Gender bias in standardized tests: evidence from a centralized college admissions system

This article examines the rise of ‘‘test-optional’’ college admissions policies since the 1990s. I argue that the rationalization of college admissions policies after World War II contributed to the rise of ‘‘meritocratic’’ stratification (in policy) and standardized tests, like the SAT, but it also led to the expansion and legitimation of the roles of student and school personhood in the admissions process. Schools more committed to enlarged conceptions of student personhood are more likely to adopt a test-optional policy, in order to recruit students who fit the distinctive characteristics of their school identity. To test the argument, I use a comprehensive data set of 1,640 colleges and universities in the United States and discrete-time event history models from 1987 to 2015. I also assess alternative arguments that emphasize economic or prestige-driven motives. Liberal arts colleges and schools committed to several dimensions of student personhood are more likely to adopt test-optional policies, net of other factors.

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Using Personal Statements in College Admissions: An Investigation of Gender Bias and the Effects of Increased Structure

10.31234/osf.io/wj3uy ◽

2021 ◽

Author(s):

Susan Niessen ◽

Marvin Neumann

Keyword(s):

Gender Bias ◽

Language Use ◽

College Admissions ◽

Writing Skills ◽

Reliability And Validity ◽

Adverse Impact ◽

First Year ◽

Personal Statement ◽

Undergraduate Psychology ◽

Structured Approach

Personal statements are among the most commonly used instruments in college admissions procedures. Yet, little research on their reliability, validity, and fairness exists. The first aim of this paper was to investigate hypotheses about adverse impact and underprediction for female applicants, which could result from lower tendencies to use agentic language compared to male applicants. Second, we examined if rating personal statements in a more structured manner would increase reliability and validity. Using personal statements (250 words) from a large cohort of applicants to an undergraduate psychology program at a Dutch University, we found no evidence for adverse impact for female applicants or more agentic language use by male applicants, and no relationship between agentic language use and personal statement ratings. In contrast, we found that personal statements of female applicants were rated slightly more positively than those of males. Exploratory analyses suggest that female applicants’ better writing skills might explain this difference. A more structured approach to rating personal statements yielded higher, but still only ‘moderate’ inter-rater reliability, and virtually identical, negligible predictive validity for first year GPA and dropout.

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The role of standardized tests in college admissions: Test-Optional admissions

New Directions for Student Services ◽

10.1002/ss.241 ◽

2007 ◽

Vol 2007 (118) ◽

pp. 55-70 ◽

Cited By ~ 4

Author(s):

Steven Syverson

Keyword(s):

Standardized Tests ◽

College Admissions ◽

Admissions Test ◽

Test Optional

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Analyzing the Potential Benefit of Microcomputer Use for Teaching Figurative Language

American Journal of Speech-Language Pathology ◽

10.1044/1058-0360.0102.36 ◽

1992 ◽

Vol 1 (2) ◽

pp. 36-43 ◽

Cited By ~ 5

Author(s):

Marilyn A. Nippold ◽

Ilsa E. Schwarz ◽

Molly Lewis

Keyword(s):

Language Learning ◽

Children And Adolescents ◽

Standardized Tests ◽

Figurative Language ◽

Language Intervention ◽

School Age Children ◽

Educational Materials ◽

Language Learning Disabilities ◽

Promising Application ◽

Experience Difficulty

Microcomputers offer the potential for increasing the effectiveness of language intervention for school-age children and adolescents who have language-learning disabilities. One promising application is in the treatment of students who experience difficulty comprehending figurative expressions, an aspect of language that occurs frequently in both spoken and written contexts. Although software is available to teach figurative language to children and adolescents, it is our feeling that improvements are needed in the existing programs. Software should be reviewed carefully before it is used with students, just as standardized tests and other clinical and educational materials are routinely scrutinized before use. In this article, four microcomputer programs are described and evaluated. Suggestions are then offered for the development of new types of software to teach figurative language.

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Dynamic Assessment With Bilinguals: A Focus on Increasing Clinicians' Confidence

Perspectives on Communication Disorders and Sciences in Culturally and Linguistically Diverse Populations ◽

10.1044/cds22.3.112 ◽

2015 ◽

Vol 22 (3) ◽

pp. 112-121 ◽

Cited By ~ 4

Author(s):

Brenda K. Gorman

Keyword(s):

Standardized Tests ◽

Dynamic Assessment ◽

English Speakers ◽

Bilingual Children ◽

Assessment Practices ◽

Speech Language Pathologists ◽

Idea 2004 ◽

Disabilities Education Act ◽

Effective Dynamic ◽

Education Act

Speech-language pathologists (SLPs) are obligated to judiciously select and administer appropriate assessments without inherent cultural or linguistic bias (Individuals with Disabilities Education Act [IDEA], 2004). Nevertheless, clinicians continue to struggle with appropriate assessment practices for bilingual children, and diagnostic decisions are too often based on standardized tests that were normed predominately on monolingual English speakers (Caesar & Kohler, 2007). Dynamic assessment is intended to be a valid and unbiased approach for ascertaining what a child knows and can do, yet many speech-language pathologists (SLPs) struggle in knowing what and how to assess within this paradigm. Therefore, the aim of this paper is to present a clinical scenario and summarize extant research on effective dynamic language assessment practices, with a focus on specific language tasks and procedures, in order to foster SLPs' confidence in their use of dynamic assessment with bilingual children.

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