High-stakes testing in employment, credentialing, and higher education: Prospects in a post-affirmative-action world.

Abstract

Cognitively loaded tests of knowledge, skill, and ability often contribute to decisions regarding education, jobs, licensure, or certification. Users of such tests often face difficult choices when trying to optimize both the performance and ethnic diversity of chosen individuals. The authors describe the nature of this quandary, review research on different strategies to address it, and recommend using selection materials that assess the full range of relevant attributes using a format that minimizes verbal content as much as is consistent with the outcome one is trying to achieve. They also recommend the use of test preparation, face-valid assessments, and the consideration of relevant job or life experiences. Regardless of the strategy adopted, it is unreasonable to expect that one can maximize both the performance and ethnic diversity of selected individuals.

Changes in Levels of Affirmative Action in College Admissions in Response to Statewide Bans and Judicial Rulings

“…Our use of "post-affirmative action" follows a general convention in which the term signifies a policy environment where affirmative action has been eliminated, for example, the "post-affirmative action world" (Sackett, Schmitt, Ellingson, & Kabin, 2001) or the "post-affirmative action era" (Colburn, Young, & Yellen, 2008). As we will explain, however, we use this term with caution because circuit court and Supreme Court cases on affirmative action left a patchwork of legal environments across the United States during the years in question.…”

The Operational Validity of a Video-Based Situational Judgment Test for Medical College Admissions: Illustrating the Importance of Matching Predictor and Criterion Construct Domains.

“…The domains of personnel selection and higher educational admissions share a number of parallels (Sackett, Schmitt, Ellingson, & Kabin, 2001). First, in both domains, there is a history of use of cognitively oriented measures of ability and achievement (e.g., cognitive ability and job knowledge tests in employment settings, and measures such as the Scholastic Aptitude Test (SAT), American College Test (ACT), and Graduate Record Examination (GRE) in educational settings).…”

Measurement of New Attributes for Chile's Admissions System to Higher Education

“…We expect that the development of these new instruments, and their future use in admissions, will neutralize some of the known advantages given by traditional academic indicators to students coming from higher socioeconomic backgrounds (see, for example, Sackett, Schmitt, Ellingson, & Kabin, 2001). In addition, it will send a clear signal to high schools regarding the attributes that they should help develop, thereby expanding the high school senior year curriculum that currently focuses on the preparation for the standardized admissions test.…”