Graduate Record Exam-Educational Testing Service

Author: SPSSI Council; Source: Excerpt from February 1970 Council Meeting Minutes

Context: SPSSI Council sent its original statement, dated January 19, 1970, to Dr. Solomon of Educational Testing Services in the name of SPSSI Council.

Statement: “The Society for the Psychological Study of Social Issues has been concerned for a long time with the problem of educational opportunities for disadvantaged groups. Access to graduate education for poor and discriminated-against group is a national priority...If candidates could, on a voluntary basis, provide background information on themselves when they took the GRE, it would be possible to make such information available to graduate schools so they might make better informed decisions, particularly to aid in the admission of students who might not be considered on the basis of other information. Such background information, when compiled, would also provide the nation with an important new form of social accounting, and make it possible to do long term validity studies. The Council of the Society for the Psychological Study of Social Issues supports the enclosed proposal. We urge that the Graduate Record Exam Board immediately adopt and implement this proposal, as an aid in the development of more objective and quotable graduate admission procedures.