Standardized Testing Bias

In Fisher v. University of Texas at Austin (“Fisher II”), the United States Supreme Court will decide the constitutionality of the University of Texas’s (“University”) affirmative action policy, the impact of which is being widely debated. Some commentators fear that the Court is poised to end affirmative action altogether, thus causing reduction in the number of minorities who are admitted to universities across the country. Others believe that the Court should use Fisher II to invalidate all race-conscious policies and endorse a color-blind admissions process. Such concerns, and the expectations of those who would like to see affirmative action eliminated, are overstated. A careful analysis of the issues in Fisher II, including the Justices’

“In the case Grutter v. Bollinger (2003), the Supreme Court ruled that the use of affirmative action in school admission is

He argues that the Supreme Court’s ruling against Fisher in a 7-1 vote was unconstitutional (Hung). He defines affirmative action as “discrimination on the basis of race in University admission processes” (Hung). Hung continues his argument by stating that those who support the affirmative action policies are ignorant because they think that affirmative action is necessary to right past wrongs. He claims this is ignorance because “any basic research would reveal that the Supreme Court has held that affirmative

Seika McKee Dickens ENGL 1113 1 OCT. 2015 The Hidden Education in the Poor Perhaps one of the most valuable opportunities in life is education. In a conversation between Adam Howard, associate professor of education at Antioch College, and Arthur Levine, president of Teachers College at Columbia University, in “Where Are The Poor Students,” some subjects at hand are the availability or unavailability of opportunities, the missed value of education, and the irrelevant comparison of test scores directed towards the poor students.

Introduction The case of Students for Fair Admissions v. University of North Carolina is currently before the U.S. Supreme Court, and centers on the University of North Carolina's use of race in its admissions policies. The petitioner, Students for Fair Admissions, have brought claims alleging that the university's use of race discriminates against Asian American applicants in violation of the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment and federal civil rights statutes, including Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. The legal issues before the Supreme Court include whether the university's use of race in admissions decisions is constitutional under the Equal Protection Clause, whether the university has a compelling interest

As Wilson, stated he also agrees that the reason why minorities do not score as high as is due to their lack of knowledge on certain words since most of them are raised in low-budget areas and go to schools that lack some of the resources needed for aid on the SATs. A minority herself and a college professor agree that there is not any bias questions on the SATs and they just do not

“Affirmative Action may not be a perfect system, but there should be no doubt that it has endangered many successes. It has opened the doors of America’s most elite educational institutions to minority students, granting them unprecedented opportunities” (Ogletree 12). Thanks to Presidents John F. Kennedy and Lyndon B. Johnson a policy that prohibits employment and education discrimination based on race, color, religion, national origin, and sex is offered today to those who suffer from said discriminations (A Brief History). Affirmative action has opened abundant openings for minorities, allowing the cycle of going to college to be passed down generations and provided job opportunities that otherwise would not be considered by most. Affirmative

Why do minority groups score less on standardized tests? At some point in your academic career I am sure you have heard the statement that minority groups score less on standardized tests than other groups. This statement, however, makes a broad generalization that they do worse strictly because of the color of their skin. There is no evidence to prove that minority groups do worse on standardized testing just because they are a minority. When minorities do worse, there are many factors that go into it.

Leslie Rayburn is a teacher in Santa Cruz, California, and she, too, believes that this is unfair to students, and to teachers who are graded based on their students’ grades. She explains that, ‘the children who perform poorly on multiple choice standardized tests (but perhaps might perform well on an open-ended form of test) are labeled as “less intelligent’ and the school suffers” (Rayburn) Since progress of a student is mainly viewed based upon the outcome of standardized test scores, the lower-performing students are seen as “not college- ready”, which creates a roadblock to a student about where they may want to attend college. The fact of the matter is that no two students are the same, learn the same, or test the same, so standardized tests are inaccurate measurements of a student’s full learning capability and

My topic revolves around the type of role standardized tests should play in college admissions. I plan to argue that colleges should put less emphasis on standardized tests when choosing the best applicants to attend their universities. Many colleges are taking the approach of ignoring standardized tests results, and either implementing new tasks or stressing other factors when considering the best applicants. Test-optional schools may require additional essays and personality tests, or examine the applicant’s coursework to determine academic excellence and degree of difficulty. The research I collected suggests that standardized tests are biased against various races and classes, GPA is a better indicator of college success, and test-optional universities lessen barriers and increase diversity within their institutions.

The exam was formerly constructed in the 1920s to measure "American Inteligence", so that smart white males can be put into recognized institutions such as Harvard. Today the SAT is used in college admissions. Because of the time period,The Authors didn’t take account racial diversity. Not only is the SAT biased to non-white test takers, but also to the

Affirmative action has become obsolete in today’s society. Affirmative action is an active effort to improve the employment or educational opportunities of members of minority groups and women; also: a similar effort to promote the rights or progress of other disadvantaged persons (Merriam-Webster, 2011). Today’s affirmative action will demoralize the very concepts that the policy was implemented to uphold: those of equality for all people regardless of color and discrimination. This policy supports racial multiplicity at the price of distinction, impartiality and experience; it also follows the line of reverse discrimination and sexual bias against white men (Reyna, Tucker, Korfmacher, & Henry, 2005).

Many students either care too much about the tests, and therefore try to cheat, or they don’t care enough about the test, making the results worse than they normally would be. Ryan Deffenbaugh explains that one college, along with many others, no longer requires test scores for applicants because there were many arguments that “the scores are not a great indicator of future success in college, and that a billion-dollar-test prep industry creates an unfair playing field for students from families with lower incomes” (Deffenbaugh, 16). This college, Purchase College, is one of many that has the opinion of standardized tests being unreliable when accepting students. They don’t show true intelligence because anyone can get some luck when guessing. An article states, “Kids learn early on that they don 't have to think outside the box, they don 't have to be creative, collaborative or be critical thinkers.

“Standardized tests are unfair and discriminatory, because students with diverse backgrounds and skill levels are expected to answer questions written for the white, abled majority. " I think this point is very hard to argue with because if these tests are written for the white students, then how are students with a different background or diversity supposed to do well? One improvement could be that maybe there isn’t just one test for the whole country or the state, but instead there are multiple tests for multiple regions. Certain regions get certain tests because of the situation they are in. This makes sense and I believe it would improve the scores and even if it didn’t

Throughout many of the affirmative action legal cases, one of the main arguments from proponents is that it is necessary in order to right the wrongs of past racial discrimination. Some say that affirmative action is justified because even though white applicants may be more qualified, this is only because they did not face the same hardships as their minority counterparts (Rachels, Ethics, 1973).  Many argue if we do not integrate disadvantaged minorities into mainstream social institutions, they will continue to suffer the discrimination that has plagued our country for centuries and that this is detrimental to not only the minorities but also society as a whole (Anderson, 2002, 1270–71). However, the debate has recently shifted to the benefits of diversity in the classroom which the Supreme Court has affirmed as being a positive thing