Legal issues of minimum competency testing derive from federal and state constitutional, statutory, and regulatory provisions, and from common law. Constitutional provisions for equal protection, due process, and freedom of belief and privacy, are primarily federal; education provisions are state mandated. Only four court cases have directly…

In a discussion of the value of standardized tests and their implications for effective teaching, the author contends that such tests are useful in keeping those concerned with the learning process focused on the main target. In addition, standardized tests serve to (1) reveal variations in the effectiveness of different instructional procedures…

Empirical studies are reviewed of sex bias and psychometric bias in aptitude and achievement tests. It is concluded that: (1) of four studies of sex bias, all found that the language used in the tests favored males, but, at the elementary-secondary level, sex bias has been decreasing; (2) of 15 analyses of psychometric bias, all found an…

Structural integrity of a measure is defined in terms of its replicability, constancy, invariance, and stability. Work completed in the development and validation of the Self Observation Scales (SOS) Primary Level (Stenner and Katzenmeyer, 1973) serves to illustrate one method of establishing structural integrity. The name of each scale of the SOS…

The College Entrance Examination Board's (CEEB) internal review of its efforts to develop and implement programs to expand educational opportunities for minorities and the poor revealed that the Board had not been as successful as it had hoped. Most of the Board's efforts to ensure equal access to higher education focused on guidance programs,…

The study, a literature review, examines the critical factors affecting re-entry women's access to jobs and their chances of obtaining and retaining work at a level appropriate to their capacities. An examination of the re-entry woman deals with socialization and self-concept, changing attitudes, and new expectations. Bias against women among the…

This paper, a continuation of the analysis of data collected on 455 Negro and white medical technicians (see ED 035 018) as part of a study on fairness in selection testing, investigates the prediction of supervisors' ratings from aptitude tests. (AG)

With so many unanswered questions and controversies regarding intelligence, testing in general, and testing diverse students in particular, what can educators in gifted education do to ensure that these students have access to and are represented in gifted education programs and services? In this monograph, the author examines test bias by first…

A persistent problem in U.S. educational research has been how to explain the continuing low performance on standardized tests by certain racial and ethnic minority-group students, such as Chicanos. This chapter identifies abusive practices stemming from standardized testing that help to shape school failure among Chicano students, and discusses…

Writing encompasses a wide range of skills, from the mechanics of punctuation and spelling to the systematic or even creative development of ideas. The higher order skills of communication necessarily involve critical thinking and problem solving, and an assessment of the writing of advanced students will be able to encompass these other higher…

The equity of a national examination system using authentic assessments is discussed from technological and historical perspectives. Testing is, in fact, a technology embedded in sociotechnical systems such as education, government, and business. The historical perspective is important because it provides lessons for present policy. The first…

The educational experience of girls has been largely ignored in the current education debate in the United States. This absence does not mean that boys and girls have identical educational experiences in school. This report challenges the common assumption that girls and boys are treated equally in U.S. public schools by providing a synthesis of…

In 1991, a study was conducted to determine the differential effects of placement testing on cultural, linguistic, and ethnic groupings in the San Diego Community College District (SDCCD). The study was conducted in two parts. The first part examined the characteristics of the students used to norm the Comparative Guidance Program (CGP) tests used…

In an effort to determine the impact of entry-level writing tests and subsequent remedial writing programs on various student ethnic populations at California's Oxnard College (OC), a study was conducted of 812 first-time students in fall 1989 who were administered the Assessment and Placement Services Exam for Community Colleges (APSECC). Of…

Legal issues associated with competency testing of teachers are reviewed, with an emphasis on the problem of bias against minority examinees taking standardized tests. The central legislative foci of legal activity in this area are Titles VI and VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. Title VII requires employers to show, with validation studies,…