NCJ Number
177316
Journal
Law and Order Volume: 45 Issue: 5 Dated: May 1997 Pages: 72-82; (June 1997)-90
Date Published
1997
Length
33 pages
Annotation
This three-part article, presented in three issues of "Law and Order," reviews the history and summarizes the content of the debate on the validity and impact of the police recruit examination developed for the Nassau County Police Department (New York).
Abstract
The test was developed jointly by Nassau County and the U.S. Department of Justice. The entrance exam first attracted national attention on October 24, 1996, when Dr. Linda S. Gottfredson, whose work is well known in testing circles, charged (in The Wall Street Journal) that the test's developers had systematically "stripped the test of crucially important reading, reasoning and judgment skills" in order to "allow nearly equal percentages of black and white applicants to pass" the test. Frank L. Schmidt, another prominent expert on employment tests, also concluded that the Nassau test sacrificed merit hiring to meet racial goals. The Justice Department, Nassau County, and their contingent of test developers deny the charges made by the examination's critics, claiming that it effectively measures essential qualities required for police work without having an adverse impact on minority hiring. In addition to presenting the pros and cons of the content of the exam, the three-part article also reviews the debate regarding the conditions for the initial administration of the exam, as well as the litigation that stemmed from it. The third section of the article presents questions posed to and answers given by key players in the debate about the Nassau exam. References accompany each of the three sections of the article.