This paper provides a historical review of national standardized testing and its relation to ethnic and racial minorities. In the pre-World War I period, psychological testing was conducted on the large masses of immigrants that were arriving in the U.S., and on black and white army draftees. Generally these tests showed that black draftees and…

THIS STUDY WAS DONE TO DETERMINE THE PREDICTIVE VALUE OF INDIVIDUAL AND GROUP ACHIEVEMENT TESTS WHEN USED TO EVALUATE DEAF CHILDREN. THE 36 CHILDREN SELECTED FOR THIS STUDY WERE IN GRADES 2, 4, AND 6 IN THE KENNEDY SCHOOL IN DAYTON, OHIO. ALL HAD SEVERE AUDITORY HANDICAPS AND WERE 10 TO 16 YEARS OLD. FOUR PSYCHOLOGISTS ADMINISTERED THE FOLLOWING…

Student test scores are increasingly used to judge the competence of the educational enterprise. Exaggeration of scores is the result of directing attention away from the individual student achievement to the average scores of schools, districts, and states. Implications and recommendations are discussed. (BJV)

It is argued that achievement test means, based on group scores, or other district-wide summary scores do not provide valid measures for diagnosing curriculum weaknesses nor for initiating curriculum changes. Group scores are probably valid for some purposes, but should not be used as criterion variables for evaluating the effectiveness of…