Hi all,
For the past two years, I have been developing a multiple-choice test of
knowledge of affirmative action law and regulations. My goal is to
develop a test that can be used both for research purposes and by
teachers and trainers to stimulate interest or organize discussions of
affirmative action. The questions cover all the major dimensions, from
the underlying legal bases through required and permissible actions in
recruitment, selection, termination, promotion, �. I have gone through
several iterations � revising questions in light of empirical results
and discussions with legal experts. I now have a 14-item test that I
hope will be the final version.
If you would like to use this test, read further.
I now need to gather a final (I hope) set of data to validate the test,
which is the purpose of this note. A number of faculty from around the
United States have contributed to this process at previous stages by
administering earlier versions to their classes or to participants drawn
from their subject pools. I am writing with the hope that some of you
would be willing to do the same with this version. I can offer you
nothing except my thanks and the satisfaction that you will be
contributing to the development of this test. To be specific, authorship
is not on the table.
The test is presented in the context of a larger questionnaire that
contains 6 other questions about knowledge and interest (drawn from
previous research), 17 questions about anticipated consequences of
affirmative action for various stakeholders, 6 questions to measure
attitudes toward affirmative action, 23 questions to measure modern
racism and social dominance orientation, and 12 questions about
demographic status. I ran the first participants last week and the
entire experience, from informed consent form through debriefing, took
about 40 minutes.
If you would like to be involved, three options exist. But first, the
catch.
Our Institutional Review Board (IRB) has determined that I may not
obtain data for this study from other universities unless the local
experimenter (i.e., you) obtains permission from the local IRB. Although
our IRB would accept your use of our informed consent form or of an
alternative form approved by your IRB (assuming it contains all the
required information), they do insist on IRB approval. This leaves three
ways you could be involved.
1. You could get approval from your IRB, administer the survey to your
students, and send me the data. Naturally, that is what I would prefer,
but I know that getting IRB approval can be a pain, especially if you do
not have a departmental committee for dealing with exempt or expedited
research. If you want to do this, I would be happy to send you the
materials I used, with the hope that you could copy and paste some of
the text. You may be able to expedite this if you inform your IRB that
the GMU IRB has already approved the study. I can mail or fax the
approval form to you.
2. If you are concerned about length, you could get approval from your
IRB, administer a short version of the survey that contains only the
knowledge and demographic items, and send me the data.
3. If it would be pedagogically useful, you could use the AA knowledge
test in your class to stimulate discussion. You could ignore the other
questions and not send any data to me. You are perfectly welcome to take
this approach. After all, I am developing the test in part because I
think it will have pedagogical value. If you decide to do this, I would
be grateful if you would send me an e-mail to let me know how it went
and to make suggestions about maximizing the pedagogical value of the test.
So, many thanks to those of you who have helped in the past and to those
who are considering helping with this phase. If you are interested,
please reply to me (not the entire list) or give me a ring at 703-993-1781.
Cheers,
--
David A. Kravitz
Associate Professor
School of Management
218 Enterprise Hall, MSN 5F5
George Mason University
4400 University Drive
Fairfax, VA 22030-4444
Telephone: 703-993-1781
Fax: 703-993-1870
E-mail:
dkravitz@gmu.edu
Web: http://www.som2.gmu.edu/dkravitz/index.htm