NCLEX Fairness and Sensitivity Review

Abstract

The National Council Licensing Examination is an examination that is used for the purpose of licensing registered nurses and practical/vocational nurses. To help ensure that the examination questions (items) are fair and unbiased, all items undergo a fairness and sensitivity review as part of the item development process. This article focuses on the fairness and sensitivity review.

An Examination of Common Sensitivity Review Practices in Test Development

“…Sensitivity reviews are commonly performed as part of large‐scale testing programs including, but not limited to, the SAT (College Board, ), ACT (ACT, ), GMAT (Rudner, ), National Assessment of Educational Progress (Ravitch, ), California High School Exit Examination (Becker, Wise, Hardoin, & Watters, ), Iowa Tests of Basic Skills (Hoover, Dunbar, & Frisbie, ), National Council Licensure Examination for Registered Nurses (Wendt, Kenny, & Riley, ), California Teacher Licensure Exams (Le & Buddin, ), and Singapore Workforce Development Agency's Employability Skills Testing (Jacobsen et al, ). Test developers pursue sensitivity reviews with the expectation that the reviews can improve an assessment's psychometric quality, fairness, and legal defensibility (McPhail, ).…”