The Role of Schools in Developing Sex Role Attitudes
I would like to discuss in this paper the role of schools and the educational process in transmitting and developing healthy attitudes toward sex roles. I will take the approach that in order for this to be accomplished, we must examine the behaviors and attitudes both of those who are educating and those who are being educated. My observations and data will be drawn from the environment with which I am most familiar, the American public education system, but I will also attempt to extend my remarks to include salient aspects of the educational systems of other cultures as I know them or have reports of them.
Sex Bias in Educational Testing: A Sociologist's Perspective. Research Memorandum No. 74-13.
Several criteria for assessing. bias in educational tests are presented end discussed. These criteria were developed in accordance with basic notions of fairness, equality, and expanded .life options for women. In terms of prescriptions for test , . _'.,:develdpers the criteria are: (1) tests should be constructed of items which contain either no sex references or equal sex references; (2) status of males and females within the test should be equal; (3) item content should not reinforce traditional sex stereotypes. Tests currently in 'use may be considered biased if:. (4) item content in terms of male-or female statuses or stereotypes affects the "performance of males or females differentially; (5) the test predicts differentially for males and females; (6) the test is, normed separately for males and febiales unless separate norms are used to 4 insure balance in selection; (7) the test is constructed so that female futures may be separated from male futures. (Author/RC)
BIAS IN SELECTION
Possible bias in selection procedures used for employment and college admissions is of crucial social and educational importance. However, there are many different definitions of what constitutes bias with each definition based on different values and with different implications for how selection should be accomplished. A number of these definitions of bias and their implications are examined, and a new conditional probability model of fairness based on equal opportunity for potentially successful applicants is presented. This conditional probability model is proposed as an intuitively appealing and socially desirable model for use in many selection situations in employment and college admissions.