TEST BIAS--VALIDITY OF THE SCHOLASTIC APTITUDE TEST FOR NEGRO AND WHITE ...

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RESUMES
REPOR T
JC 680 082
ED 018 200
NEGRO
SCHOLASTIC APTITUDE TEST FOR
TEST BIAS- - VALIDITY OF THE
INTEGRATED COLLEGES.
AND WHITE STUDENTS IN
BY- CLEARY, T. ANNE
PRINCETON, N.J.
EDUCATIONAL TESTING SERVICE,
JUN 66
PUB DATE
REPORT NUMBER ETS-RB-66-31-JUNE-1966
REPORT NUMBER ETS-RDR-65-6-18
26P.
HC-$1.12
MF-$0.25
EDRS PRICE
*EDUCATIONAL TESTING,
DESCRIPTORS- *JUNIOR COLLEGES,
*APTITUDE TESTS, *CULTURE FREE
PREDICTIVE ABILITY (TESTING) ,
EDUCATION, TESTING, GROUP
TESTS, *TEST VALIDITY, HIGHER
TESTING, SCHOLASTIC
TESTS, PROGNOSTIC TESTS, COMPARATIVE
EXAMINATION BOARD'
APTITUDE TEST, COLLEGE ENTRANCE
SAID TO BE BIASED FOR
FOR THIS RESEARCH, A TEST WAS
POPULATION IF, IN THE PREDICTION
MEMBERS OF A SUBGROUP OF THE
TEST WAS DESIGNED, CONSISTENT
OF A CRITERION FOR WHICH THE
FOR MEMBERS OF THE
NONZERO ERRORS OF PREDICTION ARE MADE
WHITE STUDENTS FROM THREE
SUBGROUP. SAMPLES OF NEGRO AND
IN THE TWO EASTERN
INTEGRATED COLLEGES WERE STUDIED.
IN THE REGRESSION LINES
COLLEGES, NO SIGNIFICANT DIFFERENCES
SOUTHWEST, SIGNIFICANT
WERE FOUND. IN ONE COLLEGE IN THE
THE NEGRO SCORES THAT WERE
DIFFERENCES WERE FOUND, BUT IT WAS
THREE SCHOOLS, THE
OVERFREDICTED. THUS, IN ONE OF THE
BUT
FOUND TO BE SLIGHTLY BIASED,
SCHOLASTIC APTITUDE TEST WAS
THE SCHOOLS USED IN TilIS
IN FAVOR OF THE NEGRO STUDENT. AS
SPECTRUM OF COLLEGES IN THE
STUDY CO NOT REPRESENT THE FULL
CONCLUSIONS CAN BE REACHED.
UNITED STATES, NO GENERAL
(AUTHOR/HH)
1:R C
EXAMINATION BOAPD
COLLEGE ENTRANCE
REPORTS
RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT
RESEARCH BULLETIN
JUNE 1966
RB-66-31
TEST BIAS:
Aptitude Test
Scholastic
Validity of the
for
White Students
Negro and
in
Integrated Colleges
T. Anne Cleary
Division, ETS
Developmental Research
f.
EDUCATIONAL TESTING SERVICE
PRINCETON, NEW JERSEY
BERKELEY, CALIFORNIA
WElfiRI
U S DEPARININI Of 111111H. EDUCATION t
OffICE Of EDUCIIION
IRON 1111
DOCUNENI HIS 1101 REPRODUCED (WW1 AS RECEIVED
IRIS
POINTS Of VIEW OR OPINIONS
PERSON OR ORGANI1AIION ORIGINATING II
Of EDUCIIION
SIIIED DO NI NECESSARILY REPRESENT OffICIAI OffICE
POSITION OR POLICY
College Entrance Examination Board
RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT REPORTS
RDR-65-6, No. 18
VALIDITY OF THE SCHOLASTIC APTITUDE TEST FOR
TEST BIAS:
COLLEGES
NEGRO AND WHITE STUDENTS IN INTEGRATED
Research Division, ETS
T. ANNE CLEARY, Developmental
Research Bulletin
RB-66-31
-.
UNIVE2S;
June 1966
LOS
EDUCATIONAL TESTING SERVICE
FEB 2 3 1968
Princeton, New Jersey
CLEARINGHOUSE FOR
JUNIOR COLLEGE
INFOrr4.ATON
Validity of the Scholastic Aptitude Test for
Test Bias:
Integrated Colleges
Negro and White Students in
Abstract
said to be biased for members of a subgroup
For this research, a test was
test was
the prediction of a criterion for which the
of the population if, in
of prediction are made for members of the
designed, consistent nonzero errors
students from three integrated colleges
Samples of Negro and white
subgroup.
significant differences in the
In the two eastern colleges, no
were studied.
