As more states adopt minimum competency testing (MCT) programs, MCT is becoming the subject of much debate among educators and in the courts. MCT has been attacked by those who claim it discriminates against Blacks and non-English-speaking minorities. Also raised in the MCT debate is the question of educational malpractice. (RLV)

The imposition of minimum competency testing in high schools must be seen in a social and political context. Since many minority students have received an inferior education, minimum competency tests may be seen as a means of preventing these students from receiving their high school diplomas. (Author/RLV)

States that to demonstrate that a test is not biased for any given use, it is sufficient to show that it is equally valid for different groups. Although an examination of criterion-related validity can indicate bias, it is not ordinarily sufficient to indicate lack of bias, for which explorations of its construct validity regardless of use are…

Surveys the needs for effective teachers and discusses how tests meet those needs, arguing that differences in test achievement attained by minority applicants need not be attributed to genetic differences, nor should differences in test achievement necessarily be attributed to bias in the tests. (JM)

Note that judgments about the relationship of test items to actual job duties have generally been made as a single comparison, proposes a model for analyzing the accuracy of translations for each step of the process of test development for use in personnel administration, and suggests scaling procedures appropriate for the various judgments. (JM)

Presents three cases based on actual federal court litigation to illustrate the problems involved in whether to set goals or quotas in affirmative action programs, discusses how she would adjuciate them if she were the presiding judge, and examines the issues involved in an attempt to clarify the areas of disagreement in the controversies over…

The purpose of this paper is to describe a set of procedures, that, when carried out, permit the conclusion that a test is a fair measure from the standpoint of specific sub-groups within a test population. A fair test is defined as a test for which a set of data-collection procedures have been carried out and the results reported. (Author/JM)

The process of setting performance standards must be examined within the particular context in which specific approaches have been used to construct or select the criterion performance measures being utilized. (Author/RLV)

Introduces a collection of articles on accountability, testing, and academics in schools with minority group and low-income students. The articles share the common viewpoint that there have been, and will continue to be mixed effects of accountability on educational equity in schools and districts. (SM)

Reviews the judicial-legal definition of test bias as it has emerged in court litigation, asserting that while technical research studies of test bias have focused either on predictive validity or content validity, the judicial-legal concepts of test bias have attempted to focus on both these issues in a relatively non-technical manner. (JM)

The growth in the minimum competency testing movement stems not only from a concern with what students are getting from their schooling, but also from a desire to make sure that the public gets a return on its investment in education. (Author/RLV)

Achievement gaps between minority and white students may never be resolved because they are an artifact of a measurement process that uses flawed tests to assess student progress. IQ and achievement testing have always shown that socioeconomic status (SES) is critical in explaining test score variance. SES is part of the concept of cultural…

Reviews the historical background of special education as a major factor in the placement of many children with disabilities, and examines data that reveal a disproportionately large number of students in these programs are children of color. Suggestions are offered to help lead to a more equitable placement of all children in appropriate…

Critiques a collection of articles on accountability, testing, and academics in schools with minority group and low-income students, examining their polar positions and explaining that polar positions are often equally biased. Expresses concerns about the TAAS, discussing what changes are needed in the educational system and the TAAS in order for…

Suggests that the most useful discussion of accountability, testing, and educational equity should occur at the conceptual level rather than the level of conflicting individual studies. Argues that statistical debates avoid larger foundational questions about the goals of schooling in our society and emphasizes the need for research on effective…