Colleges and universities have become increasingly concerned that requiring standardized test scores for admission is an impediment to campus diversity, and these objections have grown with the recent focus on societal inequities. In addition, the pandemic led to the cancellation of test administrations, which, in turn, caused many institutions to…

Over the past several years, content experts, psychometricians, and researchers have been hard at work developing, refining, and studying the digital SAT. The work is grounded in foundational best practices and advances in measurement and assessment design, with fairness for students informing all of the work done. This paper shares learnings from…

This update to "SAT Wars" provides new evidence in the case against standardized college entry tests, including the experiences of test-optional colleges. "The Scandal of Standardized Tests" sheds significant light on key problems such as: (1) Are the tests stronger proxies for race and family income today than they were 20…

This is the College Board's response to a research article by Drs. Maria Veronica Santelices and Mark Wilson in the Harvard Educational Review, entitled "Unfair Treatment? The Case of Freedle, the SAT, and the Standardization Approach to Differential Item Functioning" (see EJ930622).

There is an abundance of research that examines the social-psychological phenomenon called stereotype threat. There is not, however, a conclusive understanding of the processes and mechanisms that operate within stereotype threat that produce reduced performance in a negative stereotype relevant area. This dissertation proposes that there are…

A theoretically based, culture-fair test of new learning ability is predictive of academic achievement. A sample of 633 adults, 121 of minority status, drawn from urban private universities, colleges, and community colleges were given information as to the meanings of previously unknown words, sayings, similarities, and analogies. They were also…

The purpose of the study is to examine the differential validity and prediction of the SAT using a nationally representative sample of first-year college students admitted with the revised version of the SAT. The findings demonstrate that there are similar patterns of differential validity and prediction by gender, race/ethnicity, and best…

Since 1973, the types of questions used on the Scholastic Aptitude Test have been periodically appraised for their appropriateness for different groups. The procedures used in the test development process to ensure appropriateness and approaches used in the statistical analysis to evaluate test fairness are described. (MLW)

This is the College Board's response to Roy O. Freedle's article in the Harvard Educational Review, entitled "Correcting the SAT's Ethnic and Social Class Bias: A Method for Reestimating SAT Scores." It is the authors' view that Freedle has presented no argument that would justify removing or de-emphasizing a critical college success…

The Puerto Rico Office of the College Board is seen as no longer an "experiment" in the Caribbean, but an essential part of the educational community. A Spanish SAT has been established and proven valid as a predictor of academic performance in Puerto Rico and other Latin American countries. (MLW)

The idea that validity should be considered a property of inferences, rather than of assessments, has developed slowly over the past century. In early writings about the validity of educational assessments, validity was defined as a property of an assessment. The most common definition was that an assessment was valid to the extent that it…

FOR THIS RESEARCH, A TEST WAS SAID TO BE BIASED FOR MEMBERS OF A SUBGROUP OF THE POPULATION IF, IN THE PREDICTION OF A CRITERION FOR WHICH THE TEST WAS DESIGNED, CONSISTENT NONZERO ERRORS OF PREDICTION ARE MADE FOR MEMBERS OF THE SUBGROUP. SAMPLES OF NEGRO AND WHITE STUDENTS FROM THREE INTEGRATED COLLEGES WERE STUDIED. IN THE TWO EASTERN COLLEGES,…

A brief introduction to the topic of gender bias and fairness in testing is provided. A test is biased if men and women with the same ability levels tend to obtain different scores. The conditions under which a test is administered, the wording of individual test items, and a student's attitude toward the test can affect test results. While gender…

Two reforms are suggested as ways to improve standardized testing. They are Truth-in-Testing legislation and the Golden Rule bias reduction principle. Test publishers, state departments of education, and colleges who administer tests are often reluctant to provide statistical data on test results. It is also difficult for researchers to see test…

I see much to be pleased with in Dorans' interesting response to my article, "Correcting the SAT's Ethnic and Social-Class Bias: A Method for Reestimating SAT Scores." However, I need to deal with several unstated assumptions and errors that underlie his presentation. In the process of enumerating his covert assumptions, I will take up…