Deck 10: Applications and Issues in Ability Testing

Question 1

In general, public school teachers are not very well trained in test construction and test score interpretation.

Answer 1

True

Question 2

Some form of teacher testing is practiced in almost all the states in the United States.

Answer 2

True

Question 3

The results of nationwide polls indicate that a majority of the general public is opposed to using competency tests for purposes of teacher certification and licensing.

Answer 3

False

Question 4

Most states require high school students to pass a functional literacy (minimum competency) test before receiving a certificate of completion.

Question 5

The difference between pre-course and post-course test scores is a measure of the value added by an academic course.

Question 6

Almost all states have instituted a formal teacher evaluation system of some kind.

Question 7

The goal of program evaluation is to judge the utility or value of educational, psychological, or social intervention programs.

Question 8

The primary purpose of program evaluation is to plan strategies for implementing effective programs.

Question 9

Realizing that ability is the most important job qualification, organized labor has usually been supportive of the use of job selection tests of ability.

Question 10

The Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act of 1974 implies the right to informed consent.

Question 11

The concept of ?privileged communication? exempts psychologists from a legal obligation to release information about clients to responsible persons.

Question 12

Almost all letters of recommendation are laudatory.

Question 13

Personal interviews are no longer considered to be of any real value in college admissions.

Question 14

Total reliance on objective tests for assessing achievement may lead to poor writing abilities, inferior teaching, and improper study habits.

Question 15

The great majority of colleges and universities no longer use the SAT in undergraduate admissions decisions.

Question 16

Educational Testing Service accepted the truth of Hoffman?s criticisms of multiple-choice test items and therefore decided to stop constructing and administering these kinds of tests after a certain date.

Question 17

Multiple-choice tests were particular targets of criticism during the 1960s.

Question 18

Performance-based testing involves open-ended questions and hands-on problem solving.

Question 19

Although well-intentioned, it is generally agreed that the criticisms of testing made by Ralph Nader and his colleagues lack substance and validity.

Question 20

In most states, students and their parents are legally entitled to information regarding students? performance on psychological and educational tests.

Question 21

The strongest "truth-in-testing" legislation was enacted in New York State.

Question 22

Disclosure of testing materials within a reasonable period of time after the test has been administered is now standard practice by testing companies.

Question 23

The results of research studies indicate that coaching can have an effect on scores on both the verbal and mathematical sections of the Scholastic Aptitude Test.

Question 24

The causes of declining scores on the SAT and other nationally-administered examinations from the 1960s to the 1980s were multifaceted and difficult to pin down.

Question 25

Males score higher than females on both the SAT-Mathematical and the SAT-Verbal tests.

Question 26

Asian-Americans score higher than White Americans on the SAT-Verbal but not on the SAT-Mathematical tests.

Question 27

Competency testing of both students and teachers is now practiced in the majority of states.

Question 28

The "Lake Wobegon effect"refers to the effect of teachers? expectations on students? test scores.

Question 29

The Uniform Guidelines on Employee Selection Procedures specify that any combination of employment selection devices (application blanks, interviews, tests, etc.) must account for at least 50% of the measurable variance in the job performance criterion.

Question 30

A test is legally unfair to a minority group if the mean and variance of the test scores of that group are lower than those of a representative sample of majority-group applicants.

Question 31

The "Golden Rule" settlement was an out-of-court settlement concerned with the issue of gender bias of test items.

Question 32

The most widely-used test for screening college candidates for teacher-education programs and beginning teachers, and for certifying graduates for general knowledge, professional skills, and subject knowledge is the

A) Graduate Record Examinations.
B) National Teacher Examinations.
C) Praxis Series.
D) School and College Ability Test.
E) Teaching Aptitude and Achievement Examination.

Question 33

Consider the four stages in the comprehensive program evaluation model of Rossi and Freeman: (1) economic efficiency assessment, (2) impact assessment, (3) program monitoring, (4) program planning. Which of the following is the correct order, from first to last, in which these stages occur?

A) 4, 1, 2, 3
B) 4, 2, 1, 3
C) 4, 2, 3, 1
D) 4, 3, 1, 2
E) 4, 3, 2, 1

Question 34

At what stages of program evaluation are statistical methods least likely to be employed?

