Is there a Cultural Bias in Standardized Tests? Part 2

I received an email about my prior post pointing out that standardized tests are culturally biased in part because they don't include references to common phrases and terms found in non-white American cultures such American black culture. The example they gave was 'jumping the broom' a phrase that refers to the African-American tradition of a newly-married couple's jumping the broom to signify their marriage. It comes from slavery times when black people, as slaves, could not legally marry.

How I replied: You are mistaken if you think actually knowing slave history and references is something that's common to many African-Americans. Believe me when I say that there are many, many, many black children who would not have known what the heck the phrase 'jumping the broom' was all about. Just like there are many, many, many white children whose families don't have boats or access to boats, who don't know by some cultural osmosis boating terminology.

I'm not saying that standardized tests aren't race-based, exactly. I'm not being clear, can't put my finger on what I feel enough to articulate it precisely...I just feel it's wrong, a cop-out, to say, 'that's not in our culture' so that's why we don't know it. Why aren't we angry that our children are purposefully not being taught these things? Where are the books? Where is the exposure?? Where is the expectation that our children are capable of learning, capable of handling exposure to other cultures/classes, capable of understanding?

There is a lot of energy being expended to take stuff out of these tests and to make them as race-blind as possible, and that's cool, but if urban children of color are being denied access to the same level of education that suburban white children get, and I'm talking public schools here, then they will still lag far behind in standardized testing no matter what's on the tests.

I feel like we're worrying about the wrong thing, maybe. For standardized testing to ever be equal then everyone has to receive a standard education regardless of race and class. I think that inclusion of stuff that is culture based is not only ok (as long as this information is taught in all the schools) but desirable for helping children to appreciate and respect people from different backgrounds. I think every child in America should know what 'jumping the broom' means, that is classic American history right there, and every child should be able to do a math problem without being thrown by a word.

This blog entry written by Trula Breckenridge. Thanks for visiting Personal Growth for Black People!

Is there a Cultural Bias in Standardized Tests? Part 1

I have read and heard many times that there is a cultural bias in standardized tests which affect how well black children do on such tests. Some examples given to clarify the bias include references to boats and yachts and other things the average African-American child does not have access to and therefore could not be expected to know about. Or knowing synonyms that aren't commonly used in black neighborhoods, for example rummage sale instead of garage sale. I'm still not sure...I understand the examples, they makes sense somewhat, but to say a test is culturally biased based on that, I don't know. I grew up in a suburb-type neighborhood, ok, but nobody I knew had a boat. It's not like the white kids had this other life that included yachts and stuff like that. We knew the names for different parts of boats not from personal experience, but because we were taught them at school. Came up in a story of something, I can't recall. Same with learning different names for things, like garage sale/rummage sale and stuff like that...it seems so many children are being denied basic education like learning synonyms and being exposed to other worlds through reading. That is so wrong.

I think black kids would be much better off if we insisted that our children receive the same education that most white kids get, insisted that all children received the same type and level of education. Because as things are now, it seems to me that children of color, especially black children, are not lagging on standardized tests so much because of cultural differences but because they are in school systems that are willfully deny them a decent education. What do you think?

This blog entry written by Trula Breckenridge. Thanks for visiting Personal Growth for Black People!

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