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1 Introduction.- 2 School Achievement Trends for Black Students.- 3
The Status of Research on the Scholastic Aptitude Test (SAT) and
Hispanic Students in Postsecondary Education.- 4 Psychometric G and
Achievement.- 5 Eeny, Meeny, Miny, Moe: Testing Policy and Practice
in Early Childhood.- 6 Changing Statewide Reading Assessment: A
Case Study of Michigan and Illinois.
Bernard R. Gifford As we edge toward the year 2000, the information
age is a reality; the global marketplace is increasingly
competitive; and the U.S. labor force is shrinking. Today more than
ever, our nation's economic and social well-being hinges on our
ability to tap our human resources-to identify talent, to nurture
it, and to assess abilities and disabilities in ways that help
every individual reach his or her full potential. In pursuing that
goal, decision-makers in education, industry, and government are
relying increasingly on standardized tests: sets of question- with
identical directions, time limits and tasks for all
test-takers-designed to permit an inference about what someone
knows or can do in a particular area. CALIBRATING DIFFERENCE Our
emphasis on standardized testing rests on a premise that is so
basic it often escapes notice: that we humans are different from
each other in ways that are both meaningful and measurable. We
differ in terms of cognitive ability; aptitude for performing
different kinds of mental and physical tasks; temperament; and
interests. But somehow, without sufficient examination, we have
taken a great collective leap from that commonplace to the notion
that there are precise, measurable gradations of innate ability
that can be used to direct children to the right classrooms, and
adults to the right job slots.
Bernard R. Gifford and Linda C. Wing Standardized testing has
become a ubiquitous feature of American life. As a major source of
information for reducing uncertainty in the alJocation of merit
based educational, training, and employment opportunities, testing
affects the life chances of individuals. Moreover, testing
inOuences the way in which our societyjudgesitselfandprovides for
ourcollective future. Test scores may determine a child's admission
to lcindergarten and promotion to the fIrst grade. Most states
award the high school diploma only ifa student has passed a minimum
competency test. Major institutions of higher education typically
require applicants to supplement their records of academic
achievement with scores on college admissions tests. In the labor
market, as a condition of employment or assignment to training
programs, more and more employers are requiring workers to sit for
personnel selection tests. Additionally, it has become commonplace
to use test scores to calibrate our national sociopolitical
condition and our capacity to compete with other countries in the
global economy. In short, with increasing frequency and intensity,
scores on examinations that purport to be objective and precise
measures of individual knowledge, abilities, and potential are
playing a critical role in the opportunity marketplace. Similarly,
test scores are exercising growing influence in assessments of our
social and economic institutions and in policy decisions about the
relative invesunents that should be made in each. In all these
instantiations, test scores are at the center of high-stakes
decision making about the future of individuals and of the nation
itself."
Bernard R. Gifford In the United States, the standardized test has
become one of the major sources of information for reducing
uncertainty in the determination of individual merit and in the
allocation of merit-based educational, training, and employment
opportunities. Most major institutions of higher education require
applicants to supplement their records of academic achievements
with scores on standardized tests. Similarly, in the workplace, as
a condition of employment or assignment to training programs, more
and more employers are requiring prospective employees to sit for
standardized tests. In short, with increasing frequency and
intensity, individual members of the political economy are required
to transmit to the opportunity marketplace scores on standardized
examinations that purport to be objective measures of their and
potential. In many instances, these test scores are the abilities,
talents, only signals about their skills that job applicants are
permitted to send to prospective employers. THE NATIONAL COMMISSION
ON TESTING AND PUBLIC POLICY In view of the importance of these
issues to our current national agenda, it was proposed that the
Human Rights and Governance and the Education and Culture Programs
of the Ford Foundation support the establishment of a ''blue
ribbon" National Commission on Testing and Public Policy to
investigate some of the major problems as well as the untapped
opportunities created by recent trends in the use of standardized
tests, particularly in the workplace and in schools.