A) economic efficiency assessment
B) impact assessment
C) program monitoring
D) program planning

Question 35

During which of the following stages of the Rossi & Freeman program evaluation model is cost-benefit analysis of most concern?

A) economic efficiency assessment
B) impact assessment
C) program monitoring
D) program planning

Question 36

Continuous assessment of a program to ensure that it is providing designated resources and services is known as

A) economic efficiency assessment.
B) impact assessment.
C) program monitoring.
D) program planning.

Question 37

Which of the following criticisms of testing could be combated by more careful training of testers and stricter requirements for the purchase of test materials?

A) Tests are often useless predictors of behavior.
B) Tests are unfair to minority groups.
C) Test results are misinterpreted and misused.
D) Tests promote a narrow and rigid classification of people.

Question 38

The "all or none" condition that, if requested by the court, a psychologist who is authorized by a client to reveal certain information about a case must reveal all requested information about the client?s involvement, is inherent in the notion of

A) informed consent.
B) privileged communication.
C) veridical rapport.
D) voir dice.

Question 39

The legal statute specifying that test results and other school records of a student may be made available in a personally identifiable way to other people only when the student or his/her parents give their written consent is known as the

A) Buckley-Pell Amendment.
B) Dunlop Act.
C) Griggs-Duke Amendment.
D) Carey-Mann Act.

Question 40

The criticisms of both Banesh Hoffmann and Ralph Nader were directed primarily at

A) college entrance examinations.
B) individual intelligence tests.
C) personality inventories.
D) standardized achievement tests.

Question 41

One of the most serious criticisms of multiple-choice tests is the allegation that they penalize examinees for

A) being profound thinkers.
B) being shrewd and quick-witted.
C) having exceptional memories.
D) reading too rapidly.

Question 42

For the most part, criticisms of multiple-choice tests have been

A) confirmed.
B) disconfirmed.
C) refuted.
D) none of the above.

Question 43

Concern over truth-in-testing legislation has led to all of the following except

A) a decline in the number of college entrance examinations administered each year.
B) improved monitoring of test questions for cultural and socioeconomic bias.
C) disclosure of SAT items one year after the tests are administered.
D) more careful internal review by ETS to eliminate sex and ethnic bias.

Question 44

The current policy of the College Entrance Examination Board concerning the disclosure of SAT questions is

A) questions are provided only when a legal warrant is filed.
B) questions are disclosed one month after the test is administered.
C) questions are disclosed one year after the test is administered.
D) questions are made available immediately after taking the examination.

Question 45

The strongest ?truth-in-testing? legislation in the United States was enacted in the state of

A) California.
B) Florida.
C) New York
D) Texas.
E) Virginia.

Question 46

The Federal Trade Commission?s report on the effects of coaching on SAT scores concluded that these effects are

A) dependent on the similarities between test material and coached material.
B) insignificant and unimportant.
C) significant for mathematical but not for verbal items.
D) significant in certain instances on both verbal and mathematical items.

Question 47

Regarding the effects of coaching on SAT scores, Educational Testing Service concluded that

A) coaching has a significant effect on SAT-Verbal, but not only SAT-Mathematical scores.
B) short-term, intensive drill on SAT-type items does not lead to significant gains in SAT scores.
C) coaching programs involving many hours of course work and assignments can affect test scores.
D) the effects of coaching depend on the similarity of tested material to coached material.

Question 48

The most accurate conclusion regarding the effects of coaching on SAT scores is that

A) coaching has a greater effect on the SAT-Verbal than on the SAT-Mathematical score.
B) coaching has little or no effect on SAT scores and is probably a waste of time and money.
C) depending on the number of hours, coaching has some effect on SAT scores.
D) with a good coach, scores change on the average by 100 points or more.

Question 49

Which of the following was not suggested by a special panel as a cause of the nationwide decline in SAT scores during the 1970s?

A) Changes in the economic, ethnic, sex, and social class composition of the group taking the test.
B) Declines in student motivation and teacher abilities.
C) Declining educational standards and too much time spent watching television.
D) Less intellectually demanding high school curricula.

Question 50

U.S. college or university students who participate in intercollegiate athletics must have a grade-point average of at least __________ and a total SAT (or equivalent) score of at least__________.

