Standardized Testing Bias

Background/Context of the Research Problem How does testing bias of standardized testing impact academic achievement? Standardized educational testing becomes biased when its design or the interpretation and evaluation of the results lead to various systematic disadvantages for the representatives of certain groups in comparison to the prevalent majority. This issue may occur in relation to people of color, lower-class members, ESL students, or the immigrants who are unfamiliar with particular cultural phenomena. For instance, the statistical correlation between SAT scores and income demonstrates that “students with higher family incomes tend to perform significantly better” (Biamonte, 2013. p. 2). The notion that wealthier students are able to improve their scores through test coaching and other similar services only reinforces the existing socioeconomic inequality in the academic sphere, for these services may be unaffordable for lower-class representatives. Thus, the issue of testing bias is closely connected to the concepts of fairness and equality, which, however, are merely the top of the metaphorical iceberg in this matter.
While

By determining the connection between testing bias and academic achievement, it will justify the need for a future reform that would address the existing forms of educational discrimination. While a certain extent of unfairness in standardized tests is nearly impossible to avoid due to such issues as measurement errors, it is important to eliminate systematic institutional discrimination that continues to affect entire groups of students, not only individual cases. Therefore, there is a need in a large-scale educational change that may transform testing as we know it. This study may serve as one of the arguments in support of this future