Last week I was fortunate to attend and present at the 2010 Personnel Testing Council of Northern California (PTC-NC) conference. Several of the presentation slides are now available.
My presentation was a legal update, primarily focusing on last year's big case, Ricci v. DeStefano. While I think the case received a fair share of its publicity simply because Sonia Sotomayor was one of the circuit court judges who ruled for the city, the case itself has some interesting implications for assessment. I gave my two cents last year after the decision.
Some of the points I made during the presentation included:
- Test validation standards as judged by the courts are generally very attainable. Following best practice (i.e., beginning with a thorough job analysis) is a recipe for a defensible process.
- Employers should spend the vast majority of their time before the assessment is given, figuring out what and how to test. Minimal time should be spent after the test making decisions about test usage--you should know that already.
- Employers, and assessment professionals, are expected to be familiar with and consider a wide range of testing mechanisms when planning a selection process. This includes non-cognitive assessments such as situational judgment tests, personality inventories, and biodata measures.
There were many great presentations; I always enjoy hearing what Wayne Cascio has to say, Dale Glaser has a way with statistics, and Deniz Ones and Stephan Dilchert's presentation on personality profiles of leaders was fascinating (they also happen to be very pleasant people to have lunch with). I plan on printing out slide 33 and placing it within reach--it does a great job of pointing out that criterion validity depends greatly on what you're trying to predict!
It's worth reviewing all the slides to get a flavor of what was discussed; there will likely be other presentations added over time.
On a side note, I'd like to acknowledge my readers at Baruch College -- thanks for reading!
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