Re: High Stakes

[Mike Kluznik <mkluznik@HOTMAIL.COM>]

Wow, you have a great memory....black feces, God's messenger...I'm
impressed.
Mike
P.S. You mentioned your gray hair.  Try Grecian Formula.  Works wonders.



> From: kber <kber@EARTHLINK.NET>
> Reply-To: Assessment Reform Network Mailing List <ARN-L@LISTS.CUA.EDU>
> To: ARN-L@LISTS.CUA.EDU
> Subject: Re: High Stakes
> Date: Tue, 28 Aug 2001 18:21:59 -0500
>
> I hope you are being facetious.  I too, took MMPI as a freshman entering
> Haverford in 1963.  I clearly remember three questions
>
> Are your feces a black and tarry substance?
>
> Do you feel a band pressing around your head?
>
> Do you believe you are God's ordained messenger here on earth?
>
>
> I won't comment about the first two, but the third of what I have listed is
> clearly biased.  There are religious groups that do ordain preachers while
> they
> are teens.  To presume that a yes answer thereby makes one suspect of some
> kind
> of mental defect or personality disorder is more than problematic, it is
> discriminatory -  a private college or university might get away with it,
> but I
> can guarantee that using such a test for admission to a public institution
> would quickly land one in court today.
>
>
> Besides, why do you presume that psychological instruments are any more
> accurate as measures than are some of the high stakes academic tests we
> use.
> Have you ever really looked at the evaluation of some of these
> (psychological)
> instruments in Mental Measurements Yearbook?  It  might turn your hair
> gray, or
> if like me you are already tending in that direction, it might turn it back
> to
> its normal color.
>
> I often think that the mental health profession has a tendency to see
> everyone
> it encounters as falling into one of two categories:  those that are
> currently
> patients of mental health practitioners, and those whose not being patients
> is
> all the evidence needed to demonstrate that they should be patients!!!
> Methinks we paint too broadly with our definition of mental health, and in
> the
> resulting noise lose sight of those who truly need help.
>
> Disclosure on this subject:   I have more than once accepted the help of
> mental
> health professionals of various sorts.  I see no harm in it, except for the
> fact that it is used as a basis to discriminate -  remember the attacks on
> both
> Eagleton and Dukakis, and also Lee Atwater getting his big start by
> crafting
> attacks on Tom Turnipseed for being hooked up to jumper cables.
>
> Last comment, and then I'll shut up.   One of the biggest issues those on
> this
> network in theory believe in is not using tests for purposes for which they
> are
> not validated.   Would not your proposal represent , even facetiously, the
> worst possible breach of that position?
>
>
> Ken Bernstein
>
> Mike Kluznik wrote:
>
> > I don't have the reference handy, but a few years ago I read that the
> > majority of college students who drop out of school do so because of
> mental
> > health problems and/or chemical use issues.
> > If this is so, it seems that it would be a good idea to administer an
> > objective personality test to graduating high school seniors.
> > Into the 1970s or 80s, incoming freshman at the University of Minnesota
> were
> > given the MMPI (Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory).  I believe
> > this was done mainly for research purposes; I recall taking it prior to
> > enrolling for class back when I started at the U of M in the 60s.
> > If we are going to administer tests, why not administer tests that might
> be
> > of benefit to vulnerable groups in college or perhaps even in high
> school.
> > I suppose I'm being a bit facetious, but if CD/MI issues bring down more
> > college students than academic and financial issues, then we do need to
> > start paying better attention to those CD/MI issues.
> > Mike
> >
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