Issues of agreement and contention in employment testing

Abstract

This commentary draws out some areas of agreement and contention in the continuing debate over the racial impact of using ability tests for employment decisions. There is general agreement that there exist large differences in performance on general ability tests among the races and that there probably is some relation between general ability and job performance for most jobs. However, there is serious disagreement about whether racial differences in general ability are relatively fixed and about the size and nature of the relation between ability and productivity. Thus, much more research is needed to fully understand the consequences of using ability tests for employment. © 1988.