This article proposes that sampling design effects have potentially huge unrecognized impacts on the results reported by large-scale district and state assessments in the United States. When design effects are unrecognized and unaccounted for they lead to underestimating the sampling error in item and test statistics. Underestimating the sampling…

The development of procedures by which test publishers can screen individual purchasers to minimize the possibility of test misuse is described. The Test User Qualifications Working Group (TUQWoG), an outgrowth of the Joint Committee on Testing Practices, was formed to address the prevention of test misuse through improved methods of screening…

Examined the effects of race of examiner and level of mistrust of Whites on the Stanford-Binet performance of 105 Black elementary school children. The Black examiner-high mistrust group scored significantly higher than the White examiner-high mistrust group, and significantly higher than the Black examiner-low mistrust group. (WAS)

Reports the results of a study in which two groups of university students completed the Attitude toward Disabled Persons scale. Results indicate that scores were affected significantly between the groups when participants were exposed to disabled as opposed to able-bodied experimenters. (Author)

Examined whether scoring of Stanford-Binet test items might be influenced by the examiner's prior knowledge of subjects' ethnicity and IQ. Stanford-Binet protocols (N=36) of subjects from five to eight years old were divided into four groups and assigned four groups of examiners. Results suggested no bias. (Author/JAC)

Studied the effects of experience in administration and scoring of the Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children (Revised) on types of examiner errors. Results showed total score and administrative error rates dropped significantly with experience and feedback, but response scoring errors, mathematical errors, and IQ errors were not reduced…

Higher WISC-R scores were achieved by high school students receiving positive nonverbal treatment than by those receiving neutral nonverbal treatment. (Author/RL)

The special educator must be aware of possible sources of error in assessment of children with learning problems. Sources of error can be attributed to unconscious examiner bias, ambiguous test responses, linguistic and cultural differences of the examiner and examinee, previous test-taking experience, and problems with test reliability and…

Tested parochial school students with an examiner who wore a moderately proportioned gold cross, a gold Star of David, or no symbol. Results indicated scores varied as a function of the presence and type of symbol that was displayed. Discusses implications for practioners. (Author/JAC)

The paper states that quantification is neither ethical nor unethical, but is ethically neutral. It is the behavior or intent of the human being that is clearly a matter of ethical concern. Like numerology and the sects of inumerates and qualitatives, there is not so much an unethical practice that is supported as there is a lack of vision and…

Despite research conducted on the testing of minorities, little attention has been given to the issue of the race and training of the test administrator, i.e., the psychometrist or school psychologist. Black children in the present educational system are most often faced with examiners who are culturally, socially, and economically different from…

The scoring scheme of the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) is studied, as well as techniques for estimating its reliability. NAEP data are collected on students of age 13 in the fall, age 9 in the winter, and age 17 in the spring. The scoring task, involving hand scoring of open-ended items, may vary between 25,000 responses to…

Prior research indicates that language-handicapped children obtain higher test scores when tested by personally familiar examiners than when tested by personally unfamiliar examiners. The present investigation inquired whether this finding is due to examinees' actual differential performance across the two examiner conditions, or whether it is the…

The sensitivity of the Torrance Tests of Creative Thinking with regard to an experimenter-induced response set was investigated. One hundred and ninety-eight subjects were divided into four groups. Before performing the Unusual Uses Activity (Verbal Form A), each group was given a unique set of instructions. Group I received standard instructions…

Recent empirical evidence for the influence of examiner's race on examinee's performance on intelligence tests is reviewed. The current literature, 1966 through 1980, offers little support for the hypothesis that examiner's race has a systematic effect on examinee's performance on intelligence tests. Conceptual and methodological issues are…