K-ABC CONTENT BIAS - COMPARISONS BETWEEN MEXICAN-AMERICAN AND WHITE-CHILDREN

Content (item) bias on the Mental Processing Scales and the Achievemen t Scale of the Kaufman Assessment Battery for Children (K-ABC) was inv estigated with 100 Mexican American and 100 White fifth- and sixth-gra de boys and girls. All children were English-speaking and from similar socioeconomic status (SES) backgrounds. An item-group (partial correl ation) method that controlled for age, sex, and ability was used to ex amine bias. On the Mental Processing Scales, 17 (14%) of 120 items wer e found to be biased - the strong majority against the Mexican America n children. On the Achievement Scale, it was observed that 58 (63%) of 92 K-ABC items were biased - all against the Mexican American sample. This latter finding is discussed in the context of possible differenc es in learning opportunities (language based, SES based, and school se gregation) experienced by the two ethnic groups.