Classroom activities are presented to help teachers introduce general controversial issues and specific issues on nuclear power in their high school science, social studies, and English classes. Objectives are to help students understand the various techniques of persuasion; the relationship between bias, persuasion, and fact; how these techniques…

This digest reviews the issues of identity and adjustment faced by adolescent Southeast Asian refugees in the United States. Most teenagers from all the Southeast Asian ethnic groups have adopted the dress, hairstyles, and manners of American teenagers, yet their ethnic identity remains strong and specific. This is particularly true for refugees…

The standardization method of determining differential item functioning (DIF) is not acceptable for detecting biased items because of its methodological limitations. The main problems with the standardization index by N. J. Dorans and E. Kulick (1983) are: (1) it does not detect as DIF all items with large or aberrant group differences; (2) it…

Confirmatory factor analysis (LISREL VI) is the method best suited to the comparison of measurement models when those models are based on a priori assumptions. Traditionally, positive and negative item stems were mixed on affective scales to reduce response set bias since the item pairs were considered to be parallel. Recent studies indicate that…

The ability of the Medical College Admissions Test (MCAT) and undergraduate grade point average (GPA) to predict success in medical school was studied, and two complementary methods of determining if the tests are biased against ethnic groups were examined. Data from 497 majority and 82 minority medical students at the College of Human Medicine at…

Issues in preparing a review form to detect item bias in tests are discussed and the first draft of an item bias review form is presented. While stereotyping is the consistent representation of a given group in a particular light, bias is the presence of some characteristic of an item that results in differential performance of two individuals of…

The cultural bias of the Adult Performance Level Assessment, Form AA-l (APLA) was examined. The potential influence of cultural differences on scores of a major ethnic group, Acadians or Cajuns, was investigated. Assessment items most prone to produce differences in scores were isolated and administered to selected groups. No significant…

Part of a series designed to help community groups engage in discussion on the possibility of individual and community transformation, this guide explores the issues of stereotyping, prejudice, and discrimination. Characteristics of stereotyping and factors producing prejudice (personality, learned beliefs, frustration, and economic competition)…

In this interview, Reverend Floyd H. Flake, member, United States House of Representatives and Founder of the Allen Christian School, discusses how the school was started, and outlines its focus, goals, and values. The school was begun because black students do not seem to perform as well when they are being taught with white students. Rev. Flake,…

This paper discusses the southern approach to education during the period of 1700 to 1860. During this period there developed in the South three culture-specific institutions that helped delay the growth of Common Schools, and later Public Schools. Those institutions were the following: (1) a code of honor; (2) the development of a structured…

The migrant lifestyle, in which a student moves to a new school nearly three times per year, destroys the continuity of educational programs and contributes to abnormally high dropout rates. Educational testing can help improve educational continuity for migrant students by yielding valuable information about their levels of skills mastery so they…

This report examines the problem of curriculum revision in the formal education structure of developing countries to eliminate sex bias against women. It identifies three needs: to (1) increase the number of girls in school, (2) alter school schedules to allow women with household and agricultural responsibilities to attend classes, and (3) revise…

Case studies of a black boy and a white boy from a kindergarten class in a desegregated school examined the effects of teacher attitudes on students' conformity to classroom behavior norms. Both boys had been referred to the school psychologist by their teacher because of their disruptive classroom behavior. Information collected on the two boys…

This second volume of a three-volume report presents research conducted in the former New Castle County (Delaware) School District to discover whether the overrepresentation of minority students in special education and lower academic groupings that occurred from 1979 to 1982 resulted from discriminatory practices or not. (The district was…

This publication contains five action papers, as well as reaction to them, from a seminar on women and rehabilitation. The papers consider women both as professionals in the field of rehabilitation and as consumers of rehabilitation services. In the first two papers, Carolyn L. Vash, Martha M. Carrick, and Tamara Bibb explore the employment status…