I’ve clearly stated that there is a problem with testing bias, but there needs to be a solution. How can we test a students’ knowledge without creating a bias against minority groups? A mionority group could be gender, race, community status, language, socioeconomic status, or culture depending on the specific situation. Throughout my Diversity in Education course, I have been gathering information on ways teachers can be proactive in diminishing the bias, while still assessing each individual students’ ability. The solution? Alternative assessments. Alternative assessments can be defined as any alternate way to assess a student’s knowledge. Educators who use alternative assessments plan and create them based on the student’s individual interests and abilities. For example, I teach in an inclusive setting which means I teach students who are in special education,  general education, and gifted education. Although I teach a variety of academic levels, each of my students have specific strengths, weaknesses, likes, and dislikes. Take this for example: If I am assessing a student who struggles with reading and writing on their knowledge of  how the Native Americans in the Arctic region obtained food, water, shelter, and clothing, would it be appropriate for me to assign a five paragraph essay as an assessment? Of course not! This is a situation in which I would create an alternative assessment based on ability and interest. For example, let’s assume this student is a wonderful artist and has an interest in comic books. I would then assign them to create a comic book assessing this specific social studies standard, including guidelines and a rubric to guide them.  Kim and Zabelina state that “Creativity is as important as intelligence, and creativity assessment measures are normed on individual cultures. To reduce bias, we suggest that creativity assessments be added to traditional tests and alternative assessments.” (Kim & Zabelina, 2015). Other alternative assessments are also known as “Authentic Assessments”. These could include: PowerPoint presentations, posters, poems, songs, plays, interviews, blogs, video, raps, the list goes on and on. If students are given choices, or the teacher assigns these alternative assessments, it will begin to diminish the cultural bias in testing.

Here are a few videos on Authentic Assessment:

References:

KYUNG HEE KIM, & ZABELINA, D. (2015). Cultural Bias in Assessment: Can Creativity Assessment Help? International Journal of Critical Pedagogy, 6(2), 129–148.

Lisa Delpit is the author of “Multiplication is for White People” Raising Expectations for Other People’s Children. In this book, Delpit discusses the present-day issues in public education and believes that there are conspiracies against the prospects for children who belong to a minority group or come from disadvantaged backgrounds. She believes that this creates a gap in achievement during the school years and beyond. Delpit states that assessing children can be a little “Tricky” as she describes it, “especially if the children we are assessing are not from the came culture as the test makers.” (Delpit 2012). Teachers must differentiate their instruction and assessments to target each learner, including their cultural differences. “When a teacher is familiar with aspects of a child’s culture, then the teacher may be better to assess the child’s competence.” (Delpit 2012). The problem is, standardized tests are all the same.

 

References:
Delpit, Lisa D. (2012). “Multiplication is for white people” : raising expectations for other people’s children. New York :New Press : Distributed by Perseus Distribution,

 

Standardized testing began almost one hundred years ago and is designed to measure a person’s intelligence and general knowledge. The question is whether these tests hurt, or help students from disadvantaged backgrounds and minority groups.

The U.S. No Child Left Behind Act (NCLBA) required standardized testing of students in elementary, middle, and high school. Government agencies use these tests to determine that the various school systems in the U.S. equally serve every child, no matter their cultural background (Kim & Zabelina, 2015).  Each of my third grade students are administered the same standardized test, regardless of a their race, gender, academic ability, language background, socioeconomic status, and culture.

I’m sure we can all agree that there are a variety of different cultures here in the US. “Culture is considered to be an interrelated system of ideas, values, symbols, products, behaviors, and so forth that all function together interdependently…. It is the differences in how cultural groups operationalize culture in daily living that may explain their differences in test performance.” (Banks, 2006).

In theory, these tests are the best measure of the student’s intelligence and general knowledge, but should the these tests be differentiated based on each student? Are we setting these students up for failure? I ask these questions because the majority of my research throughout my years as an educator have all included one very important theory to include in instructional strategies, differentiation. Educators are expected to differentiate our teaching to meet the needs of each learner and target their individual interests, so why is there only one test administered to assess my student’s knowledge?

References:

Banks, K. (2006). A Comprehensive Framework for Evaluating Hypotheses About Cultural Bias in Educational Testing. Applied Measurement in Education, 19(2), 115–132.

KYUNG HEE KIM, & ZABELINA, D. (2015). Cultural Bias in Assessment: Can Creativity Assessment Help? International Journal of Critical Pedagogy, 6(2), 129–148.