Test Bias: Validity of the Scholastic Aptitude Test for Negro and White Students in Integrated Colleges

ABSTRACT For this research, a test was said to be biased for members of a subgroup of the population if, in the prediction of a criterion for which the test was designed, consistent nonzero errors of prediction are made for members of the subgroup. Samples of Negro and white students from three integrated colleges were studied. In the two eastern colleges, no significant differences in the regression lines were found. In the one college in the southwest, significant differences were found, but it was the Negro scores which were overpredicted. Thus, in one of the three schools, the Scholastic Aptitude Test was found to be slightly biased, but biased in favor of the Negro student.