ABSTRACT
In this chapter we present a description of a controversial employment testing program that illustrates the conflict between different perspectives on the role of testing. At issue is the tension between organizational goals of productivity maximization and societal goals of equitable treatment of members of minority groups. The authors served as the study director and as a committee member, respectively, of a U.S. National Research Council committee charged with an evaluation of the use of the General Aptitude Test Battery (GATB) by the U.S. Employment Service. We describe the social and political context in which controversy over the GATB arose and summarize the committee’s finding regarding the GATB.
