The Nation : New School Test Code Aims for Fairness

Six educational testing organizations announced a new code of practices that commits them to strive for fairness in tests given to students of different races, sex or ethnic backgrounds. The voluntary code commits the test makers to review and revise questions “to avoid potentially insensitive content or language” and to offer “appropriately modified forms of tests” to the handicapped. The new code, signed by the Educational Testing Service, the College Board, the American College Testing Program, CTB/McGraw Hill, the Psychological Corp. and the Riverside Publishing Co., calls for the test makers to investigate the performance of test takers of different races, sex and ethnic backgrounds and to set up procedures “to ensure that differences in performance are related primarily to the skills under assessment rather than to irrelevant factors.”