Testing and the Paradoxes of Fairness
Published on 30. October 2025
Book
Hardback
228 pages
978-1-009-57687-1 (ISBN)
Description
How can admissions officers, employers, and scholarship committees maximize the accuracy of prediction of individual performance while minimizing adverse impact due to group differences? Testing offers a straightforward solution to the first half of this problem. Tests are the best way to predict how someone will perform in school, in the military, in medicine, or while controlling airline traffic and flying a plane. Tests are also useful beyond personnel selection, such as for selection of a college major or courses. However, the other side of this problem is more complex. Using tests is always accompanied by group differences that could result in continued systemic discrimination by limiting opportunities for those who are marginalized. This book charts an approach to using tests that incorporates evidence, transparency, and societal values to maximize efficiency and fairness.
Reviews / Votes
'There is not a more pragmatically effective, yet maligned field in the behavioral sciences than the measurement of human abilities. It has been effective precisely because it has been built around measurement, and yet it is maligned precisely because it has been so effective in addressing real world issues. In 'Testing and the Paradoxes of Fairness' Howard Wainer and Daniel Robinson masterfully describe how and why this has occurred.' David Lubinski, Intelligence 'One of the best books I ever read on the place of testing in our culture.' David C. Berliner, Arizona State University 'Wainer and Robinson present an unblinking, data-based look at the discriminatory effects of both standardized testing-and the absence of standardized testing-on admissions, selection, licensing and other personnel decisions. The results for individuals, groups, institutions and society make clear the substantial costs of ignoring evidence in these decisions.' Arthur E. Wise, Education Author, Advocate and PolicymakerMore details
Language
English
Place of publication
Cambridge
United Kingdom
Illustrations
Worked examples or Exercises
Dimensions
Height: 235 mm
Width: 157 mm
Thickness: 17 mm
Weight
487 gr
ISBN-13
978-1-009-57687-1 (9781009576871)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Other editions
Additional editions
Howard Wainer | Daniel H. Robinson
Testing and the Paradoxes of Fairness
Book
10/2025
Cambridge University Press
€32.40
Shipment within 15-20 days
Persons
Howard Wainer is an award-winning American statistician and research scientist. His areas of work include testing, graphical methods for data analysis and communication, and robust statistical methodology. He has served on the faculty of the University of Chicago, at the Bureau of Social Science Research during the Carter Administration, and as Principal Research Scientist in the Research Statistics Group at Educational Testing Service for twenty-one years, and in 2016, he retired after fifteen years as Distinguished Research Scientist at the National Board of Medical Examiners.
Content
Preface; 1. Introduction to the history of testing; 2. Why tests are so widely disliked; 3. The origins of mental testing in the US military; 4. Testing in grades K-12; 5. Licensing exams: physicians, pilots and teachers as examples; 6. Admission testing for higher education; 7. Tests used for awarding scholarships and prizes; 8. Using student test scores to evaluate teachers: an assessment of value-added modeling; 9. Dividing test scores into subcomponents; 10. On cost functions in testing; 11. Evidence in science: what data can we trust?; 12. Testing zombies; 13. Coda; References; Index.