Standardized Test Architects are Racist Gatekeepers
Inadequate tests cannot assess black students’ abilities
Envision a room with many doors before you; each entrance offers a different path. These doorways are locked. However, teachers and parents say you can choose any door you want. Upon approach, it becomes apparent these paths are not equally available entry points. Systematic racism keeps some keys out of reach for Black students, locking them out of opportunities.
Long before the pandemic, Black students faced discrimination in a variety of ways. One of the most alarming is the use of standardized tests. Because of the importance of standardized tests, architects hold the keys to students’ educational opportunities. Their performance shapes their future and determines which doors open for them.
One day, the haze will clear. Whether Black students re-enter an educational system skewed against them, banks on what parents, teachers, and school administrators do now.
Fallacious IQ Tests
To understand the role of standardized tests in educational assessment, we must evaluate the IQ test because it was the first standardized test. In 1904, Alfred Binet and Theodore Simon created the world’s first intelligence test. These Frenchmen wanted to distinguish between developmentally disabled children and those who exhibited laziness. This test was named the Simon-Binet IQ test.
However, Binet doubted the intelligence test’s ability to be applied universally or to quantify intelligence successfully. Although he warned against the misapplication of this test, it became the basis for the standardized tests students take in the modern era.
“Binet himself did not believe that his psychometric instruments could measure a single, permanent, and inborn intelligence level.
Binet stressed the limitations of the test, suggesting that intelligence is far too broad a concept to quantify with a single number. Instead, he insisted that many factors influence intelligence, that it changes over time, and that it can only be compared in children with similar backgrounds” (Cherry, 2020).
Simon and Binet created this test for French children. They did not intend its use to apply beyond that setting. Thus, the use of the analysis in other environments undermines the credibility of the very results it aimed to test.
“Stanford University psychologist Lewis Terman took Binet’s original test and standardized it using a sample of American participants. This adapted test, first published in 1916, was called the Stanford-Binet Intelligence Scale and soon became the standard intelligence test used in the U.S” (Cherry, 2020).
American scientists infamously modified the test into the Army Alpha and Army Beta, assessing over two million American soldiers. Army officials used the results to determine the jobs best fit for soldiers. The first version used a written form, while the second version used pictures for soldiers who could not read or write. The test continued to change as time went on.
“Building on the Stanford-Binet test, American psychologist David Wechsler created a new measurement instrument. Much like Binet, Wechsler believed that intelligence involved different mental abilities. Dissatisfied with the limitations of the Stanford-Binet, he published his new intelligence test, known as the Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale (WAIS), in 1955.” (Cherry, 2020).
The current intelligence test used in the United States is a later version of the Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale.
The concept and definition of intelligence reflect an unsettled scientific theory. Psychologists continuously changed and evolved the IQ test; they did not agree about what being intelligent means. Most importantly, modern psychologists do not agree about the definition, either.
Psychologists, in the pursuit of understanding intelligence, developed various theories of Intelligence: One Intelligence, Multiple Intelligences, Commonly Used Intelligence, Verbal Intelligence, Numerical Intelligence, Spatial Intelligence, Logical Intelligence. None of these theories disproves the other. Instead, they offer a different perspective.
Test architects choose the theory they ideologically and scientifically agree with and formulate a test to explore the topic. Thus, when we use the IQ test in the United States, we are only using one approach, representing one group of scientists’ perspectives.
In the same way, standardized tests use a limited interpretation of mental acuity. Thus, colleges should not use these tests as a shortcut for assessing a student’s intellectual capabilities. Like most tests, the results should be taken with a grain of salt.
One of my teachers once told me that if every student received poor grades, her teaching would be to blame. Similarly, if a majority of BIPOC students score poorly compared to white students, the test is to blame.
Simon and Binet designed the original IQ test to make assessments about a homogenous group of students and felt uncertain about the efficacy of the evaluation. American students are not homogenous. Therefore, it is not realistic to use this same type of analysis on a group of students from various backgrounds. Tests are only useful when used in context.
