Workshop: Best Practices in Sensitivity Reviews of Assessments

This workshop will provide an overview of guidance and practices for ensuring that assessment development processes are sensitive to when content might be inappropriate, offensive, or misunderstood by individuals based on their culture, ethnicity, gender, race or other characteristics. 

Specific learning objectives:

• Understand the ways in which specific item content might impact test taker interpretation of an assessment item, performance on the assessment, and perceptions of the organization using the assessment
• Review common practices in determining which items need modification or removal due to culturally sensitive content, and recognize the range of viewpoints as to what practices are best
• Evaluate example item review guidelines based on one’s current assessment context
• Increase awareness of how technological advances in assessment (e.g., multimedia item delivery, gamification) need to be considered in evaluating item cultural sensitivity

Ann Marie Ryan is a professor emerita of organizational psychology at Michigan State University.  Her major research interests involve improving the quality and fairness of hiring methods, and topics related to diversity and justice in the workplace.   In addition to publishing extensively in these areas (she has published over 200 peer reviewed articles and  book chapters), she regularly consults with organizations on improving assessment processes. 

Dr. Ryan  is a past president of the Society of Industrial and Organizational Psychology, past editor of the journal Personnel Psychology, and former associate editor of American Psychologist.  In 2011 she received the Distinguished University Professor Award from MSU.  In 2013 she received SIOP’s Distinguished Teaching Contributions Award and the Academy of Management’s Sage Award for Outstanding Scholarly Contributions to the Study of Diversity. She is a fellow of SIOP, the American Psychological Society, and the American Psychological Association (Divisions 5 & 14).  She was awarded  the APAGS 2018 Raymond D. Fowler Award for outstanding contributions to student professional development.   She was the recipient of the 2021 Michael R. Losey Excellence in Human Resource Research Award and the 2022 MSU Outstanding Faculty Mentor Award