A Comparison of Levels and Dimensions of Performance in Black and White Groups on Tests of Vocabulary, Mathematics, and Spatial Ability.

Abstract

This report examines the nature and extent of ability test performance differences between Black and White high school students on vocabulary, mathematics, and spatial ability tests. Mean differences on total test scores were found for all three tests with Whites averaging higher than Blacks. In the vocabulary test, however, this effect could not be interpreted independently of sex and parents' educational level. Parents' educational levels were significantly related to performance on the vocabulary and spatial tests; in the vocabulary test parental education interacted with the race and sex variables. Separate factor analyses were performed for the Black and White groups to determine the number and nature of dimensions underlying performance for each group. While the number of factors needed to account for the common item variance in each test was the same for Blacks and Whites, items defining each factor and the correlations of factors across the three tests indicated that the nature of the factors was different for the two groups. For the vocabulary test, degree of item bias was evaluated in terms of the difference in item difficulties for Black and Whites as indexed by the difficulty (b) parameter of Item Characteristic Curve (ICC) theory. Comparison of the ICC item parameters for the Blacks and Whites showed differences in both difficulties and discriminations. By comparing the index of item bias with the vocabulary factor structures in both groups, a 'bias' factor defined by 'Black-type' words was identified in the White group. Analysis of racial group differences in relationships among subtest scores and factor scores showed that Whites had more common variance among subtests than Blacks.

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Document Details

Document Type
Technical Report
Publication Date
Oct 01, 1978
Accession Number
ADA062797

Entities

People

  • Austin T. Church
  • David J. Weiss
  • Steven M. Pine

Organizations

  • University of Minnesota

Tags

Communities of Interest

  • Biomedical
  • Human Systems

DTIC Thesaurus Topics

  • Analysis Of Variance
  • Biological Sciences
  • Civilian Personnel
  • Cognition
  • Data Analysis
  • Data Science
  • Education
  • Ethnic Groups
  • Factor Analysis
  • Hispanics
  • Information Science
  • Mathematics
  • Military Research
  • Minority Groups
  • New York
  • Psychology
  • Students

Fields of Study

  • Education
  • Psychology

Readers

  • Fault Tolerant Diagnosis of Black and White Balloon Isolation Tests Using ¥.
  • Psychometric Testing or Psychological Assessment.