The Man Behind
the Test

Bruce Bracken (M.A. ’77, Ph.D. ’79)

Degree program: Educational psychology
Current position: School psychologist and professor of educational foundations, The College of William & Mary
Lives in: Williamsburg, Virginia

Throughout his nearly 40-year career as a school psychologist, Bruce Bracken helped transform the landscape of educational and psychological testing of children, adolescents, and adults.

Soon after graduating with his doctoral degree from the UGA Mary Frances Early College of Education’s Department of Educational Psychology, Bracken (M.A. ’77, Ph.D. ’79) obtained a contract to develop the Bracken Basic Concept Scale (BBCS), his first test focused on measuring children’s understanding of basic language concepts.

“Most people aren't aware that the intelligence tests we routinely administer to preschoolers are often replete with basic concepts that young children don't understand,” says Bracken, professor of educational foundations at The College of William & Mary. “So, the first issue you have to consider when developing an early childhood measure is the extent to which the child understands the test directions.”

While examining other assessments available at the time, Bracken found that many tests were difficult for pre-K students, not because of what the test measured, but because of the concepts that were included in the test directions; concepts that were often difficult for most 3- to 4-year-old children to grasp. “My test helped professionals identify concepts that children didn't know, but it also helped the field grow in the sense that we have largely stopped producing test directions that include concepts beyond the child's age or developmental level,” he adds.

Another area of concern for Bracken was the lack of diversity portrayed in test images at the time. Many assessments featured artwork that depicted either no people of color or people of color presented in very stereotypical ways. He specifically recalls an old test that featured only two people of color, a black train station porter and an African native carrying a spear. These insensitive images prompted Bracken to incorporate artwork that reflected a more inclusive and representative population.

Specifically, for the BBCS, he ensured that images portrayed a diverse representation of gender roles, races, and ethnicities, while also depicting children wearing corrective devices, such as glasses, wheelchairs, crutches, and casts. “The tests being used early in my career depicted all able-bodied white people and weren't inclusive, socially sensitive, or appropriate in many ways,” says Bracken. “And so, my first mission as a test developer was to create test materials and normative samples that reflected the population, which was largely unheard of at the time.”

As a doctoral student at UGA, Bracken fell under the wing of Paul Torrance, who served as chair of the College’s Department of Educational Psychology. Widely known as the father of creativity, Torrance instilled in Bracken a desire to approach education and assessment in an equitable manner. Since its release in 1984, Bracken’s BBCS has undergone several revisions and improvements, including a version focused on testing conceptual knowledge expressively rather than receptively, so students are challenged to put their responses into words and sentences rather than simply pointing to the correct answer.

After publishing the BBCS and striving to make equitable testing a reality for all, Bracken co-developed and co-authored the Universal Nonverbal Intelligence Test (UNIT), which uses nonverbal cues and gestures to assess intelligence without the bias of English language proficiency. The UNIT is administered to a wide range of children in the United States and internationally, including children of immigrants and nonnative speakers, selective and elective mutes, as well as children who have autism, deafness, neurological issues, and language-related learning disabilities.

“This test was the first 100% nonverbally administered comprehensive assessment of intelligence, and the primary reason for its development was because we have had an abundance of individuals coming into our country that speak English as a second language or not at all,” says Bracken, who developed the test with Steve McCallum, a professor at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville. “If we give children a cognitive performance task with verbal directions, they don't fully understand what to do, and they end up doing less well on the task because of their limited English proficiency leading to faulty assumptions about their overall intellectual functioning. We wanted to create a test that removed language from the testing process, so psychologists could assess intelligence without the limiting condition of the examinee’s native language proficiency.”

Also, with McCallum, Bracken co-founded the Journal of Psychoeducational Assessment (JPA) only a few years after receiving his doctoral degree. JPA was created to provide psychological researchers a new and focused outlet for assessment-related research. The two jointly edited the journal for 23 years before transferring ownership to an independent publishing company. Bracken is currently working on the fourth edition of the BBCS, as well as a host of other projects, including the creation of a new early childhood assessment with Western Psychological Services.

The Comprehensive Early Assessment of Learning will test a wide range of young children’s abilities and characteristics, such as behavior, social-emotional adjustment, cognition, pre-academic achievement, and more. Additionally, since taking a sabbatical 14 years ago that he devoted to writing fiction, Bracken published two psychologically-oriented novels, “The Hollidaysburg Christmas Miracle” and “Invisible,” and has submitted a third novel, “Achilles,” for publication.

“My career’s work has been all about inclusion, social equity, and fairness, especially in test construction, assessment, and in helping people feel they are an important part of society,” he says. “When minority children take a test and every picture in the test depicts only white boys and girls, it has to make them feel somewhat discounted and disenfranchised. And whether those feelings transfer into a lack of examinee motivation or a sense of self-deprecation that inhibits their test performance, I don't know for certain, but I wanted to rule out that possibility and offer a more welcoming testing experience for everyone.”