THE TEST PERFORMANCE OF HANDICAPPED PEOPLE

Abstract

ABSTRACTThis paper is the second in a series of reports emanating from a four‐year research program meant to further knowledge of college and graduate admissions testing and handicapped people. The purpose of this paper is to document existing research on the test performance of handicapped people with respect to admissions and other similar tests. In addition, the psychometric characteristics of these tests when used with handicapped people are reported.Though much more data need to be collected, several observations are made. Handicapped students as a general group perform appreciably lower than national norms on the SAT and ACT Assessment (by about .5 standard deviations). Of the four specific disability groups discussed, the admissions test performance of physically handicapped and of visually impaired examinees is most similar to the nondisabled population. The admissions test performance of learning disabled individuals ranks third among the specific disability groups. With limited exceptions, the performance of this group is appreciably lower than national norms (generally by at least .5 standard deviations). Hearing impaired students perform the least we 11 of all disabled groups on admissions tests.The limited data on the reliability of cognitive tests for handicapped examinees show no trustworthy differences in measurement precision between disabled and nondisabled populations. The results of the small number of validity investigations that have been conducted also show no dependable differences across populations. Data on the ACT Assessment and the SAT generally support the validity of these measures as equivalent predictors of col lege performance in selected disabled student groups and the nonhandicapped population.The lack of data on test performance, reliability, and validity prohibits drawing definitive conclusions at this time. Further research is necessary before the fairness of the admissions testing process for handicapped examinees can be soundly evaluated.