Standardized Testing Biased

Imagine one day you’re at school taking a standardized test. You pass by a question that asks: “ Which word best completes the sentence--She put the dirty dishes in the: sink, dishwasher, table, or chair?” You are a minority student and you live in a middle or lower-class home in which the income isn't very high. You decide to pick “sink” as your answer because that’s where you put your dirty dishes. Turns out the right answer was dishwasher. How can you possibly pick something that you don't even have in your home. Could it be that these standardized test are biased ?

In all truth I feel that standardized test need to be gone for good. If not they should should be written in a way that is not biased and accessible to people of different backgrounds. According to Noliwe M. Rooks, research shows that tests heavily
give advantage to some and disadvantage others. This leaves the question: “Why do we still rely on standardized test ?” This question is vital to the future of education.

In fact, these standardized test should be level-fielded in order for everyone to have an equal opportunity to pass. According to Ronnie Reese from Huffington Post, society must first address these circumstances, and only then can there be a real education reform. Surely this education reform is very much needed. Not only do these test prolong established racism; more importantly it also causes there to be such a huge academic and achievement gap between minorities and Caucasians.

There is a group of educational organizations and civil rights groups who believe standardized test unfairly advantage and disadvantage others. This certainly seems to be the case. For instance, most standardized test contain questions which entail specific sets of understanding and abilities which most likely would be more developed by a child in a more privileged background. This is very biased and should most definitely be stopped.

Standardized test are bad news across the field of education, but it is more distressing to students.
Not only are these test designed to sort and categorize children, but it also causes certain schools to be closed because of low scores. As Alfie Kohn says, “Standardized testing has swelled and mutated, like a creature in one of those old horror movies, to the point that it now threatens to swallow our schools whole.” Imagine how it might feel for a child who doesn’t live in the best neighbor and gets their school closed down because of low test scores on a BIASED test. Perhaps it might seem bizarre, but some test even contain errors. In contrast, to what I believe, some people actually believe standardized tests aren’t biased.They say that standardized tests are valid and reliable tools for all groups. According To Armour-Thomas and Gopaul- McNicol, tests are culturally fair and items do not favor a particular cultural group.They also state that the tasks assess the abilities underlying intellectual behavior for all groups. These people who don’t think standardized test are biased believe the tests therefore accurately predict performance for all
groups.

Nevertheless, standardized test are biased. That’s final. In fact, I don’t think that those test are fair to all cultural groups. These test impact both the decisions of the person taking the test and the opportunities for the future of the person being tested. With all of this information in mind, what do you think? Should children have to take standardized test that disadvantage them because of their lifestyle. Is it fair to perhaps ruin a child’s future because they picked the wrong answer on a biased question? Should these test be done and gone once and for all ?