Impact of the Court on Assessment Practices

Impact of the Court on Assessment Practices

Section 1

Standardized tests are often used as a mechanism of social control. "If a decision-maker can point to the results of an objective and valid test as the information on which a control decision was based, those being controlled are more likely to accept and internalize the decision and its consequences." Tests as a social control mechanism are "open to criticism in proportion to the extent to which those being controlled perceive it as irrational, capricious, arbitrary, or unjust" (Nitko 1983).

Many cases have been based on the charge that tests have caused the disproportionate placement of minority students in lower ability tracks. The cases are usually based on the argument that the tests are biased against the lower scoring group or that they reflect the effects of past segregation in the schools. The plaintiffs argue that use of the test denies them access to certain programs or to certification of some kind.

Hobson v. Hansen (1969): This was the first major case raising questions about placement in special education. The court ruled that using test scores to group students into "tracks" was unconstitutional because it discriminated against blacks and the poor.

Diana v. State Board of Education (1970): Here was a case in which the use of tests to place students was again challenged. Diana, a Spanish-speaking student in Monterey County, California, had been placed in a class for mildly mentally retarded students because she had scored low on an IQ test given to her in English. The court ruled that Spanish-speaking children should be retested in their native language to avoid errors in placement.

Larry P. V Riles (1972): Larry P. Was a black student in California, and his complaint led to an expansion of the ruling in the Diana case. The court ruled that schools are responsible for providing tests that do not discriminate on the basis of race. In the class-action case of PASE v. Hannon (1980), however, the fudge stated he could find little evidence of bias in the test items. The Larry P. Case also set a precedent for the use of data indicating disproportionate placement of minority groups as prima facie evidence of discrimination. However, subsequent cases have undermined this precedent (Marshall et a. v. Georgia [1984] and S-I v. Turlington [1986]).

Court decisions have upheld these arguments to some extent. In Hobson v. Hansen (1967), it was ruled that the IQ tests used to track students were culturally biased because they were standardized on a white, middle-class sample. It was ruled that these tests were inaccurate for lower-class and black students, and the court abolished the tracking system used in the District of Columbia. Later appeals allowed other forms of ability grouping, but would not allow the use of tests that had racially discriminatory consequences.

The use of achievement tests instead of IQ tests may not be any more appropriate. Moses v. Washington Parish School Board (1971) involved the use of both ...