Classroom Assessment: Bias

1. Classroom Assessment: Bias • Characteristics of a test that offend or unfairlypenalize examinees because of their membership in particular groups or populations: • Religion. • socioeconomic status. • race, ethnicity or gender. • Geography.

2. Further Considerations of Bias and Validity • Two kinds of bias (from Howe, 1995) • Predictive and Criterion • Predictive bias: • External: Concerned with the question, “How well does the test predict the performance it is design to measure?” • Internal: Concerned with how well items in the test predict overall performance on the test.

3. More on bias and validity • Criterion bias: • Across criteria bias: When the performance measured by the test is overly emphasized relative to other (often desirable) criteria. • Within criterion bias: When the performance being measured by the test is (partially) differentially defined by the test itself.

4. Fairness is Required in All Assessments Assessments need to be fair to students from all ethnic and socioeconomic backgrounds. • Is the language in word problems interpreted by students of all backgrounds? • Does the assessment accommodate students with disabilities? • Is the assessment free of artifacts that perpetuate racial, ethnic, or gender stereotypes?

5. Poor Performance  Bias • Just because different classes of individuals perform differently on an assessment does not mean that the assessment is biased against one or more of the groups. • All assessments are biased against ignorance. • Poor performance can indicate poor achievement.

6. Strategies for EliminatingBias in Assessments • Judgmental Approaches. • Review panels. • Judgements regarding specific items and overall test content. • Differential Item Functioning (DIF) procedures. • Being sensitive to the possibility of bias in classroom assessments.

7. End