| Summary: | Test bias within the field of psychometrics is an issue of concern in the South African
context. Bias refers to whether a test measures what it claims to measure across different
groups. In South Africa, psychological testing has been associated with the oppressive and
discriminatory practices of the Apartheid era, leading to many tests being banned and
considered invalid and unfair (Foxcroft & Roodt, 2004). Research is required in South Africa
to investigate the effects and functions of psychometric tests in the context of the country’s
history and diverse population groups. This research investigated whether the Raven’s
Standard Progressive Matrices (SPM) is a good measure of non-verbal intelligence for high
school children in the South African context, or whether it is biased by language and gender
among Grade 8 and Grade 9 learners. The subjects were between 13 and 15 years old and
attended an English medium government high school in Johannesburg. The archival data was
collected over a two year period and the SPM was administered to some subjects in both
Grade 8 and 9. A 2-way ANOVA tested for an overall difference on the SPM scores
between learners who spoke English as a first language (EFL) and English as an additional
language (EAL), as well as the performance of Male and Female learners. There was a
significant difference between the language groups in Grade 8 but not Grade 9. There were
no significant gender differences. An item analysis tested for a language or gender difference
on the item level. Certain test items showed a gender difference while others a language
difference, but no significant trend was found across the test. A matched paired t-test for the
group that received the test in both Grade 8 and 9 determined that there was a significant
increase in scores with greatest gains for the Male and Female EAL learners.
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