Validation of a screening to identify difficulties in math and literacy learning in first grade students of primary school using the WISC-IV test

Education, being a universal right, is a concern of international organizations, which propose policies that allow expanding coverage and guaranteeing the quality of education. In Colombia, the Ministry of Education has standards that guide what must be met in each school grade, however, if a student lacks skills such as abstract reasoning, visual spatial perception, attention or fine motor skills, their learning process will be affected and with it the fulfillment of these standards. In this context, a screening protocol was developed to identify learning difficulties in children who enter the school world, and the objective of the work was to validate the protocol using the evidence of validity referred to the criterion with samples required from three schools with different performance in the Saber tests of the city of Bogotá. In this sense, the percentile results were compared between the tests that make up the screening and a gold standard, for this case it is the Wechsler Intelligence Scale for children-IV (WISC-IV, for its acronym in English), related to the measured processes and the learning process, which also makes it possible to identify difficulties in the processes considered necessary for good mathematical learning and literacy (transversal to all areas of knowledge and educational degrees). In addition to this, the regression equation and the sensitivity and specificity of the Screening were proposed, finding significant correlations between the tests of the Screening protocol and the gold standard (WISC-IV), in addition to high sensitivity and specificity.