fairness

n. the equitable treatment of test takers in order to eliminate systematic variance in outcome scores among people with different racial or cultural experiences and other background influences. Fundamentally a sociocultural (rather than a technical) issue, fairness is a broad area encompassing quality management in test design, administration, and scoring; adequate coverage of relevant content; sufficient work to establish construct validity; equal learning opportunities and access to testing; and items measuring only the skill or ability under investigation without being unduly influenced by construct-irrelevant variance introduced through test-taker background factors. See also culture-fair test.

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Psychology term of the day

January 13th 2025

prima facie

at first sight: on the face of things (Latin, literally: “first face”). Prima facie evidence is evidence that, although not conclusive, is considered sufficiently strong to support an inference of fact in the absence of evidence to the contrary.