The Impact of Standardized Testing on Minority Students

Abstract

Testing has become an institution which affects the lives of Americans in a profound way. Early in their educational careers, children are sorted and categorized on the basis of standardized tests. As they advance toward graduation from high school, the tests become more and more life-determining. Decisions about higher education are reached with test scores as a major factor. Decisions about graduate and professional schools are based partly on test results. Tests are used to guide employment decisions and to determine professional advancement in certain careers. Testing is pervasive and powerful in its influence on modern life. Testing is also difficult to check and control even when its influence appears to be unfair and/or counter-productive to the welfare of those being tested. The negative aspects of testing procedures are especially apparent with respect to racial minorities, since tests can serve as a convenient tool for rationalizing discriminatory practices. Because of past discrimination in education, health, housing and all other aspects of American life, racial minorities, as a group, have not performed well onr standardized tests, when compared with their white counterparts. To the extent that this difference has