[IPAC-List] Measurement education

[Michael McDaniel (WSF)]

I wish I had seen this exchange a few years ago when I helped write a book
chapter on criticisms of employment testing. You can a copy here:
http://www.people.vcu.edu/~mamcdani/Publications/O%27Boyle%20&%20McDaniel%20%282008%29.pdf

Best wishes,

Mike McDaniel

On Fri, Oct 26, 2012 at 11:50 AM, Mark Hammer <Mark.Hammer at psc-cfp.gc.ca>wrote:


> 1) You're right about that, Jeff.  Nice to see some chatter for a

> change!

>

> 2) Great comments all round.  I like David's examples.

>

> 3) When people are promoted, they move to a different role, not simply

> a higher standard of behaviour.  When supervisors think they see

> appropriate potential in certain candidates that goes "under-endorsed"

> by test results, their working assumption is that the test is the

> problem, their focus being on false positives, which they treat as false

> alarms (pardon the firefighting pun).  But that assumption is based on

> what they believe they have already seen from some candidates, and have

> not seen YET from others.

>

> Not to suggest that the tests lack validity, but people can surprise

> you.  They can rise to the occasion, when placed in a role they may not

> have had before.  Do the particular tests predict that well?  I don't

> know, but the managers in this instance may well be treating the

> surprising ranking of some individuals on the selection tests as false

> *positives*, neglecting that their informal observation of those same

> candidates may well be a false *negative*.

>

> It may well be that the tests are inappropriately chosen or weighted,

> that the conceptual space being considered for the job is much larger

> than what the assessment tools measure, that there is bias in managers'

> beliefs or perceptions of some candidates.  It could be a lot of things.

>  All should be considered, including the possibility that the tests are

> able to identify things that managers have not yet seen.

>

> Mark Hammer

> Ottawa

>

> >

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Michael A. McDaniel, Ph.D.
President
Work Skills First, Inc.
Voice: 804-277-9730
E-Mail: McDaniel at WorkSkillsFirst.com