Here, Gunn and Singh take a good look at one of society's most perplexing problems_our cultural testing bias. We live in an open society where the key to opportunity is a good education, but what if some people can't get that good education because their test scores are too low? A quick look at the world of testing will reveal that African Americans and Hispanics are clustered at the bottom of the scoring range. Why? Educators recognized the testing bias many years ago and began searching for a culture-free form of testing, but most of these efforts have failed. Gunn and Singh have a different approach. They believe that test-taking is a skill like many other cognitive endeavors, and in this book provide guidance in teaching math, verbal reasoning, abstraction, and language skills to minority children. Features: Factual data on standardized tests fairness, Examples of unfair test questions. The authors describe how learning can be fun by showing: How problem solving can be made simple, How parents can teach verbal skills to their children Their experience is that as the learning takes place, minority children gain in self-pride and draw closer to their parents. It is likely to be the same for many others who read this book. Intended for students, parents, teachers, educators, education policymakers, test designers, and mental health professionals.
About the Author: Harry E. Gunn, a licensed clinical psychologist, has been a teacher, a therapist, and a diagnostician. In 1971, he co-published a study on Bender Gestalt Performance Among Culturally Disadvantaged Children. This prompted his testing of children from the Appalachian Mountain region. Gunn is also the author of numerous other books, including The Test for Success Book, Fear of Success and Guilt Over Success, The Test Yourself Book, Manipulation by Guilt, Perceptual and Motor Skill, and Investment Euphoria and Money Madness.Jaswinder Singh is a professional psychologist and a licensed mental health therapist. He actively participated and designed cognitive tests to measure various cognitive abilities of adults and children. He served as an adjunct assistant professor of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences in the Department of Psychiatry at Northwestern University in Chicago, Illinois. He also served on the staff at the University of Chicago. Singh's publishing history includes a recent book, Americanization of New Immigrants: People Who Come to America and What They Need to Know (University Press of America), as well as numerous journal articles. He has given many invited lectures to lay audiences as well as the scientific community.