When it comes down to it, the way to access how assessment tools might be racist is to provide the argument for changing certain assessment tools or methodologies. 

As a result, particular assessment methods are blind to systematic racism. The idea of how we relate to the world as it is must be our destination. The goal is to increase access for all students simultaneously. Instead of attempting to overturn the existing systems, educators can collaborate to transform them by understanding Critical Race Theory and how it works.

Assessment Tools are a huge step in making academia more equitable for all students.

 

What do I mean by assessment?
 

Assessment tools support the evaluation of student learning and offer a variety of alternatives to the conventional exam for evaluating pupils. There are several tools accessible, including as grading rubrics, Canvas Assignments, plagiarism detection, self- and peer-assessment, surveys, and in-class polling. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Examples:

•Have clearly stated learning outcomes in your syllabus. 

•Match assessment to what is ACTUALLY taught-tests should be on material covered, not new material.

•Help students learn how to do the assessment task: examples of past student work help a lot.

•Engage and encourage all students: holistic versus analytical. This means using global and detailed-oriented techniques. Be sure to use visual, hearing, kinesthetic, tactile, and verbal throughout lessons, lesson plans, and assignments.

•Feedback: finding various ways to provide feedback that regards disability, culture, gender, and more! This means going beyond the rubric and providing verbal feedback with a video or audio, using videos to show students how to improve; written feedback is useful to some students, ask students how they would like feedback. This can also be applied to the peer editing process.

•Interpret Assessment Results Appropriately: Realize that a student's performance on an assessment only reflects that moment in time, and the student can improve with guidance. Based on assessment performance do not pigeonhole students as "good" or "bad" based on assessment performance. 
 

Evaluate the Outcomes of the assessments: This can teach you much about your own teaching, not just student understanding. Also, evaluating outcomes of assessments in a timely manner serves as a benefit to improve your teaching and helping students learn.
 

  

 

 

 

 

 

 

Use many different measures: Use low-stakes and high stakes. Give opportunity to improve. Learn the different cultures in your class and know that learning styles could

 

differ by culture. For example, in Mexican culture the focus is on the community and connections. So, this can be done with group work, verbal assessments and working on-one-on with peers. Remember that getting to know the different cultures in your classroom will show you the different ways of thinking valued by various cultures. 

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Assessment: What to Avoid: 

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1.) No clearly stated outcome: This leaves students confused. Students are unsure of expectations, leading to many misunderstandings of directions, educator motive and classroom community.

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2.) Assessments don’t match what was taught: When students prepare for a test, they often go over notes and class lectures, activities, etc. When they come to a test with new material, they may feel that the educator is extremely unfair and untrustworthy. Also, students do not learn at their best with those surprises.

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3.) No demonstration of assessment to students: There are so many ways to show students what an assessment will look like, refer to past assessments, projects, and examples so students know the expectations. It does not take away from student learning to be transparent. 

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4.) Certain students are assisted, but not all: This comes across as favoritism. This also may appear as a gatekeeping device aimed to keep certain students out of a given class or acceptance into higher education for as long as they are in a classroom that refuses to guide them when they need help. 

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5.) Little to no feedback, just an arbitrary grade or weeks to take a grading, leaving students confused and frustrated about expectations in the classroom. If a rubric needs to be the only feedback, so be it, but interactive feedback with video/audio will show students that you care and that their learning matters. They actually learn more this way too. Leaving only a grade without a rubric or comments seems apathetic or unfair to many students. 

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6.) No evaluation of assessment or very little consideration. If no evaluation of an assessment is done, many educators miss a valid opportunity to improve their assessments and their teaching as a whole. This also goes hand in hand with constantly learning as opposed to just knowing everything, which students don't connect with anyway. 

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7.) Limited Assessment Measures: Focus on High Stakes. If only high-stakes assessments are used this often does not lead to student learning 

success. Students will be so stressed out trying to prepare for an educator's test that is worth a huge part of their grade that the focus goes to grades and not learning.

Also, students may not be able to show you what they learned with just high stakes assessments; they may be too stressed and full of anxiety to perform well on the test. Finally, low stakes offer the opportunity for growth, and students can learn while being high-achieving students that won't give up because of one poor grade on a high-stakes assessment. 

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​Banta, T. W., Suskie, L., & Walvoord, B. E. (2015, January). Three Assessment Tenors Look Back and to the Future. Assessment Update, 27(1), 3–15. https://doi.org/10.1002/au.30008