These guidelines describe considerations relevant to the assessment of test takers in or across countries or regions that are linguistically or culturally diverse. The guidelines were developed by a committee of experts to help inform test developers, psychometricians, test users, and test administrators about fairness issues in support of the…

Presents a cross-cultural perspective for testing practitioners. Discusses practical cross-cultural assessment issues, including test unfairness or bias. Offers solutions to testing issues regarding diverse populations. Includes 80 citations. (Author/CRR)

Test scores reflect the unfairness of social and environmental conditions. The remedy is not the elimination of the test or alteration of skills demanded by the school, so that there will be no need for such tests, but the elimination of learning inequalities and social inequalities. (Author)

Presents, in a farewell column, some reflections on educational issues and movements concerning rainbow students, including self-esteem, story sharing, nonverbal differences, racial identification, and testing. (TB)

The monograph examines the provisions of P.L. 94-142 (the Education for All Handicapped Children Act) regarding nondiscriminatory evaluation of handicapped students. (CL)

The Children's Anxiety Scale (CAS) was examined for bias in internal consistency reliability and item content for Anglo-American and Mexican-American kindergarten students. Results suggest equal test reliability for both groups, but also indicate caution must be exercised in interpreting CAS scores of young male children. (DWH)

Recent harsh criticisms that educational and psychological tests are unfair and inadequate measures of the capabilities of minority, poverty, and other educationally alienated groups are discussed. The authors suggest that there are two main issues, the first scientific, the second ethical: (1) Is a test a valid measure of the characteristics it…

The study reviewed the formats and psychometric rationale of several alleged culture-fair tests. Advantages and disadvantages of each instrument were examined and implications for compensatory education were discussed. (Author)

This speech deals with the assumptions and approaches underlying educational assessment and suggests alternatives to standardized testing. It is proposed that the assumption that test items can be standardized is at the base of assessment problems; while there are standard mental functions which children develop, there are no standard items that…

Research bears out the assertion that the traditional tests and measures used to define achievement have incorporated societal attitudes about class, race, and gender. Cultural factors, teacher behaviors, and teacher bias can account for early differences in the reading achievement of girls and boys. Furthermore, girls' grades for English and…

The testing of many American Indian children using standardized exams (achievement, aptitude, ability, and intelligence tests) developed for the majority American society represents a case of cross-cultural testing which is likely to produce invalid results in the form of underestimation of student performance. Requirements for obtaining accurate…

Although by traditional measures of test validity, the verbal section of the Scholastic Aptitude Test (SAT) is not culture biased, it, along with the English Composition Test and the Test of Standard Written English, reinforces a narrow view of academic excellence that excludes culturally different youths. Designed to prevent admission errors, the…

Test fairness or bias may be defined in many different ways, and the existence of possible bias is difficult to demonstrate. Sociolinguistic analysis may be used to check for fairness or bias in test directions, test content specifications, or test items. Four sociolinguistic principles are held to be relevant for this task: (1) pragmatics--that…

Numerous strategies have been used throughout the years to test cultural groups. This paper grew out of the need to find and use standardized tests that would depict accurately the performance of various cultural groups in America. In order to make judgments about performance, it is wise to examine the theoretical structure from which most of the…

Focusing on one of the critical questions in the shift to new forms of assessment, researchers, policymakers, and teachers met at the 1993 Center for Research on Evaluation, Standards, and Student Testing (CRESST) to consider equity in assessment. The opening remarks of CRESST co-director Robert Linn stressed that equity is at the center of…