Race-norming, more formally called within-group score conversion and score adjustment strategy, is the practice of adjusting test scores to account for the race or ethnicity of the test-taker.[1] In the United States, it was first implemented by the Federal Government in 1981 with little publicity,[2] and was subsequently outlawed by the Civil Rights Act of 1991.[3]
Prior to being banned by the federal government, race-norming was practiced by 38 U.S. states' employment services.[4] The aim of this practice is to counteract alleged racial bias in aptitude tests administered to job applicants,[3] as well as in neuropsychological tests.[5] The argument was that it guarantees racial balance. The practice converted and compared the raw score of the test according to racial groups. The score of a black candidate is only compared to the scores of those who had the same ethnicity. If the candidate's score, which is reported within a percentile range, fell within a certain percentile when compared to white or all candidates, it would be much higher among other black candidates.[6]
Criticism
editRace-norming has been criticized as racist towards Black people and has been compared to eugenics and pseudoscientific racism.[7] In 2021, such criticisms surfaced following an announcement by the National Football League that they will cease to use the practice in determining settlements for players' injuries.[8]
University of Delaware professor Linda Gottfredson has been very critical of this practice,[9][10] as have conservative columnist George Will[11] and law professor Robert J. Delahunty.[12] Criticism was based on the perception that race-norming was biased in favor of blacks.[13] In the 1980s, the Reagan administration ordered a study into the unadjusted General Aptitude Test Battery (without race-norming); the results, released in 1989, showed that unadjusted test scores were not strongly related to job performance.[14]
On June 2, 2021, the National Football League (NFL) announced that they would halt the use of race-norming that assumed Black NFL players started out with lower cognitive functioning in a $1 billion dollar brain injury settlement.[15]
References
edit- ^ Miller, Leslie A.; McIntire, Sandra A.; Lovler, Robert L. (2011). Foundations of Psychological Testing: A Practical Approach, Third Edition. Los Angeles, CA: SAGE Publications. p. 50. ISBN 9781412976398.
- ^ Rabin, Jack (1994). "Race Norming, Validity Generalization, and Employment Testing". Handbook of Public Personnel Administration. CRC Press. p. 451. ISBN 9780824792312.
- ^ a b Greenlaw, Paul S.; Jensen, Sanne S. (March 1996). "Race-Norming and the Civil Rights Act of 1991". Public Personnel Management. 25 (1): 13–24. doi:10.1177/009102609602500102. S2CID 143168254.
- ^ Miller, Leslie; McIntire, Sandra; Lovler, Robert (2011). Foundations of Psychological Testing: A Practical Approach. SAGE. p. 50. ISBN 9781412976398.
- ^ Gasquoine, Philip G. (19 March 2009). "Race-Norming of Neuropsychological Tests". Neuropsychology Review. 19 (2): 250–262. doi:10.1007/s11065-009-9090-5. PMID 19294515. S2CID 13933700.
- ^ Edwards, John (2005-06-29). When Race Counts: The Morality of Racial Preference in Britain and America. New York: Routledge. pp. 117. ISBN 0415072921.
- ^ Hobson, Will. "How 'race-norming' was built into the NFL concussion settlement". The Washington Post. Retrieved 21 October 2021.
Revelations about race-norming have drawn fierce blowback from players and advocates, some of whom have made comparisons to eugenics and other racist pseudoscience and social science leveraged against minority groups throughout history.
- ^ Dale, Maryclaire (21 October 2021). "NFL, players agree to end 'race-norming' in $1B settlement". The Associated Press. Retrieved 21 October 2021.
The NFL and lawyers for thousands of retired NFL players have reached an agreement to end race-based adjustments in dementia testing in the $1 billion settlement of concussion claims, according to a proposed deal filed Wednesday in federal court.
- ^ Gottfredson, Linda S. (1994). "The science and politics of race-norming". American Psychologist. 49 (11): 955–963. CiteSeerX 10.1.1.464.2586. doi:10.1037/0003-066X.49.11.955. PMID 7985887.
- ^ Gottfredson, Linda S (December 1988). "Reconsidering fairness: A matter of social and ethical priorities". Journal of Vocational Behavior. 33 (3): 293–319. doi:10.1016/0001-8791(88)90041-3.
- ^ Will, George F. (23 May 1991). "Seeing Nothing Normal in 'Race-Norming'". The Baltimore Sun.
- ^ Delahunty, Robert J (December 1988). "Perspectives on within-group scoring". Journal of Vocational Behavior. 33 (3): 463–477. doi:10.1016/0001-8791(88)90051-6.
- ^ Kolb, Charles (1994). White House Daze: The Unmaming Domestic Policy in the Bush Years. New York: The Free Press. p. 256. ISBN 068486388X.
- ^ "Test Cases: How 'Race-Norming' Works". Newsweek. 2 June 1991.
- ^ "NFL to halt 'race-norming,' review Black claims". ESPN. Associated Press. 2021-06-02. Retrieved 2021-06-04.
External links
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