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CULTURAL BIAS IN ASSESSMENT: CAN CREATIVITY ASSESSMENT HELP? I N T E R N A T I O N A L J O U R N A L O F C R I T I C A L P E D A G O G Y KYUNG HEE KIM DARYA ZABELINA Abstract Culture and...

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CULTURAL BIAS IN ASSESSMENT:
CAN CREATIVITY ASSESSMENT HELP?
I N T E R N A T I O N A L J O U R N A L O F C R I T I C A L P E D A G O G Y
KYUNG HEE KIM
DARYA ZABELINA
Abstract
Culture and background may lead to the inaccuracy of assessments, including
traditional tests and alternative assessments. Standardized tests intend to measure
intelligence and general knowledge, but they are normed based on the knowledge
and values of the majority groups, which can create bias against minority groups,
including gender, race, community status, and persons with different language
ackgrounds, socioeconomic status, and culture. Although alternative assess-
ments are considered to be more culturally fair, they are still not completely fair.
Creativity is as important as intelligence, and creativity assessment measures are
normed on individual cultures. To reduce bias, we suggest that creativity assess-
ments be added to traditional tests and alternative assessments.
Key Words: assessment, cultural bias, creativity, standardized tests, cul-
tural validity
STANDARDIZED TESTS
Standardized tests assert that they are fair and impartial measures of academic performance and have become the most prevalent measures of the quality of
educational programs. The U.S. No Child Left Behind Act (NCLBA) required
standardized testing of students at all levels of education: elementary, middle,
and high school. The NCLBA implemented a federally –mandated testing pro-
tocol that continues under the Race to the Top (RttT). Government agencies
use these tests to determine that the various school systems in the U.S. equally
serve every child, no matter their cultural background. However, performance
gaps on standardized tests between ethnic minority groups (African American,
130 | International Journal of Critical Pedagogy | Vol. 6 No. 2, 2015
Latino, and Native American) and non-minority groups (mostly white/European
American, but lately also Asian American students) in the U.S. prevail despite the
government’s effort to reduce them (A
uthnot, 2009; Forum for Education and
Democracy, 2008; Salinas & Ga
, 2009; U.S. Department of Education, 2005).
Method bias may contribute to performance gaps between ethnic minority
groups and non-minority groups in the U. S. due to the norming process of
standardized tests. In general, most tests are normed using the scores of majority
group populations. It may be inappropriate to use the same assessments with indi-
viduals of various racial/ethnic minority groups without norming the instrument
to reflect those groups. If the cultural or linguistic backgrounds of the individuals
eing tested are not adequately represented in the norming group, the validity
and reliability of the test are questionable when used with such individuals (Pa-
dilla & Borsato, XXXXXXXXXXFor example, the Scholastic Aptitude Test (SAT) used an
analogy with the word “regatta” that few African American students knew while
many Caucasian counterparts were familiar with the word. Such groups may be
denied access to educational and career opportunities if these tests produce inac-
curate scores of knowledge and ability. In this review, we explore the possibility
of expanding cu
ent testing practices to include creativity assessment. Such tests
produce more uniform scores across ethnic and racial groups because they are
normed for specific groups (Kim, in press; To
ance, 1977).
VARIOUS CULTURAL BIASES
Cultural Biases in Interpretation and
Meaning of Words in Assessment
What is considered wise in one society may not be considered wise in another;
the value and meaning of intelligence depends on cultural norms. Demonstrating
the culturally-specific nature of knowledge and intelligence, Cole, Gay, Glick,
and Sharp XXXXXXXXXXconducted an experiment in which Western participants and
Kpelle participants from Liberia were given an object-sorting task. Participants
were asked to sort twenty objects that were divided evenly into the linguistic cat-
egories of foods, implements, food containers, and clothing. Westerners tended to
sort these objects into the groups for food and implements, while Liberian partici-
pants would routinely pair a potato with a knife because, they reasoned, the knife
is used to cut the potato. When questioned, Liberian participants justified their
pairings by stating that a wise person would group the items in this way. When
the researchers asked them to show what an unwise person would do, they did the
taxonomic sort that is more familiar to the Western culture.
In addition to biases due to culturally specific interpretation of test items, lan-
guage impacts the understanding of test items. Cultural and social norms affect
Cultural Bias in Assessment | Kim, Zabelina | 131
how test-takers understand and interpret the wording of test questions. How they
make sense of the test items can be influenced by their values, beliefs, experiences,
communication patterns, teaching and learning styles, and epistemologies of their
cultures and societies (e.g., Solano-Flores & Nelson-Ba
er, 2001).
Further, test item interpretation can be affected by test questions written in a
language other than the native language of the test taker. It is important to con-
sider a non-native English speaker’s language proficiency before deciding whether
to test he
him in English or the native language (Geisinger, XXXXXXXXXXFor example,
a Latino might appear acculturated to the test administrators, but may be none-
theless more proficient in Spanish than in English (Padilla, XXXXXXXXXXIf the test is ad-
ministered in English and is timed, it is likely that such a student will have more
difficulties than if the test is in English, but untimed. To overcome these testing
iases, researchers suggest that acculturation should be measured in addition
to psychometric tests (Gopaul-McNicol & Armour-Thomas, 2002); however to
date, there lacks a consensus on the most effective ways to measure acculturation
(Cabassa, 2003).