Bernard R. Gifford In the United States, the standardized test has
become one of the major sources of information for reducing
uncertainty in the determination of individual merit and in the
allocation of merit-based educational, training, and employment
opportunities. Most major institutions of higher education require
applicants to supplement their records of academic achievements
with scores on standardized tests. Similarly, in the workplace, as
a condition of employment or assignment to training programs, more
and more employers are requiring prospective employees to sit for
standardized tests. In short, with increasing frequency and
intensity, individual members of the political economy are required
to transmit to the opportunity marketplace scores on standardized
examinations that purport to be objective measures of their
abilities, talents, and potential. In many instances, these test
scores are the only signals about their skills that job applicants
are permitted to send to prospective employers. THE NATIONAL
COMMISSION ON TESTING AND PUBLIC POLICY In view of the importance
of these issues to our current national agenda, it was proposed
that the Human Rights and Governance and the Education and Culture
Programs of the Ford Foundation support the establishment of a
''blue ribbon" National Commission on Testing and Public Policy to
investigate some of the major problems, as well as the untapped
opportunities, created by recent trends in the use of standardized
tests, particularly in the workplace and in schools.
America faces a crisis in education and its accompanying effects on
the nation's economic and social life. Educators and policy makers
need to document the extent of this crisis, to gauge its potential
impact, and to develop educational strategies that would boost
achievement; this has turned the spotlight on educational
assessment - the procedures, practices, and tools that educators
use to measure the progress of students, both as individuals and
groups. This book deals with a range of issues within the field of
educational assessment, with an emphasis on those issues that have
sparked the public policy debate in recent years. Much of this
volume concerns itself with the impact of testing on various
subgroups of the population - blacks, Hispanics, young children,
and children considered to be of below average' ability. Taken
together, the contributions to this volume represent a broad range
of views on differential test performance. (This book is part of
the subseries of books based on the Ford Foundation's National
Commission on Testing and Public Policy. Previous titles in this
program include Gifford & Wing/Test in Defense, Gifford &
O'Connor/Changing Assessments, Gifford/Test Policy and the Politics
of Opportunity Allocation, and Gifford/Test Policy and Test
Performance.)
Linda C. Wing and Bernard R. Gifford How should a society committed
to the ideas of individual merit, equal opportunity, and the free
marketplace allocate scarce educational and employment
opportunities? How can that society draw distinctions fairly and
justifiably-among people competing against each other for the same
opportunity? These are among the central questions of a democracy.
How a society answers them reveals a great deal about its values
and its priorities, and determines a great deal about its future
course. In recent decades, we have placed the standardized
pencil-and-paper test at the center of these fundamental questions
about the nature of opportunity allocation in American life. In
more and more areas of our lives-schools, employment, the
military-we rely upon the standardized test to rank or classify
people, and to assure ourselves that we have done so fairly. The
papers gathered here were prepared at the invitation of the
National Commission on Testing and Public Policy. (The editors of
this volume were involved in the commission from its inception in
1987 until shortly after the publication of its major public report
in 1990-Bernard Gifford as Chair and Linda Wing as Associate
Director. 1) Each chapter focuses on an aspect of employment
testing-a topic that could hardly 1 POLICY ISSUES IN EMPLOYMENT
TESTING 2 be more in need of calm deliberation and reasoned
discussion than it is today."
Bernard R. Gifford and Linda C. Wing Standardized testing has
become a ubiquitous feature of American life. As a major source of
information for reducing uncertainty in the alJocation of merit
based educational, training, and employment opportunities, testing
affects the life chances of individuals. Moreover, testing
inOuences the way in which our societyjudgesitselfandprovides for
ourcollective future. Test scores may determine a child's admission
to lcindergarten and promotion to the fIrst grade. Most states
award the high school diploma only ifa student has passed a minimum
competency test. Major institutions of higher education typically
require applicants to supplement their records of academic
achievement with scores on college admissions tests. In the labor
market, as a condition of employment or assignment to training
programs, more and more employers are requiring workers to sit for
personnel selection tests. Additionally, it has become commonplace
to use test scores to calibrate our national sociopolitical
condition and our capacity to compete with other countries in the
global economy. In short, with increasing frequency and intensity,
scores on examinations that purport to be objective and precise
measures of individual knowledge, abilities, and potential are
playing a critical role in the opportunity marketplace. Similarly,
test scores are exercising growing influence in assessments of our
social and economic institutions and in policy decisions about the
relative invesunents that should be made in each. In all these
instantiations, test scores are at the center of high-stakes
decision making about the future of individuals and of the nation
itself."
