (moderate) to .84 (very large); those for the composites range from .65 (large) to .76 (very large) in magnitude.

All new normative data were collected in 2008 and 2009. The test was normed on 1,900 individuals ranging in age from 6 through 24 years. The demographic characteristics of the sample conform to those of the population reported in the Statistical Abstract of the United States and are representative of the U.S. population.