Educational uses of tests with disadvantaged students.

Abstract

Presents a report, written in response to a manifesto by the Black Psychological Association asking for a moratorium on the use of psychological tests with students from disadvantaged backgrounds, which attempts to clarify the nature of psychometric tests, their uses, and their abuses, and propose some alternatives for standardized assessments. Possible causes for Blacks' lower performances on verbal and nonverbal intelligence tests are considered in relation to social attitudes. It is noted that test use makes no causal assumptions about the effects of heredity or environment. Other topics in the report include (a) a comprehensive definition of abilities, particularly general intelligence; (b) some common classes of misuse and misinterpretation; (c) an account of the kinds of statistical information needed to use a test effectively; and (d) a discussion of existing alternatives to ability tests. The need for more diagnostic and mastery tests, tests which measure important qualities other than intelligence, more regression comparisons and normative data, and more adequate studies of moderator variables is examined. (34 ref)

Assessing predictive test bias with the microcomputer

“…Peterson and Novick (1976), after reviewing a number of test-bias models, proposed a regression-based approach as the most viable method for assessing selection fairness within the predictive domain. Their suggestion was concordant with the recommendation offered by Cleary et al (1975) that components of predictive test fairness are "directly translatable into regression statistics" (p. 25). While not without some debate (Thorndike, 1971), a regression-based approach for analyzing psychological test bias is being cited with increasing frequency in the testing literature (Bossard, Reynolds, & Gutkin, 1980;Reschley & Sabers, 1979;Reynolds & Hartlage, 1979).…”

“…The significance of this issue has been demonstrated by the appointment of an American Psychological Association committee to investigate the use of standardized testing with disadvantaged students (Cleary, Humphreys, Kendrick, & Wesman, 1975), by a federal mandate prohibiting the use of "biased" methods of assessment (The Education for All Handicapped Children Act of 1975, Note 1), and most recently by litigation relative to the use of intelligence tests to place minority school children in special education classes (Larry P. et al vs. Wilson Riles et al,Note 2). Peterson and Novick (1976), after reviewing a number of test-bias models, proposed a regression-based approach as the most viable method for assessing selection fairness within the predictive domain.…”

Differential impairment as an indicator of sex bias in DSM-IV criteria for four personality disorders.

“…Morey et al (2002) also provided some preliminary data on criterion sex bias by using a technique that draws on an established literature on bias in educational and intelligence testing. In an approach pioneered by Cleary, Humphreys, Kendrick, and Wesman (1975), a regression model is applied in which a test or indicator variable serves as the predictor variable, and the score on some important "gold standard" serves as the variable to be predicted. In this model, an indicator can be considered fair or unbiased for both groups only if the regression lines are the same for the groups in question.…”

The Use and Interpretation of the Batería III With U.S. Bilinguals

“…Much of the research on IQ test bias reports that IQ tests are not biased (Cleary, Humphreys, Kendrick, & Wesman, 1975;Jensen, 1982;Reynolds, 1982) because they predict who will be successful in an American classroom "as well, if not better, for ethnic students as for Anglo students" (Valdes & Figueroa, 1994, p. 153). Valdes and Figureoa (1994), however, asserted that bias has not been found in IQ tests because of inappropriate research procedures which examined the predictive power of a test across racial/ethnic and socioeconomic groups.…”