Comparison of white, African American, Hispanic, and Asian children on the Naglieri Nonverbal Ability Test

This study examined differences between 3 matched samples of White (n = 2,306) and African American (n = 2,306), White (n = 1,176) and Hispanic (n = 1,176), and White (n = 466) and Asian (n = 466) children on the Naglieri Nonverbal Ability Test (NNAT; J. A. Naglieri, 1997a). The groups were selected from 22,620 children included in the NNAT standardization sample and matched on geographic region, socioeconomic status, ethnicity, and type of school setting (public or private). There was only a small difference between the NNAT scores for the White and African American samples (d ratio = .25) and minimal differences between the White and Hispanic (d ratio = .17) and between the White and Asian (d ratio = .02) groups. The NNAT was moderately correlated with achievement for the total sample and correlated similarly with achievement for the White and ethnic minority groups. The median correlation of NNAT with reading was .52 and NNAT with math was .63 across the samples. Results suggest that the NNAT scores have use for fair assessment of White and minority children.