Issues in Advancing Diversity Through Assessment

Employing noncognitive variables in admitting students of color

“…In 1986, I suggested that there is a tendency for colleges and universities to use a "one-measure-for-all" or "Three Musketeers" approach to admission (Sedlacek, 1986(Sedlacek, , 1994. This is based on the questionable assumption that a single measure can work equally well for all.…”

“…Another problem in admission is deciding what to call "culturally different" applicants. I have coined the phrase "Quest for the Golden Label," to refer to the tendency to think that finding the right label will solve the problem (Sedlacek, 1994). As Franklin Westbrook and I pointed out, in the last forty years terms such as culturally deprived in the 1950s, disadvantaged in the 1960s, multicultural and diversity in more recent years, and most recently people of color have been applied to largely the same people (Westbrook and Sedlacek, 1991).…”

Counseling for Dropout Prevention: Applications From Multicultural Counseling

“…Support for the existence of cultural influences on cognition also comes from research on testing. Sedlacek (1994) reported that the abilities of nonmainstream individuals are not adequately assessed by college admissions tests, and Miller-Jones (1989) asserted that measurement of cognitive skills may be more strongly related to cultural contexts than to innate qualities.…”

Is the SAT the Root of all Evil? Reviewing the Evidence on Admission Policies and Diversity in Higher Education

“…While experts agree that additional measures are needed, it seems that the design and creations of additional measures are difficult. Non-cognitive questionnaires have been proposed and are in use (Sedlacek, 1994(Sedlacek, , 1997) but a meta-analytic review of 47 studies has found no validity of such a test (Thomas, Kuncel, & Credé, 2007). Since standardized tests do not measure other important criteria for admissions (Sackett et al, 2008), research on these additional measures is vital.…”