Policy Implications of Psychological Assessment of Minority Children

The insistent demand for “nondiscriminatory” testing procedures in psychoeducational assessment, especially of children from minority groups, has had a substantial base in case law (e.g., Larry P. v. Wilson Riles, 1979; Mattie T. et al., v. Charles E. Holladay et al., 1979; see also Elliott, Chapter 20 in this volume) as well as federal legislation (e.g., Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964; Section 504 of the Vocational Rehabilitation Act of 1973; Education of All Handicapped Children Act of 1975). Professional organizations, such as the American Psychological Association, the American Educational Research Association, and the National Council on Measurement in Education, have adopted policy statements addressed to the possibility of bias in mental tests. Innovative assessment practices with minority children have been developed in efforts to minimize the discrepancy in intelligence test scores between minority and majority children and to prevent inappropriate or disproportionate assignment of minority children, relative to majority children, to special education classes (Jones, 1976, 1988; Sewell, 1987). These concerns constitute issues in psychometrics and educational practice, but they also constitute public policy issues.