Author: Dan A. Biddle, Ph.D.

Analyzing adverse impact and developing defensible testing programs are two important functions of an HR professional's job. Employers that use testing practices run two major risks. First, many testing practices exhibit adverse impact on various groups, which will place their employers at risk of audit or litigation actions from federal agencies or plaintiff groups. Second, testing practices that are not properly validated are not likely to properly select the most qualified applicants. This book describes the practical steps that employers can take to safeguard their hiring systems against audits or litigation actions, and build robust testing systems that will have the highest likelihood of properly selecting qualified workers.

Dan Biddle's Adverse Impact and Test Validation provides you with guidelines and analysis steps that allow you to identify which of your selection procedures have adverse impact and how to complete a defensible validation study using court-endorsed methodologies.

This book includes evaluation copies of BCG's new Test Validation & Analysis Program (TVAP™) and Adverse Impact Toolkit™. TVAP is designed to assist employers with complex testing analyses using a straight-forward Microsoft® Excel®-based program. The Toolkit provides the latest variety of court-supported methodologies for calculating adverse impact (also using Excel).

Chapter 1: Adverse Impact

• Overview
• Types of adverse impact analyses
• The concept of statistical significance
• Selection rate comparison for a single event
• Selection rate comparisons for multiple events
• Availability comparison for a single event
• Availability comparisons for multiple events
• Using logistic regression to evaluate adverse impact

Chapter 2: Selection Procedure Development and Validation

• Validation defined
• Overview of the mechanics of content and criterion-related validity
• Benefits of the validation process
• Professional standards for validation
• Uniform Guidelines requirements for validation
• Blending the professional and government validation standards into practice
• Steps for completing a content validation study
• Eight steps for completing a job analysis
• Developing a Selection Plan
• Content validation requirements for "work sample" and "KSAPC" types of selection procedures
• Criterion-related validity
• Challenges to using a validity generalization defense in Title VII enforcement

Chapter 3: Developing, Validating, and Analyzing Written Tests

• Written test development steps
• Seven steps for developing a content valid job knowledge written test
• Steps for developing a personality test using criterion-related validity

Chapter 4: Developing, Validating, and Analyzing Structured Interviews

• Methods for improving the interview process
• Types of questions to include in structured interviews
• Steps for developing situational questions
• Administering and scoring an interview

Chapter 5: Developing, Validating, and Analyzing Training, Education & Experience (TEE) Requirements

• Uniform Guidelines criteria regarding TEE requirements
• Professional standards regarding TEE requirements
• Using TEE requirements in open selection/promotional processes
• Using TEE requirements in closed selection/promotional processes

Chapter 6: Developing and Validating "Work Sample" Physical Ability Tests

• Steps for developing a physical ability test using content validity
• Steps for developing a physical ability test using criterion-related validity
• Administering the test
• Scoring physical ability tests
• The Americans with Disabilities Act and physical ability testing
• Sample test event description: Ladder Removal/Carry

Chapter 7: Investigating Test Bias

• Lautenschlager and Mendoza's Reframing of Test Bias Analysis
• Carrying out Lautenschlager and Mendoza's approach in SPSS
• Subgroup scatterplots
• Relation to other tests

Chapter 8: Using Selection Procedures: Cutoff Scores, Banding and Ranking

• Developing valid cutoff scores
• Banding
• Ranking
• Weighting selection procedures into combined scores

Chapter 9: Using Multiple Regression to Examine Compensation Practices

• Introduction
• How does multiple regression (MR) work?
• Steps for conducting multiple regression (MR) analysis
• Evaluating the legal defensibility of regression models

Chapter 10: Internet Applicant Regulations and EEO Compliance

• Introduction
• Internet applicant regulations

Chapter 11: Using Croson Studies to Develop Defensible Diversity Initiatives

• Introduction
• Case background
• Evaluating the relevence of Ricci in both public and private sectors
• The Strong-Basis-in-Evidence Standard
• Background on Croson Studies: Justification for taking remedial action
• Essential components of a Croson Study
• What constitutes a defensible Croson Study?
• Evaluating specific practices in a Croson Study
• Has Ricci created an internal conflict in the 1991 Civil Rights Act?
• Applying the Ricci standard to common testing situations
• Applying Ricci to other Title VII situations (outside of testing)
• Conclusions

Appendix A - Choosing the Correct Tool for Adverse Impact Analyses

• Overview
• Introduction
• Statistical significance testing and adverse impact
• Limitations of the Fisher Exact Test for adverse impact analysis
• Lancaster's mid-P (LMP) as the solution
• Simulation
• Conclusion

Appendix B - The Conditional Standard Error of Measurement (CSEM)

• Overview
• Background
• Steps for banding using the M-F procedure

References

• Reference authorities regarding the limitations of the Fisher Exact Test
• References supporting the use of Lancaster's mid-P Admustment to the FET

About the Author

Dan A. Biddle, Ph.D. is the CEO of Biddle Consulting Group, Inc., (BCG) a consulting firm specializing in the areas of test development/validation, Equal Employment Opportunity compliance, and Human Resource software development. Dr. Biddle is also the CEO of affiliate company, Firefighter Selection, Inc., a firm dedicated to providing fair and defensible testing solutions to the fire services industry. BCG has consulted with numerous Fortune 500 companies and hundreds of public sector agencies in matters pertaining to these areas, and maintains over 1,000 software or service clients worldwide. BCG also provides expert witness/consulting services in state and federal litigation matters, or in response to government audits.

Adverse Impact and Test Validation: A Practitioner's Guide to Valid and Defensible Employment Testing (3rd Edition)
329 pages (6.5" X 10" Softbound)
$49.95