“IQ tests are routinely used as weapons against Black people in particular and minority groups and poor people generally. The tests are based on white middle-class standards, and when we score low on them, the results are used to justify the prejudice that we are inferior and unintelligent. Since we are taught to believe that the tests are infallible, they have become a self-fulfilling prophecy that cuts off our initiative and brainwashes us.” — Dr. Huey P. Newton (Team & Powel, 2018)
The truth is, IQ tests are not perfect. Standardized tests are only as good as the definition of intelligence used by the test architects and the applicability of the tests’ results. As the basis for current standardized tests, it is dangerous to perceive them as infallible. Too many parents, teachers, and academic institutions view Black and Brown children as inferior simply because of their test scores.
Psychologists and statisticians develop tests and are very honest about their limitations. Thus, parents and alumni should hold school administrators and school boards accountable for falsely perpetuating a fallible test’s infallibility.
Systematic Racism is on the Test
Colleges consistently require applicants to score in a particular range to be accepted. Since the test results correlate positively with the student’s race, they know which scores are not typical for Black and Brown students. Knowing this, schools use the tests as the sentinels. Administrators are too cautious about admitting that they use race as an admissions standard. Using this method, they politely reject ambitious and hardworking applicants, pretending that race of the student is irrelevant in the equation.
Standardized tests act as gatekeepers for educational opportunities. Schools use standardized tests to assess the mental acuity of students. While many Americans think standardized testing is objective, all tests carry ingrained bias. These tests do not accurately examine a student’s intelligence or aptitude. The disagreement about the concept of IQ amongst academics proves its limitations. Black students and students of color consistently score under white students. However, white students are not more intelligent than BIPOC students. The architects created these standardized tests for the white, homogenous group, and that is the group that scores the best.
“According to Fair Test research, on average, students of color score lower on college admissions tests. Thus much capable youths are denied entrance or access to so-called “merit” scholarships, contributing to the enormous racial gap in college enrollments and completion” (Rosales, 2019).
Statistics demonstrate a clear bias against Black students. Parents and teachers should scrutinize the reliability and validity of these tests. Advocates should recall that test reliability refers to its ability to be applied to a variety of test groups with similar results. However, validity refers to a test’s ability to evaluate what it sets out to test. These two concepts are critical to assessing the efficacy of standardized tests as evaluative tools. If standardized tests lack reliability or validity, these cease to be essential arbiters.
“Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka was a landmark 1954 Supreme Court case in which the justices ruled unanimously that racial segregation of children in public schools was unconstitutional. Brown v. Board of Education was one of the cornerstones of the civil rights movement and helped establish the precedent that “separate-but-equal” Education and other services were not, in fact, equal at all” (History, 2009).
Although Brown v.Board of Education prohibited racial segregation of public schools, standardized tests continue to act as gatekeepers, allowing less post-high school educational advancement opportunities. American laws should protect Black students from discriminatory admission practices, chiefly when those schools accept federal funding. Only an insistence that this bias occurs will bring about change.
Standardized test architects do not have to be racist to create racist tests. This bias is inherent in their perception of what intelligence is and how to test mental acuity.
These tests also discriminate against Hispanic students who learn English as a second language. On a resume, speaking multiple languages is a blessing, not a curse. Nevertheless, their language gap consistently lands their scores lower than white students.
“High stakes testing also causes additional damage to some students who are categorized as English language learners (ELLs). The tests are often inaccurate for ELLs, according to FairTest, leading to misplacement or retention. ELLs are, alongside students with disabilities, those least likely to pass graduation tests”.
Advocates should address this injustice because higher learning opportunities impact the money students make during their lifetimes, dictating the career opportunities offered post-graduation. Hispanic students, like Black students, are intelligent. However, the tests prove incapable of recognizing their brilliance.
These racist practices continue to deprive BIPOC students of higher learning opportunities, but these tests also impact students still in school.
“African-Americans, especially males, are disproportionately placed or misplaced in special Education, frequently based on test results. In effect, the use of high-stakes testing perpetuates racial inequality through the tests’ emotional and psychological power over the test takers, according to FairTest” (Rosales, 2019).