Bernard R. Gifford As we edge toward the year 2000, the information
age is a reality; the global marketplace is increasingly
competitive; and the U.S. labor force is shrinking. Today more than
ever, our nation's economic and social well-being hinges on our
ability to tap our human resources-to identify talent, to nurture
it, and to assess abilities and disabilities in ways that help
every individual reach his or her full potential. In pursuing that
goal, decision-makers in education, industry, and government are
relying increasingly on standardized tests: sets of question- with
identical directions, time limits and tasks for all
test-takers-designed to permit an inference about what someone
knows or can do in a particular area. CALIBRATING DIFFERENCE Our
emphasis on standardized testing rests on a premise that is so
basic it often escapes notice: that we humans are different from
each other in ways that are both meaningful and measurable. We
differ in terms of cognitive ability; aptitude for performing
different kinds of mental and physical tasks; temperament; and
interests. But somehow, without sufficient examination, we have
taken a great collective leap from that commonplace to the notion
that there are precise, measurable gradations of innate ability
that can be used to direct children to the right classrooms, and
adults to the right job slots.
Bernard R. Gifford In the United States, the standardized test has
become one of the major sources of information for reducing
uncertainty in the determination of individual merit and in the
allocation of merit-based educational, training, and employment
opportunities. Most major institutions of higher education require
applicants to supplement their records of academic achievements
with scores on standardized tests. Similarly, in the workplace, as
a condition of employment or assignment to training programs, more
and more employers are requiring prospective employees to sit for
standardized tests. In short, with increasing frequency and
intensity, individual members of the political economy are required
to transmit to the opportunity marketplace scores on standardized
examinations that purport to be objective measures of their
abilities, talents, and potential. In many instances, these test
scores are the only signals about their skills that job applicants
are permitted to send to prospective employers. THE NATIONAL
COMMISSION ON TESTING AND PUBLIC POLICY In view of the importance
of these issues to our current national agenda, it was proposed
that the Human Rights and Governance and the Education and Culture
Programs of the Ford Foundation support the establishment of a
''blue ribbon" National Commission on Testing and Public Policy to
investigate some of the major problems, as well as the untapped
opportunities, created by recent trends in the use of standardized
tests, particularly in the workplace and in schools.
Bernard R. Gifford In the United States, the standardized test has
become one of the major sources of information for reducing
uncertainty in the determination of individual merit and in the
allocation of merit-based educational, training, and employment
opportunities. Most major institutions of higher education require
applicants to supplement their records of academic achievements
with scores on standardized tests. Similarly, in the workplace, as
a condition of employment or assignment to training programs, more
and more employers are requiring prospective employees to sit for
standardized tests. In short, with increasing frequency and
intensity, individual members of the political economy are required
to transmit to the opportunity marketplace scores on standardized
examinations that purport to be objective measures of their and
potential. In many instances, these test scores are the abilities,
talents, only signals about their skills that job applicants are
permitted to send to prospective employers. THE NATIONAL COMMISSION
ON TESTING AND PUBLIC POLICY In view of the importance of these
issues to our current national agenda, it was proposed that the
Human Rights and Governance and the Education and Culture Programs
of the Ford Foundation support the establishment of a ''blue
ribbon" National Commission on Testing and Public Policy to
investigate some of the major problems as well as the untapped
opportunities created by recent trends in the use of standardized
tests, particularly in the workplace and in schools.
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