This research focused on the cultural bias in the items the California Achievement Tests (CAT). Performance variability was examined across all individual items of the CAT for the third graders from four ethnic groups. A sample of 1600 third grade children was randomly selected from population of children attending various elementary schools in the state of Arizona. Four hundred subjects within each ethnic group were matched for sex, ethnicity, and grade level. A two-factor (items scores and ethnicity) ANOVA procedure was used to examine the interaction between the item performances and ethnicity for groups of Anglo and Black, Hispanic, and American Indian on all individual test items of the eight subtest of the CAT. An examination of obtained findings revealed that a total of 31 items were found to be as culturally biased against Hispanic, Blacks, and Native-American children. Of these items, thirty were biased toward American Indians, six items were biased toward Hispanics, and four items were biased toward Blacks. Some items were biased toward more than one ethnic group. Twenty-eight items identified as biased belonged to five of the six language subtests and three items are part of one of the two mathematics subtests. It should be noted that even though most of the items (98%) did not reveal any statistical evidence of bias, there were only four items (1.9%) on which minority group children performed higher than did the Anglo children. The overall direction of the findings would seem to suggest that most of the content of the CAT is free from cultural bias.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:arizona.edu/oai:arizona.openrepository.com:10150/184017 |
| Date | January 1987 |
| Creators | COOK, PAUL CHRISTOPHER. |
| Contributors | Mishra, Shitala P., Calmes, Robert E., Gullo, Joseph D., Christiansen, Harley D. |
| Publisher | The University of Arizona. |
| Source Sets | University of Arizona |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | text, Dissertation-Reproduction (electronic) |
| Rights | Copyright © is held by the author. Digital access to this material is made possible by the University Libraries, University of Arizona. Further transmission, reproduction or presentation (such as public display or performance) of protected items is prohibited except with permission of the author. |
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