Verified Document

Education - Social Issues Tests Essay

Others suggest that redesigning evaluation procedures or revised methods of scoring could help. All have been tried, some have helped, and most have failed. What is soon discovered is that all these solutions applied to a fundamentally and inherently defective test will not bring about a positive result. (Bernhard) the thought that all members of every population will look at the world in the same way is false.

The notion of cultural validity in assessment addresses the fact that society and culture may influence the way in which individuals interpret test items and respond to them. A test cannot be considered as culturally valid if these sociocultural influences are not taken into account throughout the entire process of its development. (Solano-Flores)

We have discovered that most experts agree it is difficult, if not impossible, to compose a test that is free of cultural bias. And one of the primary problems we have not mentioned is that, in attempting to free an examination of its culture bias towards a particular culture, it is often inherent that we would create a bias towards another of the constituent cultures. Particularly in these diverse United States, and with standard achievement tests administered to broad bases of highly diverse cultures, the task becomes almost impossible.

However, attempts have been made to produce some suggestions to construct tests that show a minimal amount of bias. Though far from a total solution, the following at least offer points of discussion as we approach this difficult and complex issue:

1. Avoid ethnocentrism, indicating any particular group is superior and the standard against which all others are measured.

2. Avoid requiring construct-irrelevant knowledge or skill in order to answer a test...

(unnecessarily difficult words, figures of speech, or idioms; vocabulary based on social class or financial knowledge; slang, etc.)
3. Avoid stereotypes (generalizing and oversimplifying)

4. Represent diversity in depictions of people (parity of status)

5. Use appropriate terminology to refer to people (use of unnecessarylabels)

Bibliography

Bellevue College Education Department, Bellevue, WA. "Guidelines to Avoid Test

Bias." 6 October 2006. Bellevue College. 23 January 2009 http://bellevuecollege.edu/bias/overview.htm.

Bernhard, Judith. "Cultural Bias in Standard Tests of Mental Abilities." n.d. Ryerson

Polytechnical Institute. 23 January 2009 http://www.ryerson.ca/~bernhard/documents/culturalbias_000.pdf.

Education Alliance at Brown University. "Teaching Diverse Learners." 2006. The Education Alliance, Brown University. 23 January 2009 http://www.alliance.brown.edu/tdl/assessment/stndrdassess-prt.shtml.

Laturnau, Joseph. "Cultural Bias in Standardized Tests." n.d. Pac. Ed.. 23 January 2009 http://www.prel.org/products/paced/aug02/pc_tests.htm.

RamMohan, Yasmin Tara. "Advocates say standardized tests often flunk cultural bias scrutiny." 09 May 2007. Medill Reports. 23 January 2009 http://news.medill.northwestern.edu/chicago/news.aspx?id=35935.

Schellenberg, Steven. "Test Bias or cultural bias." 14 April 2004. datacenter.spps.org. 23

January 2009 http://datacenter.spps.org/sites/2259653e-ffb3-45ba-8fd6-04a024ecf7a4/uploads/Test_Bias_Paper.pdf.

Solano-Flores, Guillermo. "Cultural Validity in Assessment." Summer 2000. News From the Project. 23 January 2009 http://www.edgateway.net/cs/cvap/print/docs/cvap/news.htm.

Wiesen, Joel. "Content-Oriented Cultural Bias Review of Test Questions." 24th Annual

IPMAAC Conference Handout. Arlington, VA, 2000.

Sources used in this document:
Bibliography

Bellevue College Education Department, Bellevue, WA. "Guidelines to Avoid Test

Bias." 6 October 2006. Bellevue College. 23 January 2009 http://bellevuecollege.edu/bias/overview.htm.

