Assessing Listening Ability: Relationships with Verbal Ability and Racial/Ethnic Bias.

Two studies were conducted to assess the listening ability of 17-year-old students with particular interest in the relationship among listening ability, verbal ability, and racial/ethnic bias in the test items. The first study, a National Assessment of Educational Progress and Speech Communication Association pilot project, indicated that there was potential item bias based on minority ethnic group response. However, no real data on the students' verbal ability was available to substantiate possible explanations. In the second study, two packages of listening items, each approximately 35 minutes in length were developed, and a 25-item vocabulary test was administered to estimate verbal ability. Recording of the listening items was made by individuals using network English. The results indicated that there was a positive correlation between listening ability and verbal ability, suggesting that the differing responses of minority and nonminority students in the first study could be attributed to differing levels of verbal ability, rather than item bias. (MKM) Primary type of information provided by report: Procedures (Conceptual) (Exercise Development).