From: Emlyn O'regan (oregan.emlyn@healthsolve.com.au)
Date: Wed Oct 02 2002 - 22:24:11 MDT
Rafal quoted:
>
> From an educational point of view, the chief function of
> mental tests is as
> predictors (Section 2). Intelligence tests predict school
> performance fairly
> well, at least in American schools as they are now
> constituted. Similarly,
> achievement tests are fairly good predictors of performance
> in college and
> postgraduate settings. Considered in this light, the relevant
> question is
> whether the tests have a "predictive bias" against Blacks.
> Such a bias would
> exist if African American performance on the criterion
> variables (school
> achievement, college GPA, etc.) were systematically higher
> than the same
> subjects' test scores would predict. This is not the case. The actual
> regression lines (which show the mean criterion performance
> for individuals
> who got various scores on the predictor) for Blacks do not
> lie above those
> for Whites; there is even a slight tendency in the other
> direction (Jensen,
> 1980; Reynolds & Brown, 1984). Considered as predictors of future
> performance, the tests do not seem to be biased against
> African Americans.
>
>
Does this scream out "negative feedback loop" to anyone else? If kids have
any idea of their test scores, that's not going to help the low scorers do
well. Also, a school system which thinks it has a predictor of someone's
performance is going to act, purposely or accidentally, to support that
prediction; eg, by putting people in graded classes, or directing resources
to those who can best use them (in the school's opinion). So there is the
possibility that inaccurate, biased tests could shape the behaviour of
institutions which in turn produce kids to the specifications of the
testing. A self fulfilling prophecy?
Emlyn
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