Preview

Culktural Differences & Their Impact on Aptitude & Cog. Assessment

Good Essays
Open Document
Open Document
723 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
Culktural Differences & Their Impact on Aptitude & Cog. Assessment
Running Head: Cultural Differences and their Impact on Aptitude and Cognitive Assessment

Cultural Differences and their Impact on Aptitude and Cognitive Assessment

One major problem for test designers is cultural bias in different cultural groups. To develop a test without introducing cultural bias is extremely hard to do. Some test designers only have a middle-class background and may have difficulty understanding some of the aptitude and cognitive assessments. While doing some of the assessment and aptitude tests some test creators can come to experience some of the difficulties and issues involved with culturally biased methods of testing intelligence. Most placement tests and intelligence tests scores are biased toward predominantly white, and the middle-class population because of the discrepancies between minority Native American, Asian American, Hispanic, & African American cultures. White students test scores are given based on cultural, socio-economic, linguistic, and genetic factors. Economics is one of the major cultural biases that are hindering the success of our schools. Research shows that children that come from lower socio-economic status are less likely to receive the education that they need, toward their individual needs than children that are from upper socioeconomic status. This economic bias comes from the fact that most public school teachers are from a white, middle-class culture. African Americans score lower than white students do on assessments because these tests have shown to be culturally and racially biased. Some cultures cannot comprehend some of the questions that are on these assessments because some of them are posed and the language used in these test are cultural context that does not fit the background of a large number of minorities. In some situations it is also clear that analogy sections have contained some cultural and some racial biases; for



References: Cognitive Skill, Skill Demands of Jobs, and Earnings among Young European Americans, African Americans, and Mexican American Workers George Farkas, Paula England, Kevin Vicknair, Barbara Stanek Kilbourne Ethnic Group Differences in Cognitive Ability in Employment and Educational Settings: A Meta-Analysis Personnel Psychology Volume 54 Issue (2001, June) Social Forces Vol.75 No.3 (1997, March) http://www.jstor.org/stable http://www.nativechild.com/resources  http://childrenmillennium.org

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Powerful Essays

    References: Howard, T.G. (2010). Why Race and Culture Matter in Schools: Closing the Achievement Gap in…

    • 2965 Words
    • 12 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    Com/155 Week 6 Dq

    • 1011 Words
    • 5 Pages

    • Teachers and parents are concerned with whether standardized tests are a good indicator of a child's intelligence.…

    • 1011 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    This means that certain groups like African Americans or Native Americans have achieved lower scores on standardized tests compared to white counterparts. They explain it in many ways, ranging from psychological and cultural differences, genetics such as race and…

    • 551 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    The Lareau Scenario

    • 412 Words
    • 2 Pages

    A student’s ability and family background were found to have little impact on grades, but cultural capital was found to have an impact on grades. In other words, the more cultural capital one had, the higher student’s grades tended to be.…

    • 412 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Not further investigating the cultural disadvantages of the individual or population being tested can lead to mislabeling (Anastasi, & Urbina, 1997). This has shown to have been done with personality and IQ tests.…

    • 324 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    The Bell Curve

    • 480 Words
    • 2 Pages

    The opinions of Herrnstein and Murray in their book, The Bell Curve is that human intelligence is both inherited and also has environmental factors that contribute to a person’s future in many different areas such as; finances, a career, when they start a family, and whether or not a person will break the law instead of a person’s level of education and economic status. The authors go on to say that the more intelligent people of society are keeping their distance from the less intelligent, staying within their own group of intelligence. There is a chapter of the book that discusses the different ethnicities and the score differences among them on intelligence tests and I disagree with what they say. Intelligence in my opinion is not accurately measured when it comes to all ethnicities groups because of the people that create the tests. I think that there should be tests created by all types of ethnicities. Can an African American formulate an IQ test for all Asians to take in order to measure their intelligence? In my opinion I would say, no. According to Herrnstein and Murray intelligence is 40% to 80% heritable. It is my theory that this would be terribly hard to predict without measuring the IQ’s of the majority of people in the entire world. Some people never have their IQ tested. I have never had an IQ test. So the only data there is pertains to people that have been tested, there is no accurate count of how many people have never been tested, as far as I can tell. There are socioeconomic factors that would play a role in the scores of people across all racial groups because it is my opinion that people who have access to an education can develop higher intelligence, and not all of us have the luxury of getting a good education or getting an education at all. I believe there is something about intelligent people having children that are intelligent but at the same time I know parents who both are very intelligent but have a child who is…

    • 480 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    In “Connecting the Dots: How Race in America’s Classrooms Affects Achievement” Tatum does a good run through in explaining the historical measure of intelligence among white and people of color. One of the most shocking facts presented in her speech is that African American and Hispanic students enter colleges and universities with the same level of interest as their White and Asian counterparts in STEM fields, but don’t persist at the same rates of interest. Only 13% of pursuing students in STEM fields are awarded to African Americans and Hispanics. According to Tatum, some of the barriers African American and Hispanic students face in pursuing their education include family education background, low socioeconomic status and high school achievement.…

    • 361 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Better Essays

    Intelligence tests are believed to measure intelligence, IQ, and converted into a numeric score. IQ is the cognitive processes, knowledge to solve problems, and reach goals (Shiraev & Levy, 2010). Intelligence varies with each culture as well. The bell curve theory explains that a normal supply of IQ scores is generally divided into three substantial categories, which are people with low, average, and high IQ scores (Shiraev & Levy, 2010). Intelligence scores generated by the bell curve can show that people with high IQs are usually lawyers, doctors, scientists, and so forth (Shiraev & Levy, 2010). The bells curve also explains that people who have low IQs are more likely to be convicts criminals single mothers, drug addicts, and high-school failures, and so on (Shiraev & Levy, 2010).…