In the one college in the southwest, significant
regression lines were found.
the Negro scores which were overprediel;ed.
differences were found, but it was
.che Scholastic Aptitude Test was found to
Thus, in one of the three sLiools,
biased in favor of the Negro student.
be slightly biased, but
for
Validity of the Scholastic Aptitude Test
Test Bias:
in Integrated Colleges
Negro and White Students
Cleary
T. Anne
(1966) discussed one possible
Cleary and Hilton
In a recent paper,
According to that definition, an item of a test
bias.
interpretation of test
particular group if the item
biased for members of a
is considered to be
of that group and
discrepancy between the performance
produces an uncommon
That is, the members of the group obtain
other groups.
the performance of
of other groups by
which differs from the average score
an average score
performance on other items of the same test.
than expected from
more or less
item-group
of variance, bias was defined as an
In terms of the analysis
data, Cleary and Hilton concluded that
On the basis of their
interaction.
biased, and
Scholastic Aptitude Test are not
the items in the Preliminary
is not largely
discriminatory, the discrimination
that, if the PSAT is
whole.
of items, but to the test as a
attributable to particular sets
The definition of bias used in
possible,
Another definition of bias is
predictor:
concerned with the test as a whole used as a
the present study is
if, in the
of a subgroup of the wpulation
A test is biased for members
consistent nonzero
which the test was designed,
prediction of a criterion for
In other words,
made for members of the subgroup.
errors of prediction are
consistently
too low a criterion score is
the test is biased if too high or
used.
when the common regression line is
subgroup
predicted for members of the
"unfair,"
there may be a connotation of
With this definition of bias,
The
produces a prediction that is too low.
particularly if the use of the test
1-3
definition of bias:
The
present research was concerned with this second
prediction of college grade averages from the Scholastic Aptitude Test
(SAT)
studied.
for Negro and white students in integrated colleges was
The validity of the SAT as a predictor of college grades for Negroes in
Negro college's appears to be at least as good as the typical validity for
Hills, Klock, and Lewis (1963) report correlations of SAT
white students.
verbal and mathematics scores with first year average grades for freshmen
entering both the Negro and white colleges in the Georgia State University
The lowest correlations for both male and female students were found
System.
The validity of the
in the white colleges rather than in the Negro colleges.
test in Negro colleges is made more striking by the fact that the standard
deviation of the scores in the Negro colleges was approximately half that in
the white colleges.
Data reported by Hills (1964) for the four academic years 1959 through
1962 in the Georgia State University System were subjected to analyses of
They found that, when a correction
(1964).
variance by Biaggio and Stanley
for restriction in range was applied, the correlations of test scores with
freshman grades were significantly higher for the Negroes than for the non-
When the restriction in range was not considered, they found that
Negroes.
the correlations were significantly higher for non-Negro females than for
Negro females, but there were no significant differences among males.
(1964)
Stanley, Biaggio, and Porter (1966) extended the Biaggio-Stanley
When correlations with grade-point
study to cover six years, 1959 to 1964.
predominantly Negro colleges
average, corrected for restriction in range in the
subjected to four analyses of variance
Z
, were
and transformed into Fisher's
found to be
and women), they were
SAT-M for men
and women,
(SAT-V for men
correlations
When the original
Negro colleges.
higher in the
significantly
between Negro
significant differences
variance, no
analyses of
in the
were used
non-Negro females
correlations for
found, but the
males were
and non-Negro
and
Stanley, Biaggi°,
Negro females.
higher than for
significantly
were
of the
for the prediction
are valid
SAT -type test scores
concluded that
Porter
primarily by Negroes.
Negroes and taught
competing with
of Negroes
college grades
SAT scores
freshman grades from
prediction of
(1965) studied the
McKelpin
North
liberal arts college,
predominantly Negro
in the
school average
and high
high as those
validities that were as
He found
at Durham.
Carolina College
literature.
in the
commonly reported
freshmen, SAT-V scores
of 129 Fisk
in a sample
(1962) found that,
Roberts
SAT-M scores,
average, and
freshman grade-point
of .63 with
had a correlation
for 1962
the correlations
Roberts reported
In 1964,
.68.
correlation of
a
40 to 203.
ranging from
with sample sizes
Negro colleges
freshmen in eight
average were:
freshman grade-point
correlations with
The median
Total
Female
Male
.50
.49
.52
SAT Verbal
.47
.51
.46
SAT Math
populations.
observed in other
to those
are similar
These correlations
rank,
with high school
in combination
have been used
When SAT scores
white colleges
both Negro and
been found in
correlations have
similar multiple
964).