Think about the impact that incorrect placement in special education classes will have on Black students. If educators tell students that they have developmental disabilities, they may lack the motivation to open those doors of opportunity. For psychologists, diagnosis is critical. Rarely due these scientists use one test to make assessments about an individuals’ mental health. Instead, they evaluate the impact that their behavior has on their ability to live freely. In the same way, standardized tests alone cannot determine mental acuity. Parents and caregivers, knowing the student better than anyone, should fight back against improper placement.
Failed Reforms
Good faith test architects tried to address race in standardized tests using a variety of methods. In response, some test architects insisted that the test scores adjust, using a curve, to recognize the differences in test scores. However, this method was deemed racist by scientists and discontinued.
Dr. Robert Williams, in 1972, created the Black Intelligence Test of Cultural Homogeneity. As a Black psychologist, he attempted to develop a test to address systematic racism.
“In his tests, he showed that blacks would do better on test tipped in their favor. In it, he asks for definitions of slang words used primarily among blacks, such as “hawk,” which means the wind, and “hog,” which refers to a Cadillac automobile. Most whites failed his test, he reported” (Special, 1975).
This test used colloquial Black dialect to create a more well-rounded test. However, mainstream test designers dismissed his analysis as racist and irrelevant. Although he attempted to address systematic racism, he found it challenging to create a test that the academic community could support.
Perhaps these methods failed because Black students do not need a single test or a test tilted in their favor. Instead, they need a valid assessment of their mental acuity. Intelligence is challenging to test for, and the world of academics, so far, failed to come up with an equitable answer. Academic institutions should use proven scientific methods to make educated guesses about a student’s potential.
Actions Educational Reform Activists Must Take
Concerned parents, administrators, parents, and alumni should petition State and Private Universities about their admissions standards. Students pay billions of dollars each year to Academic Institutions. Advocates deserve to be involved in determining the efficacy and fairness of the admissions processes.
We can evaluate a student’s abilities without using standardized tests. Many educators and administrators use capstone projects and portfolios instead. These projects should carry more weight in the college admissions process. Also, the grades of a student remain an important indicator of academic success.
Standardized testing is here to stay. So, education reform advocates must demand transparency about test production, scoring rubrics, and the test results of students’ non-homogenous groups. When possible, schools and educators can use different methods.
The fight is ongoing. Students sued the University of California for their use of ACT and SAT scores. Similarly, a group of Ohio residents filed a lawsuit over the public school system’s reliance on standardized test scores.
“Success in court will not eliminate the state’s testing program but will prevent high-stakes decisions such as promotion or graduation until a constitutional financing formula is implemented” (Fairtest, 2020).
These tests stop being racist gatekeepers when we take the keys away from the architects and put them in the hands of students. Admissions reform is worth fighting for because these students deserve equal educational opportunities.
References:
Cherry, K. (2020, March 19). Why Alfred Binet Developed IQ Testing for Students. Retrieved August 06, 2020, from https://www.verywellmind.com/history-of-intelligence-testing-2795581
History.com Editors. (2009, October 27). Brown v. Board of Education. Retrieved July 25, 2020, from https://www.history.com/topics/black-history/brown-v-board-of-education-of-topeka
Rosales, J. (2019.). The Racist Beginnings of Standardized Testing. Retrieved July 18, 2020, from http://www.nea.org/home/73288.htm
Special, P. (1975, May 13). Black Psychologist Fighting Use of Intelligence Tests He Says Reflect White Middle-Class Values. Retrieved August 06, 2020, from https://www.nytimes.com/1975/05/13/archives/black-psychologist-fighting-use-of-intelligence-tests-he-says.html
Team, T., & Powel, A. (2018, August 22). 10 Dr. Huey P. Newton Quotes That Still Resonate Today. Retrieved July 20, 2020, from https://theblackdetour.com/10-dr-huey-p-newton-quotes-that-still-resonate-today/
