Michigan State University Extension
Diversity and Pluralism - 20293124
12/95/
ERIC TITLE NUMBER: ED197024 AUTHOR: Sullivan, Otha Richard
TITLE: Who Is Testing Black Children and Youth in the
Public Schools of America?
YEAR PUBLISHED: 1980
NOTE: 8 p.; Paper presented at the Tenth Anniversary of the
Black Child Institute (Washington, DC, October 31, 1980).
ABSTRACT: Despite research conducted on the testing of
minorities, little attention has been given to the issue of
the race and training of the test administrator, i.e., the
psychometrist or school psychologist. Black children in the
present educational system are most often faced with
examiners who are culturally, socially, and economically
different from themselves. These differences undoubtedly
create problems of rapport and may be the cause of
disproportionate numbers of black children being identified
as educable mentally retarded. There is great inequity in
the access to professional training and equal employment
for blacks in the field of school psychology. In order to
train more blacks as school psychologists and to provide
more comprehensive testing of children and youth, the
following recommendations might be followed: (1) the
implementation of affirmative action hiring programs for
school psychologists; (2) Federal efforts to correct
underrepresentation of blacks; (3) the development of
school psychology programs by black colleges and
universities; (4) the consideration of a broader range of
data for psychological assessment; (5) improved training of
school psychologists, including an unbiased orientation to
the cultural characteristics of the students they will be
evaluating; and (6) improved access of blacks to graduate
programs in predominantly white institutions. (Author/GC)
KEY DESCRIPTORS: Cultural-Differences; Elementary-Secondary
Education; Handicap-Identification; Testing-Problems
KEY DESCRIPTORS: *Black-Education; *Blacks-; *Educational
Testing; *Experimenter-Characteristics; *Higher-Education;
*School-Psychologists
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