Minority Issues in Testing

Researchers have studied multiple areas involving the assessment of minority students’ learning and how schools’ assessment practices affect the education of these students. This entry looks at how minority students are affected by teachers’ choice of assessments to evaluate students’ progress and achievement, by the increasing importance of statewide standardized test results, and by the assessments used for participation in programs intended for gifted and high-achieving students.

Some aspects of student assessment are outside of teachers’ control. For example, the system they use for grading is typically determined by the school or school district. However, teachers still make many decisions about student assessment, such as how assignments are structured or the amount, length, and types of exams. It follows, then, that teachers’ individual differences in perspective can shape their assessment behaviors. Even the kinds of questions a teacher writes to assess students on an exam may unintentionally reflect that teacher’s unconscious biases or a lack of effort to integrate a variety of cultural perspectives in the classroom.

Several kinds of assessments are used to evaluate student learning. They include traditional tests, performance-based tests, projects, oral presentations, portfolios, and journals. Assessments fall into two general categories based on their purpose: formative and summative. Formative assessment occurs before or during instruction. Formative assessment is used to guide the teacher in planning and to help students identify areas that need work. Therefore, formative assessment helps form instruction. On the other hand, summative assessment occurs at the end of instruction. Its purpose is to inform the teacher and the students of the students’ level of accomplishment. The main differences between formative and summative assessment involve how the results are used and when the measurement takes place (while students are learning or after learning has occurred). Teachers rely heavily on summative assessment, and statewide standardized testing also is categorized as summative assessment.

Educational policy changes, particularly the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 (NCLB), have led to an increasing importance placed on statewide standardized testing that has significantly affected students, especially minority students. Although student performance on the National Assessment of Educational Progress rose in the decade after enactment of NCLB, there was not a corresponding narrowing of the achievement gap between White students and their African American and Latino counterparts. The Every Student Succeeds Act, adopted in 2015 to replace NCLB, gives states more flexibility in setting goals for student proficiency but maintains the old law’s annual testing requirement. William Penuel and colleagues have argued that states should choose school quality and student success indicators for accountability systems that are more inclusive and promote equity.

Assessment tools that emphasize high-stakes testing raise questions regarding culturally relevant instructional practices. Research examining African American students’ performance on high school exit exams has shown that when the classroom curriculum incorporates students’ input as well as other culturally relevant aspects, it improves students’ critical reading skills and performance on tests. In addition, there is research showing that when minority students are being evaluated, they tend to personally internalize failure, and that being placed in remedial classes can make students feel like lesser students and feel that they are perceived as lesser students. These feelings, in turn, negatively impact students’ performance on tests. There is also research indicating that the performance of African American and Latino students on high-stakes tests can be undermined by stereotype threat, which refers to the risk of confirming a negative stereotype of one’s group.

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