1
(Olsen, 1957; Roberts,
about the validity of the SAT for
been raised, however,
A question has
Clark
integrated colleges.
of Negro students in
predicting academic success
students who had applied for aid from
(1963) studied a group of
and Plotkin
Fund for Negro Students in order to enter
Scholarship Service and
the National
Complete information was not
to 1956.
in the years 1952
interracial colleges
determine
at times it is difficult to
entire sample, and
available for the
Nevertheless, Clark and
comparison.
used for a particular
which subsample was
academic
not a valid predictor of
that perhaps the SAT is
Plotkin suggest
They found that while the SAT did
colleges.
Negroes in integrated
success for
college with a B+ or higher average
those who completed
discriminate between
lower average, it did not
college with a C+ or
and those who completed
and those who did not graduate.
who completed college
discriminate between those
relationship between grades and SAT
for the lack of
A possible explanation
complete
those students for whom
restriction in range;
scores is severe
Campbell (1964) has
selected group.
a highly
information was available were
students varied widely in
colleges attended by these
pointed out that the
ability
unlikely that those of higher
and that it is not
degree of selectivity
perhaps lower than
colleges where their grades were
went to more selective
Since the same weight was
less selective school.
might be expected at a
the relationship
regardless of college attended,
given to grades achieved
would be attenuated.
between grades and ability
academic performance
(1963, p. 21) also state that the
Clark and Plotkin
indicated
level that would be
studied was far beyond the
of the students they
Whatever the inadequacies
indices av College Board scores.
by such predictive
investigation.
discrepancy deserves further
Plotkin study, such a
of the Clark and
Purpose
predictive validity
that concerned with the
aspect of bias is
An important
test is the same fol
of the criterion on the
If the regression
of the test.
of its
be said to be biased in terms
the test cannot
different groups,
different,
of the regression lines are
If the intercepts
predictive validity.
The
be made within each group.
of prediction will
consistent nonzero errors
of college grades on the
to study the regression
this research was
purpose of
Because high school
colleges.
in integrated
and white students
SAT for Negro
grades,
the SAT for the prediction of
generally used with
rank-in-class is
To determine whether
when possible.
included in the analysis
rank-in-class was
to
and white students were due
regressions for Negro
differences in the
white
the criterion, a sample of
and therefore in
differences in curriculum
curriculum was also studied.
the Negro students on
students matched with
Sample
of a sample for
encountered in the selection
were
Two major difficulties
Negro and white
the regression lines for
In order to compare
this research.
number of Negro and white
to find a sufficient
students, it was necessary
various integrated colleges,
In initial inquiries at
college.
students in the same
overestimate the
and faculty tended to
that administrators
it was discovered
made at some
When an actual count was
the campus.
number of Negro students on
students to make the analysis
there were too few Negro
of these colleges,
United States that
of the population of the
Considering the percentage
feasible.
is disturbing.
the integrated colleges
of Negro students in
is Negro, the scarcity
identification of the Negro
encountered was the
A second difficulty
their individual students.
record of the race of
Most schools had no
students.
it is realized that records
change in the future as
situation will
Perhaps, this
generally, equal oppor-
investigation of bias or, more
for any
are necessary
tunity.
used in the study:
Three schools were
approximately
state-supported-institution with
eastern,
School 1 is an
by having two
students was identified
The race of the
5000 male students.
pictures in the
standard identification
independently the
examine
persons
If
judge was used.
disagreement, a third
Wherever there was
school files.
classified as white.
the student was
not be reached,
agreement could
provided by the NAACP:
of Negro students
obtained from a list
Corroboration was
classified as Negro, and one
list had been
not on the NAACP
five students
The five students
classified as white.
list had been
student on the NAACP
examination of
Negroes after further
list were retained as
not on the NAACP
the
the one student who was on
The race code of
pictures.
the identification
changed to Negro.
classified as Negro was
who had not been
NAACP list but
1:
selected from school
Three samples were
All Negro students,
Group 1:
the Negro
students matched with
A sample of white
Group 2:
and class, and
students on curriculum
students.
of the white
A random sample
Group 3:
school with approximately
eastern state-subsidized
School 2 is also an
by two
again identified
The Negro students were
students.
10,000 full-time
When the curriculum
identification pictures.
examining the school
persons
that most
it was discovered
students,
tabulated for the Negro
and class were
The
Liberal Arts.
148) were freshmen in
students (84 out of
of the Negro