PTC/MW - Personnel Testing Council of Metropolitan Washington

Luncheon: April 14, 2010

Time: 11:30am - 1:30pm
Register: Members (requires sign-in) | Non-Members 

Title: “Procedural Steps in Conducting Common Item Equating” 

Presented by: Paul Usala , Ph.D., U.S. Customs and Border Protection

Location:  GMU Arlington Campus, Original Building, Room 245 (view map)

Abstract: April’s PTC presentation on test equating given by Dr. Paul Usala will take attendees through the steps for Common Item Equating (a.k.a. Anchor Equating) as conducted for the U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) Promotional Assessments Systems.  This process determines how scores on one assessment should be adjusted to be comparable to scores on another version of the same assessment when the two assessments share a subset of items (i.e., when some items appear on both assessments).   Attendees will leave the luncheon with thorough understanding of steps for conducting Common Item Equating as well as other matters impacting test equating work.

Workshop: March 10, 2010

Time: 8:30am - 11:30am
Register: Members (requires sign-in) | Non-Members 
Note: Webcast unavailable; Breakfast buffet available for all registrants.

Title: “Hiring Reform and Internet Testing: Whether and How to Go Unproctored” 

Presented by: Ken Lahti, PreVisor

Location:  GMU Arlington Campus, Original Building, Room 317 (view map)

Featured Exhibitor:

 

Ricci v. DeStefano FAQs posted by OFCCP

OFCCP has released a questions and answers document (download PDF) on the U.S. Supreme Court ruling in Ricci v. DeStefano. For the last 8 months some  federal contractors have wondered whether the Ricci ruling had implications for how (1) contractors should conduct adverse impact analyses, (2) OFCCP would evaluate selection procedure validity research, (3) to differentiate reasonable alternatives from unreasonable alternatives.   

The FAQ section includes:

• A summary of the Court's decision;
• Consideration of how the decision affects OFCCP's procedures during compliance reviews and contractors' affirmative action obligations;
• General suggestions for how contractors can avoid scenarios like the one seen in Ricci.

Legal Update - February 2010

Gathered by Richard Tonowski, Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC)

SELECTION CASES

G’day, mate.  You’re out 19 million quid.

Outback Steakhouse is a national organization of Australian-themed casual restaurants.  The franchise in Colorado entered into a settlement with the EEOC valued at $19M.  The issue was non-promotion of women to managerial positions.

As with several other recent EEOC selection cases, the substance of the suit was on the looseness of the selection procedure.  In EEOC’s view, the problem was a “tap on the shoulder” initial step.  There were no applications.  Managerial prospects were identified by their supervisors.  The procedure was more formalized in later steps, including tests that were not at issue in the charge.  For EEOC and the charging parties, too few women got the call to advance. 

Announcement: Monograph on Content Validation

PTC/MW members may be interested in a new monograph on content validation available at www.ipacweb.org. Published in January 2009 as a monograph of the International Personnel Assessment Council (IPAC), the title is “Rationale and Research Evidence Supporting the Use of Content Validation in Personnel Assessment” and it was written by Charles Sproule (Sproule & Associates). The monograph makes a case for use of content validation in personnel assessment and reviews content validation legal requirements, professional standards, and principles for best practice. It describes why employers often rely on content validation. Content valid assessments tend to have lower levels of adverse impact and higher applicant acceptance than more general assessment methods.