A) 2.0, 720
B) 2.5, 820
C) 2.75, 780
D) 3.0, 920

Question 51

The Lake Wobegon effect is concerned with test

A) cheating.
B) norms.
C) reliability.
D) validity.

Question 52

Larry P. vs. Wilson Riles is to __________ as Griggs vs. Duke Power is to __________.

A) bias in testing, fairness in testing
B) California, Illinois
C) employment testing, IQ testing
D) mentally retarded students, job applicants

Question 53

Which court decision issued a ban on IQ testing for the placement of Black children in California school classes for educable mentally retarded children?

A) Diana vs. State Board of Education
B) Hobson vs. Hansen
C) Larry P. vs. Riles
D) PASE vs. Hannon

Question 54

In which case did the judge decide that ?the WISC, WISC -R, and Stanford-Binet tests, when used in conjunction with the statutorially-mandated other criteria for determining an appropriate educational program for a child do not discriminate against Black children??

A) Diana vs. State Board of Education
B) Georgia NAACP vs. State of Georgia
C) Hobson vs. Hansen
D) Larry P. vs. Riles
E) PASE vs. Hannon

Question 55

The judicial decision in the landmark court case presided over by Judge Robert Peckham, which resulted in restrictions on the use of IQ tests for the placement of children in special school classes for the mentally retarded in California,

A) was adopted as law by several other states.
B) passed by the U.S. Congress and became federal law.
C) was judged to be unconstitutional by the U.S. Supreme Court.
D) banned the use of IQ tests in assigning children to classes for the mentally retarded.

Question 56

Which of the following statements most accurately describes the decision of Chief Justice Berger in the case of Griggs et al. vs. Duke Power Company?

A) An employee-selection procedure should not be used if it excludes any ethnic group.
B) An employee-selection procedure is prohibited if it is unrelated to job performance.
C) An employee-selection procedure should be used only if specified ethnic- and sex-group quotas are met.
D) Even if an employee-selection procedure is valid for an ethnic group, it if acts to exclude members of that group the organization should find an alternative selection procedure.

Question 57

The original (1973) Uniform Guidelines on Employee Selection Procedures state that, in order to be a valid predictor of job performance, tests should account for at least __________ of the knowledge and skills pertaining to that job.

A) 25%
B) 50%
C) 75%
D) 90%

Question 58

According to the traditional definition, the fairness of a test for different groups of people is most closely related to differences in

A) arithmetic means.
B) correlation coefficients.
C) indexes of skewness and kurtosis.
D) standard deviations.

Question 59

Thorndike proposed that the qualifying scores on a test for different groups of people be set in terms of differences in the __________ in the two groups.

A) arithmetic means and standard deviations
B) percentages performing satisfactorily on the criterion
C) regression slopes (b weights)
D) test-criterion correlation coefficients

Question 60

Cole defined test fairness in terms of

A) applicants in different groups being selected in proportion to the percentage of the specified groups that succeeds on the criterion.
B) average scores of different applicant groups on the criterion of success being identical.
C) separate cutoff scores for each group so that the probability of being selected is identical for successful applicants in each group.
D) test-criterion correlations of different groups being identical even when cutoff scores of the groups are not the same.

Question 61

According to the item characteristic curve approach to detecting item bias, a test is unbiased if

A) establishing separate job performance cutoff scores for different groups makes the probability of selecting potentially successful applicants in the various groups the same.
B) qualifying scores on the test are established in such a way that different groups of applicants are selected in proportion to the number in each group who are capable of attaining an acceptable level on the performance criterion.
C) regardless of their group membership, examinees of the same ability have equal probabilities of getting an item right.
D) regression slopes for predicting job performance from the scores are the same for different groups.

Question 62

Consider the pros and cons for competency evaluation of (a) high school students and (b) classroom teachers.

Question 63

List and describe the four successive stages in Rossi and Freemanʹs comprehensive model of program evaluation.

Question 64

What are the major criticisms of multiple-choice tests, and how accurate are those criticisms?

Question 65

What are the major criticisms of college and university admissions tests, how valid are these criticism, and what is being done to take care of them?

Question 66

What is ʺtruth-in-testingʺ legislation, what does it involve, and what states have taken the lead on this issue?

Question 67

How common is cheating on tests, and what can be done about it?

Question 68

Summarize the various court decisions concerned with fair employment practices.