The second of two documents on issues concerned with limited English speaking students in Massachusetts special education programs, this report presents proceedings from a 1982 conference. Sixteen presentations are summarized and results of participants' evaluations on six-item questionnaires are included. Topics covered in the workshop sessions…

Assessing fit of psychometric models has always been an issue of enormous interest, but there exists no unanimously agreed upon item fit diagnostic for the models. Bayesian networks, frequently used in educational assessments (see, for example, Mislevy, Almond, Yan, & Steinberg, 2001) primarily for learning about students' knowledge and…

Questions on the Scholastic Aptitude Test (SAT) with the largest score differences between women and men of all racial and ethnic groups were identified. Patterns of difficulty that would explain the SAT's continuing underprediction of female first-year college performance were studied. An item analysis of one form of the June 1986 SAT for 1,112…

This guide to improving cross-cultural communication is the second part of a four-part series addressing the essential characteristics of effective instruction that have a positive impact on the academic achievement of Black and Hispanic students. Since schools tend to reflect the norms and values of the majority culture, cultural…

The purpose of this study was to compare empirical and subjective procedures for identifying science test items which discriminate against males or females in a fifth grade population (n=926). Techniques such as the Mantel-Haenszel procedure enable test developers to use both a priori and ex post facto procedures to identify specific items that…

The Measure of Academic Talent (MAT) is a standardized measure of academic development that controls for socioeconomic status-related background characteristics (e.g., income, language in the home, etc.) for different race and sex groups. In this study, the MAT was derived from American College Testing (ACT) program assessment data, using a sample…

This study compared the different modes of evaluation at work in Greece's secondary school graduation and university admission process. The goals of the study were (1) to provide background information regarding the contribution of in-school assessment scores and external examination scores to higher education admissions decisions, and (2) to…

The standardization method of determining differential item functioning (DIF) is not acceptable for detecting biased items because of its methodological limitations. The main problems with the standardization index by N. J. Dorans and E. Kulick (1983) are: (1) it does not detect as DIF all items with large or aberrant group differences; (2) it…

Confirmatory factor analysis (LISREL VI) is the method best suited to the comparison of measurement models when those models are based on a priori assumptions. Traditionally, positive and negative item stems were mixed on affective scales to reduce response set bias since the item pairs were considered to be parallel. Recent studies indicate that…

The ability of the Medical College Admissions Test (MCAT) and undergraduate grade point average (GPA) to predict success in medical school was studied, and two complementary methods of determining if the tests are biased against ethnic groups were examined. Data from 497 majority and 82 minority medical students at the College of Human Medicine at…

Issues in preparing a review form to detect item bias in tests are discussed and the first draft of an item bias review form is presented. While stereotyping is the consistent representation of a given group in a particular light, bias is the presence of some characteristic of an item that results in differential performance of two individuals of…

The cultural bias of the Adult Performance Level Assessment, Form AA-l (APLA) was examined. The potential influence of cultural differences on scores of a major ethnic group, Acadians or Cajuns, was investigated. Assessment items most prone to produce differences in scores were isolated and administered to selected groups. No significant…

In this interview, Reverend Floyd H. Flake, member, United States House of Representatives and Founder of the Allen Christian School, discusses how the school was started, and outlines its focus, goals, and values. The school was begun because black students do not seem to perform as well when they are being taught with white students. Rev. Flake,…

The migrant lifestyle, in which a student moves to a new school nearly three times per year, destroys the continuity of educational programs and contributes to abnormally high dropout rates. Educational testing can help improve educational continuity for migrant students by yielding valuable information about their levels of skills mastery so they…

Current testing and selection practices in schools and the workplace are examined to describe the experiences of handicapped people and to determine the extent to which testing is a barrier to the full participation of handicapped people in society. The Panel on Testing of Handicapped People dealt in depth with the legal and psychometric issues…