No abstract

In this study data were examined from several national testing programs to determine whether the change from paper‐based administration to computer‐based tests (CBTs) influences group differences in performance. Performances by gender, racial, and ethnic groups on the Graduate Record Examination General Test, Graduate Management Admissions Test, SAT I: Reasoning Test, and Praxis: Professional Assessment for Beginning Teachers, were analyzed to determine whether the shift in testing format from paper‐and‐pencil tests to CBTs posed a disadvantage to any of these subgroups, beyond that already identified for paper‐based tests. Although all differences were quite small, some consistent patterns were found for some racial‐ethnic and gender groups. African‐American examinees and, to a lesser degree, Hispanic examinees appear to benefit from the CBT format. On some tests, female examinees' performance was relatively lower on the CBT version.

A two-part study was conducted to determine whether theoretical work examining gender differences in cognitive processing can be applied to quantitative items on the Graduate Record Examination (GRE ® ) to minimize gender differences in performance. In Part I, the magnitude of gender differences in performance on specific test items was predicted using a coding scheme. In Part II, a new test was created by using the coding scheme developed in Part I to clone items that elicited few gender-based performance differences. Results indicate that gender differences in performance on some GRE quantitative items may be influenced by cognitive factors such as item context, whether multiple solution paths lead to a correct answer, and whether spatiallybased shortcuts can be used.

The predictive validity of the SAT® I: Reasoning Test was examined for students who took the test with an extended time accommodation for a learning disability. The sample included college students with learning disabilities who took the SAT I between 1995 and 1998 with extended time accommodations. First year grade point average (FGPA) was used as a measure of student performance. Although positive, the adjusted correlation between FGPA and SAT scores was lower for test‐takers with a learning disability than has been shown in prior research on test‐takers without disabilities. In addition, the SAT scores obtained with an extended time accommodation appear to overpredict FGPA for male test‐takers with a learning disability and accurately predict FGPA for female test‐takers with a learning disability. When the same students were examined using both SAT I test scores and self‐reported high school grade point average (HSGPA) to predict FGPA, the scores and grades of male test‐takers did not under‐ or overpredict while the scores of female test‐takers underpredicted FGPA. Due to the relatively small sample size, additional research is required to examine group differences (e.g., type of learning disability, severity of disability) and the impact of differential support received from college disability service offices during the first year of college.

This study examined data from several national testing programs to determine whether the change from paper-based administration to computer-based tests (CBTs) influences group differences in performance. Performance by gender, racial/ethnic, and language groups on the Graduate Record Examination (GRE@) General Test, the Graduate Management Admissions Test (GMAT@), the SAT@ I:Reasoning (SAT) test, the Praxis? Professional Assessment for Beginning Teachers (Praxis), and the Test of English as a Foreign Language (TOEFL) was analyzed to ensure that the change to CBTs does not pose a disadvantage to any of these subgroups, beyond that already identified for paper-based tests. Although all differences were quite small, some consistent patterns were found for some racial/ethnic and gender groups. African American examinees and, to a lesser degree, Hispanic examinees appear to benefit from the CBT format. However, for some tests, the CBT version negatively impacted female examinees.Analyses by gender within race/ethnicity revealed a similar pattern, though only for White females.Analyses for groups based on language showed no consistent patterns, but results indicate that the computer-based TOEFL has increased impact for some language groups --especially Chinese and Korean groups.