Bernhard, Judith. "Cultural Bias in Standard Tests of Mental Abilities." n.d. Ryerson

Polytechnical Institute. 23 January 2009 http://www.ryerson.ca/~bernhard/documents/culturalbias_000.pdf.
Education Alliance at Brown University. "Teaching Diverse Learners." 2006. The Education Alliance, Brown University. 23 January 2009 http://www.alliance.brown.edu/tdl/assessment/stndrdassess-prt.shtml.
Laturnau, Joseph. "Cultural Bias in Standardized Tests." n.d. Pac. Ed.. 23 January 2009 http://www.prel.org/products/paced/aug02/pc_tests.htm.
RamMohan, Yasmin Tara. "Advocates say standardized tests often flunk cultural bias scrutiny." 09 May 2007. Medill Reports. 23 January 2009 http://news.medill.northwestern.edu/chicago/news.aspx?id=35935.
January 2009 http://datacenter.spps.org/sites/2259653e-ffb3-45ba-8fd6-04a024ecf7a4/uploads/Test_Bias_Paper.pdf.
Solano-Flores, Guillermo. "Cultural Validity in Assessment." Summer 2000. News From the Project. 23 January 2009 http://www.edgateway.net/cs/cvap/print/docs/cvap/news.htm.
Cite this Document:
Copy Bibliography Citation

Related Documents

Education Report to Congress Person
Words: 3813 Length: 12 Document Type: Term Paper

Hernando County and NCLB: Mandate for Drastic Change The Hon. Ginny Brown-Waite North Main Street Sincerely, Hernando County's Current NCLB Situation The Hernando County Situation in a Larger Context National Commentary on NCLB 2004 Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP) Report -District Level, Hernando 1004 Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP) Report, Hernando FCAT Grades and AYP Status, Hernando County Schools The No Child Left Behind (NCLB) act has stamped modern American education with the mark of mediocrity. In mandating that all school districts

Education I Support Most of What Robinson
Words: 1297 Length: 4 Document Type: Essay

Education I support most of what Robinson is saying that video. The core of his argument is that the education system geared more towards creating workers than thinkers, and that does seem to be the natural outcome of a lot of decisions in the education system. Schools that remove arts, physical education and other such classes to focus on standardized test subjects are being economically motivated to churn out workers. This

Education and National Security Education Is Essential
Words: 978 Length: 3 Document Type: Essay

Education and National Security Education is essential for the advancement of our nation as well as our children. A good education gives children the ability to succeed physically, intellectually, and emotionally. The American nation has been labeled as having a threat to national security because of the education system failing to provide the needed learning and skills to know how to protect the nation. The condition of America's education system has

Education
Words: 1995 Length: 6 Document Type: Term Paper

Education Over the last several years, the field of education has been continually changing. This is because the public is demanding greater amounts of accountability. For the Library and Media program, this means that there must be a focus on providing additional resources in an era of declining budgets. The key for dealing with these challenges requires that everyone have a sense of leadership and vision. To fully understand how these

Education Administration This Internship in Education Administration...
Words: 1699 Length: 5 Document Type: Essay

Education Administration This internship in education administration provided me with a number of takeaways that will benefit me throughout my career. I learned how to create a safe, collegial environment for change in teacher practice. My strategies enabled a full court press on the issues facing the math department, and strengthened the will of the team to get the job done by insisting each member believes it is important to "Do

Education - NCLB Views No
Words: 1535 Length: 5 Document Type: Essay

S. is a worthwhile goal, but the No Child Left Behind Act of 2002 is a poorly conceived approach whose deficiencies may actually do more to undermine many aspects of education than any meaningful improvement inspired by its programs. References Caillier, J. (2007) No Child Left Behind Act: Are States on Target to Make Their Goals?; Journal of Negro Education, Fall 2007 Issue. Retrieved September 8, 2008, at http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qa3626/is_200710/ai_n25139930/pg_10 Crawford, J. (2004) No Child

Sign Up for Unlimited Study Help

Our semester plans gives you unlimited, unrestricted access to our entire library of resources —writing tools, guides, example essays, tutorials, class notes, and more.

Get Started Now