Yeah, predictive validity would be key. Maybe someone can find the tests used ... just talked to an old friend who comes from a fire-fighting family (father, uncle, spouse, son ..) and asked about tests used. Apparently they vary from locale to locale, but at least in one Vermont department, there is a 3 part test: oral, written and practical. There is nothing resembling a general cognitive ability test (besides, they had been outlawed by the courts despite correlations with job performance), and alot of the questions are specific to fire fighting - such as who counts the # of firefighters who enter a house, and recounts them on the way out: (a) incident officer or (b) safety officer?(it's the safety officer apparently). So these items have face validity. I also found out that some of the tech schools here in New England at least, have some pretty specific courses geared to fire fighting. It would imagine there is a correspondence between the tests and the courses ... details, details, we need details ...
-------------------------- John W. Kulig Professor of Psychology Plymouth State University Plymouth NH 03264 -------------------------- ----- Original Message ----- From: sbl...@ubishops.ca To: "Teaching in the Psychological Sciences (TIPS)" <tips@acsun.frostburg.edu> Sent: Monday, June 29, 2009 9:23:48 PM GMT -05:00 US/Canada Eastern Subject: Re: [tips] The Connecticut 20 Michael Sylvester observed: > > It would seem to me that if one gives a promotion test to firefighters > and only the white firefighters pass the test,there must be something > wrong with the test. to which the other Michael (Smith) rejoined: > > It seems to me, people who can't read shouldn't be hired as firefighters Not necessarily. When my house is burning down, among the skills I'd like to see in those who arrive to put the fire out, an ability to read wouldn't be tops on my list. I'd put bravery, skill, decisiveness, and strength higher. Also, resistance to heat. Give me Asbestosman any day over Nerdy Readerman for that particular job. But the question itself is interesting. As the Black workers were denied promotion, perhaps the test wasn't of fire-fighting ability but of ability to push a pencil. Even so, if the test was an IQ type non- specifically assessing cognitive abilities, it may be less useful for deciding who gets promoted than a specific test of qualities related to the job to be performed, or less useful than an assessment based on the candidate's past performance as an employee. I imagine that the Supremes decided the case on narrow issues of law rather than considering the validity of the test. But if the test does poorly in selecting who would be best for the job but produces results which diverge by skin colour, wouldn't it be discriminatory to nevertheless use it for selection purposes? So I'd think that predictive validity would be crucial here. Stephen ----------------------------------------------------------------- Stephen L. Black, Ph.D. Professor of Psychology, Emeritus Bishop's University e-mail: sbl...@ubishops.ca 2600 College St. Sherbrooke QC J1M 1Z7 Canada Subscribe to discussion list (TIPS) for the teaching of psychology at http://flightline.highline.edu/sfrantz/tips/ ----------------------------------------------------------------------- --- To make changes to your subscription contact: Bill Southerly (bsouthe...@frostburg.edu) --- To make changes to your subscription contact: Bill Southerly (bsouthe...@frostburg.edu)
