How is a test "racially biased"?

[jnettie]

DH and I got in this conversation the other day, and I thought I'd ask the question here!

As a liberal, I'll admit that I've always just believed when I was told that the standardized tests created for schools are racially biased towards middle class white kids. Then, in our conversation, DH and I both couldn't figure out how a test could be racially biased. We agreed that maybe the bias could go with schools that have more money and less poor children and had the ability to prepare their kids better. But this really isn't "racially" biased, it just happens that poor African American kids are more likely to be in bad city schools.

For the life of us, we couldn't figure out how a math test could be racially biased.

So, I'd like to know, what exactly is meant by racially biased test and how are they biased?

[Sarah]

There are a lot of different ways and levels on which a test can be racially (or socioeconomically, I think that's more common) biased. One more macro- level critique is that a lot of tests test things which students at primary minority schools haven't learned, or which aren't culturally relevant to them.

A more individual thing I have seen is at one school I was working at, we gave a standardized test to a class of kids at a private school. The test was written for private school kids. One question used the word "wardrobe" 14/15 kids got it right, understanding that wardrobe could be a piece of furniture, and one (much lower socioeconomically than the rest) got it wrong, knowing only the "clothes" meaning. She would never be exposed to that word in her life, it seemed.

Or once the test had the word "regatta"- like 3rd graders should know that word. But the upper class kids knew it, and the lower class one didn't.

[Asha]

well, one way a test can be proved to be racially biased is that if two groups of people with statistically equal abilities typically associated with the test have scores that are statistically significant from each other.

there are multiple reasons why the tests could yield these significantly different test scores. i can just speak for that anecdotally. as a teacher, i felt a lot of the readings in the reading comprehension section of standardized tests were not geared towards the experiences of certain groups of people. past experience allows someone to better comprehend particular readings thus giving them a better chance of doing better on the test. for example, a kid in the inner city was reading about some kids going on a camping trip in the woods, might have a hard time relating to the characters, visualizing the scenery, etc.

[msnicolea]

Cultural context is often an issue--like what Asha said re: experiences.

[j*east]

The other problem is that standardized testing started as a way to prove the superiority of whites over other races. The Mismeasure of Man (http://www.amazon.com/Mismeasure-Man-Stephen-Jay-Gould/dp/0393314251/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1/102-5662391-0103318?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1177521888&sr=8-1) by Stephen Jay Gould is a good history of IQ testing. Obviously we are a long way from those days, but standardized testing in general is still an incredibly flawed and limited way to measure intelligence.

[sue-bert]

A test can be culturally biased. Of course, there are often strong correlations between a particular race and a particular culture, so this can translate into racial bias as well.

An example of a culturally-biased question may be a math word problem that pre-supposes some knowledge of the sport cricket. Test-takers from the U.S. would be at a disadvantage compared to test-takers with equivalent mathematical capabilities from, say, India.

Someone could look at the results and conclude that Americans are bad at math. Someone might also break down the results by race and conclude that statistically, Indians are better than the other non-Indian ethnic groups (Whites, Blacks, etc.) included in the pool of U.S. test-takers.

If women tend to be less interested in cricket than men (because they don't play it in P.E. class, and there are no female cricket-players as role models), then the test may be biased against female test-takers as well.

[lawyerlee]

For the life of us, we couldn't figure out how a math test could be racially biased.
For a math test in particular, it would most likely be in the wording of a word problem.

[jnettie]

Thanks very much for your replies.

This makes a lot of sense now. I really didn't think farther than access to education before.

[HisSpicy]

I'm going into education so topics like this are really interesting to me, and I too always wondered just what it was that made tests biased.
Question: Is there any way to make the test unbiased? For example, if it is many the wording of things because langugage is often connected with culture, could it be changed so the words apply more broadly? Use only vocabulary and examples that are specifically in the curriculum so that it is stuff everyone has been exposed to? I guess this is assuming that every teacher will actually teach the standard curriculum that the test will match up with, but I just wonder if something like this is a possibility, or if there is absolutely no way to take out the cultural bias.

[j*east]

I'm going into education so topics like this are really interesting to me, and I too always wondered just what it was that made tests biased.
Question: Is there any way to make the test unbiased? For example, if it is many the wording of things because langugage is often connected with culture, could it be changed so the words apply more broadly? Use only vocabulary and examples that are specifically in the curriculum so that it is stuff everyone has been exposed to? I guess this is assuming that every teacher will actually teach the standard curriculum that the test will match up with, but I just wonder if something like this is a possibility, or if there is absolutely no way to take out the cultural bias.

Theoretically, yes, if you had a diverse group of people make up the test, but in reality, how can a test address everyone's individual education and experiences? Thus, I am not a fan of standardized tests. (I'm a teacher, BTW.)

[jnettie]

I'm not a fan of standardized tests at all myself. I've always been a good student, top 5% of my HS class, but only did "good enough" on my SATs to get into college. I don't usually even tell people what I got because it always seems so low! And I didn't do so hot on my GREs either, even though I studied A LOT, yet graduated from grad school with a 3.95 GPA. (Not to brag or anything ;) ).

[Asha]

well, jnettie the reason your standardized test scores and gpa's could be so different is because the test a completely different set of skills.

[MLA]

I'm not a fan of standardized tests at all myself. I've always been a good student, top 5% of my HS class, but only did "good enough" on my SATs to get into college.

