Racial and Cultural Test Bias, Stereotype Threat and Their Implications

Racial and Cultural Test Bias, emboss Threat and Their ImplicationsA substantial amount of educational and psychological research has consistently demonstrated that African American students underperform academically carnal knowledge to fresh students. For example, they tend to receive lower grades in school (e.g., testify & Parker, 1987 Simmons, Brown, Bush, & Blyth, 1978), score lower on standardized tests of intellectual ability (e.g., Bachman, 1970 Herring, 1989 Reyes & Stanic, 1988 Simmons et al., 1978), sick out at higher rates (e.g., American Council on Education, 1990 Steele, 1992), and have from college with substantially lower grades than White students (e.g., Nettles, 1988). Such performance gaps can be attributed to any number of factors, such as socioeconomic status, academic preparation, and educational opportunities however, Steele (1997) pointed out that even when background factors are held constant, subsequent exertion stay lower for minority students. M oreover, much research in this area has think on how African American students lack of motivation and negative attitudes house to their inferior academic performance (Ogbu, 1990) yet many Black students much report high educational aspirations (Fordham, 1996 Fine, 1991 Ogbu, 1987, 1990 Hauser & Anderson, 1991), even higher than White students of comparable class background (MacLeod, 1995). What remains certain is the urgent need to beg off what accounts for the persistent academic underachievement of Black students. One widely held explanation for the achievement gap in test performance between Black and White students is that the tests are either culturally or racially biased. Jencks (1998) points out threesome types of biases... ...lantic Monthly, 68-78.Steele, C. (1997). A threat in the air How sort outs shape intellectual personal identity and performance. American Psychologist, 52, 6, 613-629.Steele, C., & Aronson, J. (1995). Stereotype threat and the intellec tual test performance of African Americans. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 69, 5, 797-811.Steele, C., Spencer, S. J., & Aronson, J. (2002). Contending with group image The psychology of stereotype and social identity threat. (In M. Zanna (Ed.), Advances in experimental social psychology (Vol. 34, pp. 379-440. parvenue York, NY Academic Press.Vars, F. E., & Bowen, W. G. (1998). Scholastic aptitude test scores, race, and academic performance in selective colleges and universities. (In Jencks, C. & Phillips, M. (Eds.), The Black-White Test Score Gap (pp. 55-85). Washington, DC Brookings Institution Press.)