Quantitative fairness procedures have been developed and modified by ETS staff over the past several decades. ETS has been a leader in fairness assessment, and its efforts are reviewed in this report. The first section deals with differential prediction and differential validity procedures that examine whether test scores predict a criterion, such…

This study investigated the reliability and validity of the Behavior Rating Inventory of Executive Functions-Adult Form (BRIEF-A) when used with deaf college students. The BRIEF-A was administered to 176 deaf and 184 hearing students of whom 25 deaf students and 56 hearing students self-identified as having an Attention Deficit Hyperactivity…

Most American colleges and universities require standardized entrance exams when making admissions decisions. Scores on these exams help determine if, when and where students will be allowed to pursue higher education. These scores are also used to determine eligibility for merit based financial aid. This testing persists even though half of the…

School districts and states across the Regional Educational Laboratory Mid-Atlantic Region and the country as a whole have been modifying their teacher evaluation systems to identify more effective and less effective teachers and provide better feedback to improve instructional practice. The new systems typically include components related to…

In a provocative and influential paper, Jesse Rothstein (2010) finds that standard value added models (VAMs) suggest implausible future teacher effects on past student achievement, a finding that obviously cannot be viewed as causal. This is the basis of a falsification test (the Rothstein falsification test) that appears to indicate bias in VAM…

This study used item response theory (IRT) to examine the Impulsive Behaviors Checklist for Adolescents (IBCL-A) among 6,276 (67.7% girls) Chinese secondary school students. The IBCL-A included 15 maladaptive impulsive behaviors adapted from the Revised Diagnostic Interview for Borderlines. The authors obtained the severity and discrimination…

The Air Force has long recognized the importance of selecting the most qualified officers possible. For more than 60 years, it has relied on the Air Force Officer Qualifying Test (AFOQT) as one measure of those qualifications. A variety of concerns have been raised about whether the AFOQT is biased, too expensive, or even valid for predicting…

In this article, I specify a conceptual framework for test validity research on content assessments taken by English language learners (ELLs) in U.S. schools in grades K-12. This framework is modeled after one previously delineated by Willingham et al. (1988), which was developed to guide research on students with disabilities. In this framework…

In the current investigation, the authors examined the validity of the L-r and K-r scales on the recently developed Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory-2-Restructured Form (MMPI-2-RF; Y. S. Ben-Porath & A. Tellegen, in press) in measuring underreported response bias. Three archival samples previously collected for examining MMPI-2…

Critics of standardized testing are fighting back with lawsuits and legislation. Evaluates the Educational Testing Service's business policy and how it conflicts with quality testing. Also suggests actions that can be taken by concerned parents who wish to protect their children from unfair testing practice. (Editor/RK)

Analyses of college admissions aptitude test scores of 795 applicants for admission to major Northern Israeli university were undertaken to test for age bias in the predictive validity of scholastic aptitude test scores. Subjects were put into four age groups ranging from 18 to 49 years. Results support the differential predictive validity of…

Reviews the approaches that have been used to detect cultural, content, predictive, and selection bias in mental tests. Argues that questions of bias are fundamentally questions of validity. Concludes that although much has been learned about the technical details of test bias, social policy questions remain to be resolved. (Author/GC)

Significant job-relatedness was found for a posttraining job knowledge test criterion. Content validity methods may be able to help solve the problem of criterion relevance in validation research by providing quantitative evidence of job-relatedness. (Author)

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…

Reviews the evaluation by the National Academy of Science (NAS) of the General Aptitude Test Battery (GATB), which was developed to predict the job performance of potential employees. Proposes that the NAS recommendation to correct the GATB's racial bias by "race-norming" was a political decision and not scientifically justified. (FMW)