What Does it Mean to Say a Test is Biased?
- 1 November 1975
- journal article
- research article
- Published by SAGE Publications in Education and Urban Society
- Vol. 8 (1) , 33-52
- https://doi.org/10.1177/001312457500800105
Abstract
A biased test is generally understood to be a test that produces results that are systematically unfair to some group. For this to happen, the test must ordinarily measure variables for that group at least partly distinct from those it measures for other people in the population. There are two elements in this proposition: on the one hand, there is a matter of fairness, and, on the other hand, there is a matter of measuring different things for different groups. Although the two are logically related, they are not identical in all instances. That is, a test must usually measure different things for different groups to be unfair, but it is possible to have a test that measures different things for different groups and yet does not produce unfair results because of the way it is used.Keywords
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