The principle of fairness in testing traditionally involves an assertion about the absence of bias, or that measurement should be impartial (i.e., not provide an unfair advantage or disadvantage), across groups of test takers. In more general-purposes language testing, a test taker's background knowledge is not typically considered relevant to the…

Does participation in one wave of a survey have an effect on respondents' answers to questions in subsequent waves? In this article, we investigate the presence and magnitude of "panel conditioning" effects in one of the most frequently used data sets in the social sciences: the General Social Survey (GSS). Using longitudinal records…

In this study, we propose that the unique needs and characteristics of linguistic minorities should be considered throughout the test development process. Unlike most measurement invariance investigations in the assessment of linguistic minorities, which typically are conducted after test administration, we propose strategies that focus on the…

In many countries, including the United States, England, Korea, Hong Kong, and Japan, individuals must pass some form of examination for entry into or completion of a teacher education program (Wang, Coleman, Coley, & Phelps, 2003). These exams are meant to act as gatekeeping mechanisms for teacher quality. In the majority of the countries…

Although research has extensively documented sources for differential item functioning and stereotype threat--especially among women and black college students--little is known about group differences in test-taking strategies among black adolescent students. In this article, Arbuthnot presents findings from two studies that seek to explore how…

Background: In England, there are concerns about boys' under-achievement in reading, and girls consistently do better than boys in national reading tests taken by 11-year-olds. At the same time, there have been accusations of bias in the content of the reading tests. Purpose: This article looks at the performance of boys and girls on the 2008…

High item discrimination can indicate a special kind of measurement disturbance via an item that gives high-ability persons a special advantage. The measurement disturbance is described, which occurs when an item is sensitive to individual differences on a second, undesired dimension that is correlated with the variable intended to be measured.…

Support claims that the "Defining Issues Test" of cognitive-moral development cannot be faked higher. Finds that instruction about cognitive-moral development affected the scores of the teacher trainees who were tested. (RL)

Two experiments compared the ability of learning disabled (LD) students and more typical age peers to answer such reading comprehension questions presented independently of reading passages. Results suggested a relative deficiency on the part of LD students with respect to reasoning strategies and test-taking skills. (Author/LMO)

The results from the Oral Reading Test developed for the Early Childhood Education Program evaluation provided the opportunity to study some of the factors that might influence student's test-taking behavior. The Oral Reading Test requires individual students to demonstrate reading skills by reading aloud sentences typical of various grade level…

This study investigated the effect of a linguistically based coaching program (with special attention given to the syntactic and semantic requirements of standardized language arts achievement tests) on the performance of selected black high school students on objective tests. The five subjects, one male and four female, were high school juniors…

This paper considers (1) the requirements imposed on data in order to conform to the Rasch model, (2) some common sources of departure from the model, and (3) a procedure for recognizing the occurrence of these disturbances. The specific disturbances discussed are guessing, practice, speededness, and bias. The observed characteristic curve for…

This study examined the effects of selected reader and task variables on reading comprehension performance. Several reader and task interaction effects were found to be significant, particularly for lookback conditions and constructed response tasks. Cognitive style interacted with hearing state on tasks involving lookback options. (Author/DWH)

Each year high school students match wits with the Scholastic Aptitude Tests. The results help determine who gets into the most selective colleges. The tests are the subject of a growing debate. This article examines possible bias and its effects. (Author/JAC)

This project examined the hypothesis that different background experiences associated with cultural grouping may lead to differences in test-taking strategies which result in score differences extraneous to the abilities the test is intended to measure. Its purposes were to confirm (or disconfirm) the cultural differences hypothesis and to provide…