# are there any credible examples of standardized tests being "culturally biased"? **URL:** \ **Category:** Great Debates\ **Created:** [February 25, 2005, 11:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-any-credible-examples-of-standardized-tests-being-culturally-biased/291852 "2005-02-25T11:19:36Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 3\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![blowero](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/41988e/32.png) [@blowero](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/blowero)\ **Post date:** [February 28, 2005, 9:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-any-credible-examples-of-standardized-tests-being-culturally-biased/291852/41 "2005-02-28T09:13:41Z")
> [@Manda JO](#): > > It’s my understanding (I read this here 3 or 4 years ago) that SAT doesn’t bother to try and figure out WHY a question is biased, but if it is, they drop it. The number of kids taking the SATs and ACTs is high enough that you can do a sophisticated statistical analysis. For example, if 95% of high-scoring white kids got field test question #4 correct, but only 75% of the hispanic kids \*who had the same general performance level \* got the question correct, they dump the question, even if they can’t figure out why it’s biased. Now, I don’t know what the actual numbers are–at what point they decide a discrepency is evidence of bias–but I don’t have any problem with the theory. That would work if you compare an individual question with some sort of baseline. As a made-up example, let’s say that Star-Bellied Sneeches, on average, answer 75 questions correctly for every 100 that regular Sneeches answer correctly. If you have one _particular_ question where only 25 Star-Bellys answer correctly for every 100 Regulars, then you can toss it out. Merely having a discrepancy isn’t evidence of bias, but if a question has _more_ of a discrepancy than the others, it _is_ evidence. I don’t know if that’s how they do it, but it would make sense. ---
**Author:** ![blowero](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/41988e/32.png) [@blowero](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/blowero)\ **Post date:** [February 28, 2005, 9:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-any-credible-examples-of-standardized-tests-being-culturally-biased/291852/42 "2005-02-28T09:18:37Z")
> [@Beware of Doug](#): > > You’re a little behind the times here. Last time I visited Algol-60 you could hardly find a decent umblat for less than 25 zmb. Have you tried Umblats ‘R’ Us on xplfsnfo street? ---
**Author:** ![CrankyAsAnOldMan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/crankyasanoldman/32/11670_2.png) [@CrankyAsAnOldMan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CrankyAsAnOldMan)\ **Post date:** [February 28, 2005, 5:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-any-credible-examples-of-standardized-tests-being-culturally-biased/291852/43 "2005-02-28T17:36:08Z")
> [@blowero](#): > > They could kill two birds with one stone simply by striving to remove all ambiguities from the test. There’s nothing more frustrating than taking a test where there is more than one valid answer, and you are required to choose only one. This whole idea of choosing the “best” answer is garbage. They should just make sure there is _only one_ correct answer. If I were writing the test, I would think, “Hmmm…‘unusual’ isn’t really wrong as an answer, so here’s a wacky idea - I _won’t include that as a choice_”. I don’t understand what would be so hard about that. Well, obviously that’s a solution. However, an important part of reading comprehension is interpreting shades of meaning, discerning that something isn’t quite as right as another thing. If you’re going to test that, you’ll have to have some questions that require students to make choices among several plausible answers. Also, and correct me if i am wrong here, I thought the SAT scoring system (and its ability to, supposedly, distinguish students) depends on questions offering tempting almost-right answers. They only want a student to answer a question right if they really know the right answer. Otherwise you couldn’t tell between students who got a hard question correct and students who got a lucky guess. At least back in the late 1980s, this is how it worked. Perhaps it has changed. Measurement is not really my field, I confess. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-any-credible-examples-of-standardized-tests-being-culturally-biased/291852.md?page=2)