Racial Bias and Predictive Validity in Testing for Selection.

In contrast to the Cleary-McNemar view affirmed by Cole in the October 1981 issue of the American Psychologist on testing--questions of bias are fundamentally question of validity--this report shows that freedom from statutory test bias, as interpreted by the courts, is different from predictive validity. Use of a score-adjustment formula developed here to correct for statutory test bias shows in typical cases not only that the correction tends only negligibly to reduce predictive validity but also that the enhancement of predictive validity without regard to statutory test bias can add a sizable criterion-independent decrement selectively to the already low test scores of low-scoring demographic groups. Author