Definition
Absence-of-Bias is just as the name implies, there is no bias present. It is the last of the three essential criteria for evaluating educational assessments. The other two are reliability and validity. Assessment bias is a part of an assessment that disadvantages a certain group of people because of their gender, race, socioeconomic status, or any other group-defining characteristic. It occurs when an element of an assessment “distorts a student’s performance”(Popham 2014 p.128). The initial judgments that a teacher makes can be extremely important considering the future success of the student (Blankenship, Hubbard, Johnson, 2009). Educators need to recognize so that they can free their tests of as much bias as possible.
Offensiveness
Offensiveness is the first form of assessment bias. It occurs when an element of an assessment is offensive to a group. Offensiveness happens when a negative stereotype is presented in an assessment. Not only can this affect one question, but also it will distract the student for the remainder of the assessment and have a negative affect on the student’s abilities. The student might become distraught enough to answer incorrectly or not to the best of their abilities. Students become so offended that they forget about doing their best on the test and focus on how offensive the test is. Other offensive content includes blatant or implied slurs based on stereotypical behavior of certain groups. Most national tests employ people to care of this problem, classroom teachers often do not realize that their tests are offensive until it is too late. (Popham, 2014, p.128-129)
Unfair Penalization
Unfair penalization is the second form of assessment bias. It occurs when the content of the qu...
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...ations. The Glossary of Educational Reform. Retrieved from http://edglossary.org/test-accommodations/
Schellenberg, Stephen J. (2004). Test Bias or Cultural Bias: Have We Really Learned Anything? San Diego, California.
Blankenship, J., Hubbard, B., and Johnson, D. (2009). Bias in Classroom Assessment. Appalachian State University, North Carolina.
Works Cited
Popham, W. James. (2014). Classroom Assessment: What Teachers Need to Know (Seventh Edition). Upper Saddle River, New Jersey: Pearson.
(2013). Test Accommodations. The Glossary of Educational Reform. Retrieved from http://edglossary.org/test-accommodations/
Schellenberg, Stephen J. (2004). Test Bias or Cultural Bias: Have We Really Learned Anything? San Diego, California.
Blankenship, J., Hubbard, B., and Johnson, D. (2009). Bias in Classroom Assessment. Appalachian State University, North Carolina.
Stiggins, R.J., Arter, J., Chappuis, J., & Chappuis, S. (2004). Classroom assessment for student learning: doing it right-using it well. Portland, OR: Assessment Training Institute.
Any diverse group of organisms will not respond identically to a standard test; some will respond positively, and some will respond negatively. The student population of the United States is an extremely varied group, and students will respond differently to the same "standard" test. The format of the current standardized test, all multiple-choice questions, does not allow for variables among the test takers. In fact, the test attempts to erase all the variables and create a uniform ...
This test is a great example of cultural bias. Cultural bias in teaching occurs when classroom instruction largely reflect the teachers cultural values and perspectives. Leading to a situation in which the students in the predominate culture group perform better than other culture groups in the class. In the United States, the culture that is predominating is the White European American group. Most textbook and standardizes test were created by White European Americans. The problem is our classrooms are composed of not only the dominate culture but also many other cultures. We as teachers need to make an effort to teach and test in such a way as to be inclusive to all cultures represented in our classrooms.
Kohn, Alfie. "Standardized Testing and Its Victims." Education Week. N.p., 27 Sept. 2000. Web. 15 Jan. 2015.
Smith, M. (2010). Why NOT a National Test for Everyone. Kappan, 1. Retrieved March 16, 2014, from www.pdkintl.org
"The Standardized Testing Debate: The Good, the Bad, and the Very Ugly." TakePart. N.p., n.d. 22 Feb 2013. Web. 15 May 2014.
Black, P., & Wiliam, D. (2010). Inside the black box: Raising standards through classroom assessment. Phi Delta Kappan, 92(1), 81–90. doi:10.1177/003172171009200119
Transition: So these unfair questions not only affect the individual student, but are used for high school evaluations as
Standardized Tests Aren't Like T-Shirts: One Size Doesn't Fit All. (2006). Multicultural Education, 14(1), 52-55.
Although there have been legitimate arguments supporting the benefits of standardized testing, such as their ability to successfully measure students’ proficiency, in recent years there have been concerns and disadvantages regarding how their misuse poses a serious threat to the American education system. Despite the belief that standardized tests should be used to measure students’ proficiency, there are more reasons outweighing this statement regarding why they shouldn’t be used for this purpose. Not only is this a particular issue with standardized testing, but the tests are becoming more high stakes and are being used unfairly to determine things such as graduation, or placement in a school, resulting in a significant amount of stress and anxiety in students. Testing corporations are also profiting from the design of these standardized tests, while standardized testing is also forcing teachers to all teach the same thing, leading to a lack of creativity in the students. Aside from these arguments, standardized tests have been found to be becoming flawed and have poor design.
Standardized testing has become a dominant element in the education world. It is now used not only to judge a student’s knowledge but to judge the effectiveness of a school system’s teaching. Standardized testing is not an accurate or efficient way to judge a student’s intelligence or a school system’s instructional abilities.
Perceptions of Grading Fairness,” Michael Gordon and Charles Hay start off by saying that there
Black, P., Wiliam, D. (1998) Inside the black box: raising standards through classroom assessment. London: King's College.
Stiggins, R., Arter, J., Chappuis, J., Chappuis, S., (2007). Classroom assessment for student learning: Doing it right -- using it well. Upper Saddle River, N.J: Pearson.
Goodman, Paul. “A Proposal to Abolish Testing.” Forming a Critical Perspective, Ed, Ann Spurlock. 1st. Boston, MA: Pearson Learning Solutions, 2010. 191-193. Print.