Intersectionality and Test Bias
Intersectionality and Test Bias
Project Summary
Item and test bias presents a major threat to the validity of educational testing and assessment programs. To date, bias has been examined through the distinct lens of racially stratified identity, gender identity, economic status, or ableness. Doing so fails to account for the intersections of identity. This project explores the use of intersectional lens to the study of bias in educational testing.
Approach
Traditional approaches to examining the item and test bias fail to account for the intersections of oppression and thus may underestimate the degree to which bias operates in educational tests. Over the past decade, an intersectional lens has been applied to uncover the complex relationships that exist in health, the higher education pipeline, and criminal justice that result from the ways in which intersections of oppression differentially impact one's experience within each institution. This project is the first to apply the theory of intersectionality to the study of test bias.
Measurement & Metrics
The study of test bias in educational tests examines the ways in which individual test items and the test as a whole may function differently based on the lived experiences of people who experience oppression in different ways. At its core, the study of test and item bias focuses on differences in the difficulty of test items that are produced by differences in lived experiences manufactured by oppression.
Key Findings
- Preliminary findings indicate a dramatic increase in potential bias when examined through an intersectional lens
- The detection of potential bias increases four- to eight-fold depending on the content area and grade level
- Potential bias is highest for student who identify as female, from economically disadvantaged households and Asian, Latine, and/or Black