New York, NY, July 2000 - Professional Examination Service (PES) is pleased to announce the selection of Catherine Maraist as the recipient of the 2000 Doctoral Fellowship Award in Applied Measurement. Established as part of the PES public service mission, the yearlong fellowship provides an opportunity for research on measurement and public-policy issues related to the development, validation, and use of licensure and certification examinations.

The fellowship will support Maraist as she completes her Ph.D. studies in the Industrial/Organizational Psychology program at Tulane University. Maraist will work with her academic adviser, Ronald S. Landis, Ph.D., Assistant Professor of Psychology at the university, to conduct a research study entitled, "Alternative Test Modalities and Test Response Formats: Can Adverse Impact be Reduced?" The study will explore the potential for alternative test modalities (such as video-based testing) and response formats (such as audio- or video-taped responses) to reduce adverse impact for African-American test takers. Statistical analyses will be conducted on archival data drawn from examinations that were used to select police officers for promotion in a large Southern U.S. city. The analyses will compare conventional and alternative test modalities and response formats for black and white examinees to determine possible adverse impacts. The study is the first to investigate the effect of both response formats and test modalities on adverse impact and is unique in studying these effects in a real-life setting, rather than a laboratory environment.

Maraist received a bachelor's degree in psychology from the University of Michigan in 1993 and a master's degree in industrial/organizational psychology from Tulane University in 1999. She has held both research and teaching assistantships at Tulane University, and has presented research papers on the effects of test modality and response format on adverse impact, and on examinee attitudes toward computer-adaptive tests, at annual meetings of the Society for Industrial and Organizational Psychology and the American Psychological Association.

Submissions for the award were judged by a panel of three nationally recognized measurement experts: Sylvia T. Johnson, Ph.D., Professor and Editor, Howard University; Michael T. Kane, Ph.D., Professor, University of Wisconsin; and Barbara S. Plake, Ph.D., W.C. Meierhenry University Distinguished Professor and Director, Oscar and Luella Buros Center for Testing, the University of Nebraska-Lincoln.

Professional Examination Service is a nonprofit organization with more than 50 years' experience developing, implementing, and evaluating licensure and certification programs. PES's mission is to promote the understanding and use of sound credentialing practices by providing comprehensive services and making contributions to credentialing stakeholders in the areas of assessment practice, educational activities, scientific research, and policy development.

Fellowship support for doctoral study is one of several annual PES awards. For more information about the PES awards program and other public service activities, please contact: Karen Cullen, Senior Manager, Public Service Activities, Professional Examination Service, 475 Riverside Drive, New York, NY 10115-0089, (212) 367-4276, fax: (212) 367-4266; e-mail: mission@proexam.org.

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