The current study examines the views of experts in the science of mental abilities about the primacy and uniqueness of "g" and the social implications of ability testing, and compares their responses to the views of a group of non-expert psychologists. Results indicate expert consensus that "g" is an important, non-trivial determinant (or at least…

The realistic competency and activity scales of the Self-Directed Search were revised to learn if women's scores on these scales could be increased without reducing their concurrent and construct validity for men and women. Results indicate the revisions increase women's realistic scores, but fail to affect their high point codes. (Author)

The Vocational Preference Inventory responses from 290 subjects were subjected to a Rasch item analysis, one of a class of latent trait models. After elimination of 22 items which did not fit the model, a sex-free form of the VPI was obtained. (Author)

The use of placement tests can discriminate against people with linguistic styles differing from the population used to norm the test, resulting in significantly lessening both achievement and expectations for many people. (EH)

The transcript of a six-part National Public Radio broadcast on standardized testing is presented. The first part focuses on the reasons tests are administered; these reasons are discussed by proponents and opponents of testing. Part Two contains a discussion of the possible bias of tests, and their validity. The third part discusses the…

Differential test performance by undergraduate males and females enrolled in a developmental educational psychology course (n=167) was reported on a quantitative examination as a function of item arrangement. Males were expected to perform better than females on tests whose items arranged easy to hard. Plake and Ansorge (1982) speculated this may…

The literature on item bias, i.e., the question of whether some items in tests favor one cultural group over another cultural group due to irrelevant factors, is reviewed and evaluated. All known references through 1981 are described including a large number of unpublished reports. Each method is described and the criticisms that have appeared in…

State wide, nation-wide, and international tests of students' knowledge hinder the creative talents of students by forcing homogeneity instead of variety in curriculum and teaching. (DE)

The implications of standardized testing for minority students are explored. Test terminology is described in terms of objectivity, standardization, reliability, and validity. Primarily, however, the paper reviews the objectivity of standardized testing, that is, of those tests which are either norm-referenced or criterion-referenced. The use of…

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 paper considers the controversies of standardized tests and group differences as they relate to the formation of public policy. The overlapping or confounding issues of standardized tests and group differences have long since become matters of public policy. Neither separately nor jointly can the issues be resolved within the confines of…

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)

The validity of the Kinesthetic Aftereffect (KAE) as a measure of personality has been criticized because of KAE's poor test-retest reliability. However, systematic bias effects render KA E retest sessions invalid and make test-retest reliability an inappropriate measure of KAE's true reliability. (Author/CTM)

The purpose of this article is to demonstrate that commonly used standardized intelligence scales are free from the alleged inherent flaws that presumably result in discriminatory assessment. It is concluded that psychologists have succeeded in developing non-discriminatory scales for assessing IQ to a greater extent than is popularly believed.…

In the study which involved 618 normal and 2,821 hearing impaired students using 13 subtests of the 1964 Standard Achievement Test, Intermediate I Battery, 26 items were identified as biased against hearing-impaired examinees. (Author/SBH)