The SATs are the worst. I used to teach SAT prep. Y'all know what the SATs are supposed to test, right? They're supposed to indicate how well a student will do during their first year of college. Well, darned if upper-middle class east coast white males didn't do better than everyone else on the SATs. And isn't it ironic that female college students did better than their male counterparts in the first year of college? The SAT just sucks. The only thing it tests is how well you take the SAT. I used to teach kids techniques for raising their scores. I never taught them anything of substance, just techniques. And my students always increased their scores by at least 100 points -- most of them increased their scores by closer to 200 points -- all without me adding to their knowledge-base. It was all tricks. Disgusting that colleges still look at the SATs as an indicator. They're just so flawed.

Okay. Off my soap box now.

[HisSpicy]

j*east: Thanks you for your response. That was kind of what I was thinking too, I just wanted to get some other opinions. I never really thought about positive/negative effects of standardized tests when I was taking them, because I am very lucky when it comes to taking tests. I just guess right (and if my GPA had been as high as my SAT/ACT scores I would have gotten a scholarship twice what I did recieve for college.) But I realize I'm probably some test taking freak of nature, and that for most people (like most of my friends that were in my AP classes) the tests just don't work.
New but related question: Have any real attempts been made to elimate the biases, not just by those who make up the tests remaking them, but actually calling in a wide enough group of people to really overhaul the test and preparation for it?

[chrisinluv]

Jumping in late as usual...

I remember the first time I knew without a doubt that I'd be returned a failing grade on a math test: fifth grade, story problems. They were ALL about baseball. WTF??? I didn't know anything about friggin baseball, and I didn't care. I couldn't focus on the math aspect of it because I was so preoccupied with the absurdity of them using baseball as a means of testing my math skills- of which I have little to this day, admittedly. :o When grades came out, I had a C average in math. I wasn't even sure I deserved that. But my mom marched me back into the empty classroom for an impromptu parent-teacher conference. My mom asked my teacher where he thought I needed the most help in order to understand math. He said, "Oh, she probably won't need to know math anyway. My wife doesn't need it, and I'll bet you don't either."

As for standardized testing, I heard about a fairly recent question that some high percentage of kids across the country got wrong. It was on a comprehension section, and the children thought that a "drug store" would mean a place that sells DRUGS, as in illegal drugs I guess.

[udsweetpea]

So are they really racially biased or socio-economically biased? I would assume all lower class children no matter what race they are would score poorly if the language in the tests are geared towards upper class children.

Maybe I was a stupid upper class kid, but I did horribly on my standardized tests and SATs. However, I was in the top 20 in my high school class and graduated college with a 3.2.

[kimbyj]

Does anyone remember that show "Different Strokes" (with Todd Bridges, Dana Plato and Gary Coleman)? That's where that saying, "What you talkin' 'bout Willis?" came from. Anyway, for the folks who may not know about the show - basically two AA boys from Harlem becomes orphans and a wealthy white man on Park Ave adopts them (I think their mother had been his housekeeper). The man is, Mr. Drummond and he has a daughter named Kimberly. Well, on that show Mr. Drummond tries to get the boys into Kimberly's private school and the boys don't do well on their entrance tests. They end up talking about this very issue and then go on to test the headmaster. He, of course, fails because he doesn't understand their lingo and life circumstances. It was a very interesting story line for its time.

Also, these things translate on many different levels. For example, the other night DH & I were out to dinner with (my) friends and one person said, "We were sitting in the parlor...." Well, my Dh thought he meant an ice cream parlor when in fact he meant the living room. Then we joked about regional words:
lanai versus patio
foyer versus entryway
cupboard versus cabinet
toilet versus commode versus washroom versus bathroom versus water closet versus loo etc.

The lists are endless. It's been over 15 years since I graduated with a degree in Spanish and education but I can tell you that this was a big topic back then and once you think about the fact the mosts of the tests back then were geared to certain vocabulary words and setting versus others you can see where the bias factor comes in - on many levels.

[Niobe]

So are they really racially biased or socio-economically biased? I would assume all lower class children no matter what race they are would score poorly if the language in the tests are geared towards upper class children.

Maybe I was a stupid upper class kid, but I did horribly on my standardized tests and SATs. However, I was in the top 20 in my high school class and graduated college with a 3.2.


I was wondering this too. I can completely understand how a test would be socio-economically biased, but all you ever hear is people talking about the "racial bias". Not all people of minority races are poor, obviously. Has there ever been any evidence of middle class and wealthy minority students scoring worse on tests? And how do impoverished white students do compared to wealthy white students? I'm genuinely curious about this now.

Oh, and I'm the complete opposite of most of you. I was a pretty mediocre student, but I was a fabulous test taker. I had a 32 on my ACT, but I was barely in the top half of my class (I was something like 400th out of 950). :rolleyes: I will totally agree with the statement that standardized tests measure nothing but your ability to take a standardized test.

[udsweetpea]

And how do impoverished white students do compared to wealthy white students? I'm genuinely curious about this now.


I was just thinking about this too. Now based on just my high school classes, all of my classes labeled "Academic" or "Advanced Placement" were filled with mostly middle and upper class white kids. There were generally 3 AA students, who came from upper class families, and a few lower class kids. Maybe it had something to do with the entire demographic of our town since that's pretty much how our town was divided as well.

[Annette]

I was a good student, top 10% in high school, but horrible test taker. I could never finish any of those standardized tests including the SAT. Even when I took the Princeton Review class, they gave us tricks on how to pick the best answers and they even said that the SAT measures how well you take the SAT. I managed to get into an engineering school and complete an engineering degree and barely got over 1000 on the SAT.