African Americans and Testing

This entry describes issues related to African Americans and testing and discusses possible reasons for the relatively low average performance of African Americans on standardized tests. The difference in test performance, or achievement gap, between African American students and European American students has been the subject of much research. Many factors may contribute to the achievement gap, including socioeconomic differences, the home environment, parent educational level, and teacher perceptions of students’ academic abilities. Understanding and addressing the reasons for lower test performance among African Americans is important because of the use of test results in diagnosing learning problems, determining a student’s academic level, and making other significant decisions about schools and students.