Sometimes even the same word may have different meanings for different
cultures. For instance, the meaning of educacion in Spanish is different from that
of education in English (Reese, Balzano, Gallimore, & Goldenberg, XXXXXXXXXXThe
social skills of respectful and co
ect behavior are important to the Spanish when
they state educacion, whereas only cognitive processing is important to education
in many Western societies. Another well-documented instance is when Native
American students are asked, “Who is the son of your aunt?” “Brother” is selected
y all of the Native American students in the fifth grade (even though the of-
ficially accepted/ expected answer would be “cousin”) because all relatives of the
same generation are called “
others” in Native American culture (Shields, 1997).
The way students use English sentence structure may also depend on cultural
ackgrounds. Native American students use a different sentence structure from
that of English speakers when forming negative questions. When they are asked,
“You don’t like eating this, [do you]?” they respond, “Yes” while they actually mean
“Yes, you are right, I don’t like eating it” (Shields, XXXXXXXXXXAsian students use the
same sentence structure as Native Americans. Thus, tests must take into account
students’ ways of knowing and demonstrating their knowledge through their use
of language (Solano-Flores & Trumbull, 2003; Swisher & Deyhle, 1992).
Several culturally sensitive tests have been developed to address the issue of
this type of bias. Williams’ XXXXXXXXXXBlack Intelligence Test of Cultural Homo-
geneity (BITCH) is a better predictor of learning ability for African American
students than other ethnicity groups. The results of the BITCH show that Afri-
can American students perform better on the test than Caucasian students (Wil-
liams, XXXXXXXXXXIn addition, the Naglieri Nonve
al Ability Test (NNAT) (Naglieri,
1991) and the Comprehensive Test of Nonve
al Intelligence (CTONI) (Ham-
132 | International Journal of Critical Pedagogy | Vol. 6 No. 2, 2015
mill, Person, & Wiederhold, 1997) have been developed as culture-free ability
assessments. The NNAT does not use words or language in any of the items on
the test, and the figures that make up each item are not specific to any particular
culture. In addition, the NNAT has been standardized on an English-speaking
sample and a Spanish-speaking sample. The CTONI provides oral or pantomime
instructions, and the examinee answers by pointing to the response that he or she
thinks is co
ect. A review of the mean standard scores on the CTONI shows that
all African American, Asian American, Hispanic American, Native Indian, and
Caucasian students scored well within the normal range (Hammill et al., 1997).
This may be because both the NNAT and the CTONI have used standardization
samples with ethnic profiles that mi
or the ethnic profile of the 1990 U.S. Cen-
sus (Zurcher, 1998).
Cultural Biases of Differential Effect of Acculturation
Acculturation is the result of cultural adaptation due to intercultural contact,
which is mainly considered as immigrants’ adapt to the host (dominant or main-
stream) culture. Less acculturated immigrant students from cultures with empha-
sis on strong ties to family may experience more difficulty learning to read English
than students whose culture lacks emphasis of strong family ties (Portes & Zady,
XXXXXXXXXXAs such, students who identify with their families and intend to remain
close to the family tend to have lower reading achievement in English, whereas
those who report willingness to move away exhibit higher achievement. For ex-
ample, reading achievement of Asian immigrant students is negatively influenced
y the strength of their identification with their native culture. However, reading
achievement of Hispanic counterparts is negatively influenced by the strength of
their identification with American culture (Portes & Zady, XXXXXXXXXXThis shows that
Hispanic students do well if they are attached to their own culture, rather then
to their host culture. This indicates that achievement is negatively influenced by
perceptions and experiences of discrimination for both Hispanic and Asian im-
migrant students, but in different ways.
Acculturation to the culture of a particular school also creates negative effects
in academic achievement. In schools in which Standard English is valued and stu-
dents’ home languages are devalued, whether they be different dialects of English
or other languages, a student’s adoption of the school’s valued language may feel
like a rejection of one’s home community, which may be a difficult and painful
decision (J. Baker, XXXXXXXXXXWhite middle-class students whose first language is
English and who behave as teachers expect them to behave are provided more
opportunities to learn than their peers, whereas students who do not embody
these privileged
Answered 2 days After Nov 10, 2022

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Deblina answered on Nov 13 2022
58 Votes
Cultural Bias in Classroom         2
CULTURAL BIAS IN CLASSROOM
Table of Contents
Salient Points of the Article    3
Acknowledgement of the Bias    3
Relevant Takeaways    3
References    5
Salient Points of the Article
The salient aspects of this article focus on cultural bias and its interpretation in the learning setting which is demonstrated as a measurable component and the aspects that are effective to understand and interpret in terms of the assessment in the classroom. The article also focuses on the cultural bias of the differential effect on acculturation which is a result of cultural adaptation due to intercultural...
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