    • 1094 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Better Essays

    In the United States, standardized testing is used to measure how knowledgeable or unknowledgeable a person is in a particular subject. According to the Council of Chief State School Officers website, standardized tests are defined as “a testing instrument that is administered, scored, and interpreted in a standard manner. It may be either norm-referenced or criterion-referenced” (Council of Chief State School Officers). I believe that this method of testing is not an accurate way of measuring ones knowledge for it is biased towards certain ethic groups and creates unneeded stress for students. This style of testing is biased towards certain ethic groups and cultures because it measures all students on the same level. Different cultures have different ways of thinking or perceiving things, therefore all cultures should not be tested on the same level. Not to say that one culture should be tested on lower level or scale, but a student who was raised in America and one who was raised in France will obviously have differences such as language or social beliefs. According to my psychology textbook, “the impact of experience and cultural values can extend beyond particular items to a child’s familiarity with the entire testing situation. Tests underestimate a child’s intelligence if, for example, the child’s culture encourages children to solve problems in collaboration with others and discourages them from excelling as individuals” (Kail & Cavanaugh).…

    • 1271 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Best Essays

    Yet he does not speak Korean beyond a few words. It is evident from direct observation that a student such as James typifies the perception of the Asian as the model-minority. He is hard working, deferential, respectful and obedient. Yet signs of his Americanization are also evident, the most obvious example is his adoption of a Western first name in place of his birth name. From these specific, individual observations, certain conclusions can be reached that will be helpful to the educator. It is generally true that White and Asian student performances are relatively similar, far exceeding the scores of black, Hispanic, and American Indian students. In mathematics, Asian students usually outperform white students. Strategies for closing the gap include changed beliefs and attitudes of parents, families, students, and teachers; cultural responsiveness; greater opportunities to learn; effective instruction; and more family and community involvement. Yet these generalizations can be just as harmful as helpful. The Asian group is anything but homogenous. Asian Americans are one of the most diverse groups that you will find in the world. There are more within-group differences than are between groups. One of the problems with the model-minority myth—where all Asians are seen as economically and educationally successful—is that its it based on the successes of very small groups of people. There is a huge range of differences within the Asian American community. For those Asian families who believe strongly in education and formal education, their values are more apt to mesh with mainstream America. They tend to achieve in the schools. Members of Asian groups with less formal education have a harder…

    • 3080 Words
    • 13 Pages
    Best Essays
  • Good Essays

    Essay On Test Fairness

    • 573 Words
    • 3 Pages

    Following administration, and scoring of the test the next step is to perform an interpretation of the test. While interpreting the test the interpreter may find that, there are a few test bias that may have caused the scores to be high or low within a certain group causing the test to be unfair. Test bias and test fairness are two topics that individuals will continue to debate for years to come. Salkind (2013) described Test fairness as a very sensitive of use of examinations, quizzes, tests, etc. and social values and judgements are two influences in clarifying the results of test scores (Salkind, 2013, p. 294). However, Salkind (2013) described Test bias as an inconsistency in test scores between various groups due to factors that are irrelevant…

    • 573 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    One fault of standardized tests is that they do not take diversity into consideration. Many tests today are written so that white, middle-class and English speaking Americans can succeed. More aspects of diversity are…

    • 674 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    Acievement Gap

    • 1079 Words
    • 5 Pages

    In the U.S. education system today, we have experience an influx of different ethnic groups within the schools; therefore a multicultural framework of our education system was necessary. A multicultural framework means that we structure the school in a way that is promoting the cultural of all students that attend. This however is not true of all school systems and is indicative to why the term “achievement gap” still exists. Achievement gap is a term that has been used in education for several decades; however it has evolved in its usage. An achievement gap refers to the observed disparity on a number of educational measures between the performance of groups of students, especially groups defined by gender, race, ability, and socioeconomic status (Scholarpedia.com). Across the U.S, a gap in academic success continues to be evident between minority and underprivileged students and their white peers. This evidence is seen in an array of means, such as tests,…

    • 1079 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    This myth of cultural deficiency lead to a belief that African American culture is deficient because African Americans are intellectual deficient. This belief is held by society, when in fact African Americans have such a different culture then mainstream America because of their initially perceived intellectual deficient, which was used to deprive them of basic rights such as education. That societal belief of inferiority is then internalized this is recognized as the stereotype threat “ the threat of being viewed through the lens of a negative stereotype, or the fear of doing something that would inadvertently confirm that stereotype”(young gifted and black 111). This threat then manifest in poor performance “ blacks performed a full standard deviation lower then whites under the stereotype threat of the test being ‘diagnostic ‘of their intellectual ability, even though we statistical match the two groups in ability level. Something other then ability was involved; we believe it was stereotype threat” (young gifted and black 114). The manifestation of this threat then led to lower African American achievement know as the achievement…

    • 623 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    In 1983 a professor of education at Harvard University, Dr. Howard Gardner, developed the theory of multiple intelligences. This theory states that there are eight different ways in which a person is intelligent. These different forms of intelligence are as follows: linguistic, or word smart; logical-mathematic, or reasoning/numbers smart; spatial, or picture smart; bodily-kinesthetic, or body smart; musical, or music smart; intrapersonal, or self-smart; and naturalist, or nature smart (“Multiple Intelligences” para. 1-2). It is not difficult to pinpoint which of these intelligences standardized testing primarily measures. For students who are not linguistically or mathematically gifted, the tests do not accurately show the students’…

    • 581 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays