Closing the gap: cultural bias in psychological assessment.
The question of cultural bias in psychological assessment is serious and merits our full scholarly attention. Indeed, if bias is a factor in psychological assessment then we — as psychologists who administer psychological tests — have a responsibility to find alternative means of testing in order to prevent bias from affecting students who belong to ethnic minority groups. Unfortunately, attempts to resolve the controversy surrounding test bias have been largely unsuccessful.
In California, in Diana vs. State Board of Education, nine Hispanic children were tested using an English IQ test and were classified as Educable Mentally Retarded (EMR) — a term which is now out of date but at the time was used to indicate a need for special placement. When these children were retested in Spanish, all but one fell out of the EMR range. The argument put forward was that these children were disadvantaged by biased psychological assessments. A panel of experts presented evidence supporting this claim and the judge ruled that the children should be tested in their native tongue. Today, such a ruling seems obvious to us. However, before this case, it was not legally required to test a person in their native language.
In Illinois, in PASE (Parents in Action on Special Education) vs. Hannon, a parallel case was presented before a court of equivalent standing and the same panel of experts presented similar evidence — however, this time, the Judge ruled that the degree of bias in IQ tests was inconsequential and that placement in special education should be maintained. The case in question involved several black students who were tested using a standardized IQ test and who were placed in a special education class. The argument was that the test discriminated against the black students and underestimated their intelligence because it reflected cultural values and knowledge that was simply not part of their experience. The judge did not agree with their claim and ruled in favour of the school board.
In 1969, the Association of Black Psychologists (ABPsi) released a statement supporting the decision of black parents to refuse to let their children take psychological tests and condemning these tests for labelling black people as uneducable; assigning black children to lower educational tracks than whites; denying black students higher educational opportunities; and destroying positive intellectual growth and development of black people.
Since the release of this statement, the ABPsi has sought a moratorium (suspension of an activity or law) on the use of all psychological and educational tests with students from disadvantageous backgrounds. Many groups have made similar statements and even the APA has commissioned a panel to investigate how best to address cultural bias in psychological testing. Fifty years later, a discrepancy still exists and it is time to close that gap once and for all.
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Reynolds, C. R., & Livingston, R. B. (2012). The Problem of Bias in Psychological Assessment. Mastering Modern Psychological Testing Theory & Methods (476–477). Pearson Education, Inc.
