Assessment Bias: Qualities of an assessment instrument that offend or unfairly penalize a group of students because of students gender, race,

ethnicity, socioeconomic status, religion, or other such groupdefining characteristics

The Nature of Assessment Bias

The distortion of performance can be either unwarranted increases or decreases Threatens the validity of an assessment 2 Forms of Assessment Bias

Offensiveness- Occurs when negative

stereotypes of a certain subgroup members are presented in a test Unfair Penalization- A students test performance is distorted because of content that, although not offensive, disadvantages the student because of the students group membership

Examples of Bias
A number of questions on a test refer to sports primarily played by boys- biased against girls, favors boys A classroom activity includes a number of references to expensive entertainment options like operas which most students families cannot afford Members of minority groups are penalized for answering questions that would have been correct in their culture

Disparate Impact and Assessment Bias

If a test has a disparate impact on members of a particular racial, gender, or religious subgroup, the disparate impact warrants further scrutiny to see if the test is actually biased
If a test reveals inadequate progress in a low

performing school, they test may not actually be bias but rather indicates areas that warrant action

It is useful for content-knowledgeable reviewers to be called in to judgmentally scrutinize an assessment for bias The test may actually be helping to identify prior inequities in instruction

Reviewing for Bias

Judgmental Approach-Bias Review Panels- content specialists representative of subgroups who may be adversely impacted
Per-item and overall check for bias

Empirical Approach- Evaluating the results of assessments to look for statistical evidence of bias. Requires a large number of test takers to get accurate results.

Bias Detection in the Classroom

Become sensitive to the existence of assessment bias and the need to eliminate it Be aware of the perspective of the students in your class Assessment bias applies to all forms of testing, not merely paper-and-pencil tests

Assessing Students with Disabilities

In 1997, Students with disabilities became included in the same assessments as all students. NCLB, in 2002, increased penalties for non-compliance and failure to show AYP. Students with disabilities may require assessment accommodations to be written into their IEP.

Accommodate Categories for students with disabilities

Presentation-alternative formats of the test Response-student may need assistive device or use an alternative way to respond Setting-change of location Timing/Scheduling-student may need more time or to break up the time into segments

Assessing English Language Learners

English abilities range widely Required to make AYP targets ELL classification and reporting varies considerably among states Assessment accommodations: More time, use of dictionaries, dependent on language ability The use of translated tests and interpreters are discouraged

What do classroom teachers really need to know about absence-of-bias

Bias does exist It should become routine to use absence of bias criteria to judge own assessments.

If bias is eliminated, and a particular group fails to perform adequately, the instruction of that group needs to be examined.