Two studies were conducted to assess the listening ability of 17-year-old students with particular interest in the relationship among listening ability, verbal ability, and racial/ethnic bias in the test items. The first study, a National Assessment of Educational Progress and Speech Communication Association pilot project, indicated that there…

The author reviews research on the use of standardized tests to identify bilingual handicapped children. Issues supporting and criticizing standardized measurement are considered, and the author concludes that no test approaching a reasonable level of fairness across cultural groups exists. Research on the psycholinguistic aspects of…

The 1978 edition of the Metropolitan Achievement Tests was analyzed for sex stereotyping and for the use of male, female, or neuter references and a comparison was made with the 1970 edition. There was less bias in the new edition, and there was relatively little sex stereotyping with respect to occupations, activities, and roles for females.…

This study develops a procedure for detecting items which are biased for particular ethnic groups and utilizes this procedure to evaluate the fairness of reading, mathematics, and occupational information test items for several ethnic groups. The population for each ethnic group was chosen from examinees administered the 1973 version of the…

This paper considers (1) the requirements imposed on data in order to conform to the Rasch model, (2) some common sources of departure from the model, and (3) a procedure for recognizing the occurrence of these disturbances. The specific disturbances discussed are guessing, practice, speededness, and bias. The observed characteristic curve for…

This article presents views of proponents and opponents to standardized tests, isolates the major weakness of testing--questionable validity--and offers several recommendations for the betterment of test development and use. Some major misuses of tests include the following: (a) tests are at times administered with no clear purpose; (b) test…

In an attempt to determine whether either the CEEB Mathematics Level II Examination or the mathematics portion of the PSAT is biased against students enrolled in a new mathematics curriculum (the Secondary School Mathematics Curriculum Improvement Study), three studies were conducted with the following results: (1) the Level II test was as easy…

The research investigated whether racial bias exists in the Navy Basic Test Battery (BTB), used to assign recruits to technical schools. BTB scores and school grades were obtained for approximately 105,000 whites and 2,000 blacks attending A Schools in 1969-1970. Sufficient numbers of blacks attended 24 schools for statistical analysis of their…

Companies have been accused of using tests as a means of maintaining unfair discrimination against groups which have already suffered from many forms of discrimination. It does not follow, however, that tests themselves merit condemnation. Employers who use tests do so because the information furnished by tests is valuable to them in making hiring…

Deficiences in the field of psychological testing associated with the assessment of vocational aptitudes are considered. The rationale for a new approach designed to obviate these deficiences is given. A description of the procedures which provide for implementation of the new approach and the semi-automated Performance Assessment System (PAS) is…

Several samples of Black and White students were drawn from the 1970 PSAT administration in Georgia and studied for item x race interaction on both the verbal and mathematical sections of the test. When subsamples of candidates were drawn from their respective racial groups, matched on mathematical for the study of verbal items and matched on…

The objectives of this study were to ascertain the existence of any widely held, systematic sets in response position selection (RPS) and to evaluate the potential biasing effects of such sets on multiple choice and true-false test results. It is concluded that a sudden change in the accustomed pattern of keyed response positions can shift…

Specially constructed "speeded" and "unspeeded" forms of a Reading Comprehension section of the Law School Admission Test (LSAT) were administered to regular center and fee-free center LSAT candidates in an effort to determine: (1) if the test was more speeded for fee-free candidates, and (2) if reducing the amount of…

A 30-item multiple-choice word analogy test and a corresponding 30-item picture analogy test (in which the pictures corresponded to the words in the word analogy test) were administered to 289 Civil Service employees. The equivalence of semantic (word) and figural (picture) test presentation of the same items was determined by comparing the…

School systems are perpetuating racial segregation within integrated schools through intelligence tests and special education classes. Disproportionate numbers of blacks, American Indians, Mexican Americans and Puerto Rican Americans have been placed in classes for the emotionally disturbed or mentally retarded. Suits have been brought against the…