Making up more 13% of the entire population of the United States, African Americans therefore, play a significant role in shaping the American life style. Although the days of slavery and racism against black people is considered history, African Americans are still experiencing some type of discrimination against them. The most important type to discuss here is the overrepresentation of African Americans students in special education classes as a result of faulty assessment (Roseberry-McKibbin, 2014).
Since most of the standardized tests are normed on Anglo children, one must keep in mind that their communication styles are probably different from those students with different ethnic background ad race. For instance, African American students’ narrative style is different from the one used by Anglo student who most probably speak Mainstream American English. When …show more content…
According to the Hispanic culture, more space between the speaker and the listener, which is what Anglos prefer, is considered rude or cold (Roseberry-McKibbin, 2014). So if a Hispanic student was setting to close to an Anglo examiner for example, the examiner may view this behavior as inappropriate and raise a red flag.
Likewise, a situational bias may arise. For example, if the test’s task was to describe this picture where a mother is setting on the table and her child is setting on the coach crying. A Hispanic student may give an answer of “he is upset because his mother is sitting far way from him”. Such an answer might not be acceptable especially if the student’s cultural background was not considered.
A content bias may be expected as well. If the test items included football related pictures or questions, a Hispanic student may not give appropriate or correct response simply because he or she is not familiar with the game. It is not within their cultural to play football and therefore, the game’s rule or name of players’ position are unfamiliar to Hispanic
Since most of the standardized tests are normed on Anglo children, one must keep in mind that their communication styles are probably different from those students with different ethnic background ad race. For instance, African American students’ narrative style is different from the one used by Anglo student who most probably speak Mainstream American English. When …show more content…
According to the Hispanic culture, more space between the speaker and the listener, which is what Anglos prefer, is considered rude or cold (Roseberry-McKibbin, 2014). So if a Hispanic student was setting to close to an Anglo examiner for example, the examiner may view this behavior as inappropriate and raise a red flag.
Likewise, a situational bias may arise. For example, if the test’s task was to describe this picture where a mother is setting on the table and her child is setting on the coach crying. A Hispanic student may give an answer of “he is upset because his mother is sitting far way from him”. Such an answer might not be acceptable especially if the student’s cultural background was not considered.
A content bias may be expected as well. If the test items included football related pictures or questions, a Hispanic student may not give appropriate or correct response simply because he or she is not familiar with the game. It is not within their cultural to play football and therefore, the game’s rule or name of players’ position are unfamiliar to Hispanic