Giving Compass' Take:

• Marten Roorda argues that standardized tests do not create inequalities, they just identify existing inequalities.

• Are tests worth prioritizing? How can inequalities be addressed? 

• Read about colleges shifting away from standardized tests.

If your doctor diagnoses you with an illness, do you recommend the doctor be fired, or the thermometer be thrown away?

Recently, a lawsuit was filed against the University of California system demanding immediate elimination of the ACT test and the SAT as admission requirements. Among the assertions is that inherent biases in the development of the tests lead to lower scores for some racial/ethnic groups than for others.

It’s true that not all student groups perform the same on the ACT. But it’s false to claim that this means there is something wrong with the test. Instead, it diagnoses larger problems in the U.S. education system: problems of unequal access to a high-quality education that need to be treated.

ACT works very hard to ensure that its tests are fair to all students. Questions and passages are thoroughly evaluated at multiple stages, both internally and by diverse panels of external experts, to eliminate any potential biases in content, wording, or cultural assumptions.

Questions are also evaluated statistically for evidence of differential performance by one racial/ethnic group or gender during preliminary testing; when test questions show such evidence, they are removed from further consideration. This helps guarantee that students with the same level of ability will have the same probability of answering any given question correctly, regardless of their backgrounds.

Read the full article about standardized tests by Marten Roorda at EdSource.