A case study of the Florida Teacher Certification Examination (FTCE) program was described to assist others launching the development of large scale item banks. FTCE has four subtests: Mathematics, Reading, Writing, and Professional Education. Rasch calibrated item banks have been developed for all subtests except Writing. The methods used to…

The Medical College Admission Test (MCAT) was examined for sex bias. Data for student samples from two midwestern state-supported medical schools were analyzed. The criteria included average course grades in each of the first two years of medical school. Tests comparing various regression models based on male and female subgroups generally failed…

The average College Board Scholastic Aptitude Test (SAT) scores for women have declined more than the scores for men. Recent evidence concerning the academic performance of men and women was studied by examining sex differences among all SAT takers, test takers grouped by anticipated major field of study, and college freshman year courses and…

The Australian Scholastic Test (ASAT) was first used as a moderating device in the Australian Capitol Territory in 1977. Differences have been observed in the average performance of males and females on the test. The study reported in this monograph investigated the nature and origin of the score differences recorded for ASAT The research focused…

The CIRCO project is a large scale effort to design a series of diagnostic instruments, based on the CIRCUS tests, for Spanish-speaking children in preschool, kindergarten, and first grade classrooms in the United States. The goal is to develop measures with the following characteristics: (1) is suitable for use with Spanish-speaking children from…

Disproportionately large numbers of Mexican American children are labeled as mentally retarded by the public schools and placed in special education classes. Two explanatory hypotheses are discriminatory referral procedures and discriminatory clinical procedures. Findings from research conducted between 1963 and 1969 concerning these processes and…

The content of selected major achievement tests is examined for bias in the frequency of references to the male and the female sex. The performance of males and females is contrasted on each item considered, and the relationships between item content and the performance differences is surveyed. The tests used in this study include the Metropolitan…

Findings from the Iowa Assessment Project are examined regarding the assessment and use of information on adaptive behavior and sociocultural background in decisions about students with mild mental retardation. Background aspects reviewed include terminology regarding mild retardation; research, litigation, and legislation on the topic during the…

Data were collected for a brief objective English test, the Test of Standard Written English (TSWE), and for subsequent essay writing performance in four institutions. Data were then pooled across the four institutions and subclassified into four groups: males, females, majorities, and minorities. The groups were then compared with respect to TSWE…

Validation studies were conducted on nine revised aptitude areas of the Army Classification Battery (ACB) to determine whether ACB scores provided an equitable indication of the qualifications of blacks and whites for training in major groups of Army jobs. The aptitude areas were: combat, field artillery, electronics repair, operators and food,…

The task force report examines recommendations for nondiscriminatory assessment of children from linguistic minorities. An initial suggestion is made for a moratorium on the use of standardized intelligence tests for these students. Recommendations are addressed to the U.S. Education Department (including requiring state education agencies to…

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…

It is suggested that bias--when associated with a predictor, a test, or a statistical estimator--is not always bad, in spite of the immediate negative response evoked by the word, bias. Four settings are described to illustrate situations in which a procedure should not be summarily rejected due to bias: (1) educational researchers rejected the…

Six approaches to assessing test item bias were examined: transformed item difficulty, point biserial correlations, chi-square, factor analysis, one parameter item characteristic curve, and three parameter item characteristic curve. Data sets for analysis were generated by a Monte Carlo technique based on the three parameter model; thus, four…

Major speeches presented at the conference on human and civil rights in education are summarized. Issues discussed at the conference include: the extent to which standardized testing infringes on the rights of students and educators; the existing uses of educational testing in public schools; and ways to eliminate misuses of tests by educators,…