Background: It is now widely known that children with severe intellectual disability show a 'floor effect' on the Wechsler scales. This effect emerges because the practice of transforming raw scores into scaled scores eliminates any variability present in participants with low intellectual ability and because intelligence quotient (IQ) scores are…

Despite the fact that disability has been recognized as "a natural part of the human experience" (Developmental Disabilities Assistance and Bill of Rights Act of 2000) and that the Education for All Handicapped Children Act of 1975 and its later reauthorizations as the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) should have served…

Background: Previous research with earlier versions of the WISC and WAIS has demonstrated that when administered to people who have intellectual disabilities, the WAIS produced higher IQ scores than the WISC. The aim of this study was to examine whether these differences still exist. A comparison of the Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale-Third…

Administered the WISC and WISC-R to 20 White children and compared their differences in a counterbalanced design to equivalent data obtained from Black children. For the White subjects, no differences were found between WISC and WISC-R measures. Black children scored significantly lower on the WISC-R on all three IQ measures. (Author)

Test bias research with Native American participants is uncommon, although individual tests of intelligence are often used with Native American students to determine eligibility for special education services. Only two studies with minimally adequate sample sizes have addressed the structural validity of major tests of intelligence in Native…

Administered the WISC and the WISC-R in a counterbalanced design to 20 Hispanic children. Revealed the WISC-R to be as culturally biased as the WISC and that more Hispanic children may be labeled as mentally deficient. Suggested that verbal IQ reflects the extent of acculturation, while Performance IQ reflects actual ability. (Author)

A study was conducted to ascertain whether use of an interpreter and/or a regular examiner in administering the WISC would affect test results of a group of Mexican-American children. Spanish administration of some scales of the performance test are likely to elicit optimum performance. (Author)

A factor analysis was conducted for a sample of 200 white and Hispanic children (ages 6-11) using the Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children-Revised. Results indicated that the two-factor solution was similar for the two groups, but there were notable differences for the three-factor solution, relative measures of "g," and subtest…

Examined cultural bias of the Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children-Revised (WISC-R) for Anglo-American, Black, and Mexican American children. Minority children responded in the same way as Anglo-American children. No clear pattern to items on the test that were more difficult for minority children appeared. The WISC-R appears to be nonbiased.…

Findings indicated that the judges were not able to determine accurately which items were more difficult for minority students and that there was no significant difference in accuracy between judges of the different ethnic backgrounds. (Author)

Seeking to compare the original Wechler Intelligence Scale (WISC) with its revised version, the WISC-R, this study compared WISC-R scores of 50 Black children with their WISC scores taken two years previously. Mean scores on the WISC-R were lower on the Verbal Scale, Performance Scale, and Full Scale. (DS)

WISC-III scores of 233 students (ages 9 to 13) with mental retardation were examined. Boys had higher Full Scale, Verbal, and Performance IQs than did girls. Boys also had higher scores on six of the 10 subtests. In addition, all of the statistically significant differences were in favor of boys. (Author/CR)

Several items from the Information and Comprehension subtests of the Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children were cited by Judge Grady in his opinion in the PASE (Parents in Action in Special Education) case as being culturally biased against Black children. Error analysis showed no significant "cultural" differences between White and…

Criteria were developed to assess sexual and racial item content bias for every item from six IQ tests. Each reference was judged as either stereotyped or not sterotyped. This analysis pointed out an overwhelming sexual and racial imbalance in item content. (Author/RL)

The predictive relationship between the WISC-R and the PIAT and WRAT scores of 125 Mexican-Americans and 125 non-minority students (K-8) was analyzed using four methods. Conventional methods were found to be insensitive to and inappropriate for the detection of predictive bias. An alternative means of detecting predictive bias is proposed.…