The definition of test bias--the inventory of the ways in which the term is used--has many widely disparate aspects frequently stemming from entirely different universes of discourse. This article attempts a review of the status of each of these. (Author)

The concepts of language proficiency, limited language proficiency, and comparably limited language proficiency are examined. Studies critical of the instruments used for making assessments according to these concepts are reviewed. The effects of these concepts on proposed legislation involving bilingual education are discussed. It is suggested…

Two problems in the investigation of predictive bias in tests, the effect of unreliability of the predictors, and the effect of excluding a predictor from the regression equation on which there are preexisting group differences, are discussed. (Author)

Contained in this packet on standardized tests and testing in English is a miscellany of materials written by students, teachers, researchers, test makers, and others about the uses, abuses, and misuses of standardized tests. The materials are not intended to be a definitive study of the standardized test in English but rather to provoke…

The place of testing in education is discussed. It is concluded that tests should be used as the supplements they are intended to be, and they should be used after thorough examination of their suitability has been made by test and education experts. (Author)

Retired vice-president of Educational Testing Service asserts that chances for tests being misused are greater than ever. Speech delivered at ETS's Invitational Conference on Testing Problems on October 28, 1972, in New York, New York. (DS)

Fairness or unfairness may be an attribute of a test per se, or of its use, or of its statistical treatment. An hypothetical situation designed to be intrinsically fair and unbiased is used to show that analysis of covariance as a statistical method may introduce bias to the treatment of test scores. In contrast, equipercentile equating methods…

A list of nine recommendations is put forth with regard to standardized achievement tests. Its rationale is based on the need for fair and effective assessment processes that can be used for diagnosing and prescribing for the needs of individual children. (Author/AM)

Arguing that most standardized tests are biased against minorities, especially black Americans, several alternatives and guidelines are suggested to alter the present unfair administration, interpretation, and testing process. (EH)

These guidelines deal specifically with the context in which the measurement of interests occurs and the interpretive materials which are made available to test users. They are classified and discussed in three categories: guidelines intended to inform the test user of possible factors influencing a sex-biased response on interest inventories;…

An indictment of the ways in which reading and mathematics standardized tests affect classroom curricula. (Author)

The author of "The Tyranny of Testing" discusses his objections to standardized testing. (IRT)

In June 1995, the Scottish Council for Research in Education began a 5-month study of the Standard Entrance Examination (SET) to the police in Scotland. The first phase was an analysis of existing recruitment and selection statistics from the eight Scottish police forces. Phase Two was a study of two police forces using a case study methodology.…

IQ tests are used to judge the mental capacities of black Americans, a fact which places a tremendous ethical responsibility on those involved in IQ test research and administration: most IQ test developers and administrators have abrogated this responsibility. (Author/JM)

Issues emerging from a look at student achievement, which is defined in its usual school context as achievement on standardized tests, are addressed. A mythology about standardized testing has developed, in part because the metaphoric languages of medicine and business have been applied to education, defining it in terms of cure, efficiency, and…