Effects of Examiner Familiarity on Black, Caucasian, and Hispanic Children: A Meta-Analysis

Abstract

This article presents a quantitative synthesis of examiner familiarity effects on Caucasian and minority students' test performance. Fourteen controlled studies were coded in terms of methodological quality (high vs. low) and race-ethnicity (Caucasian vs. Black and Hispanic). An analogue to analysis of variance conducted on weighted unbiased effect sizes indicated that examiner familiarity produced a significant effect, with Caucasian and minority examinees' test performance raised by .05 and .72 standard deviations, respectively. Examiner familiarity's differential effect on Caucasian and minority examinees did not interact with the methodological quality of the studies. Nevertheless, limitations of the extant data base require caution in drawing implications for assessment practice.