Minorities Support ‘Racist’ Tests

NEW YORK — Last week, a group called the New York Collective of Radical Educators staged a protest against standardized testing.

Responding to recent reports about substantial gains for fourth-graders on citywide reading and writing examinations, the group argued that the improved scores reflect “drill-and-kill” test-preparation activities rather than real learning. Worst of all, protesters maintained, the entire testing enterprise discriminates against racial minorities. For blacks and Hispanics especially, they said, standardized tests inhibit academic achievement and increase the dropout rate.

The only problem is, blacks and Hispanics don’t see it that way.

Over the past decade, public opinion surveys have demonstrated overwhelming support among racial minorities for high-stakes testing. In a 2003 study by the Pew Hispanic Center, for example, three-quarters of Latinos said that standardized tests “should be used to determine whether students are promoted or can graduate.” Two-thirds agreed that the federal government “should require states to set strict performance standards for public schools,” as mandated under President Bush’s No Child Left Behind (NCLB) Act.

Likewise, African-Americans favor high-stakes tests by large margins. To be sure, activist groups like the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People have criticized NCLB and state graduation exams. But the black rank and file tell another story.

According to a 1998 survey by Public Agenda, nearly 8 of 10 African-American parents want schools to test children and publicize black-white achievement differences, just as NCLB requires. Only 28 percent say that standardized tests are “culturally biased” against black children, as critics often maintain. Many of these critics work at schools of education, where the standardized test serves as a symbol of everything that’s wrong with American teaching.

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As a professor at an American school of education, I share many of these concerns. But I also worry that the Ed-School Gospel blinds us to the concerns of American racial minorities, who simply don’t see the world the way we do. They want classrooms that stress discipline, that follow a strict curriculum, and that help children succeed on — gasp! — standardized tests.

Especially if students live in chaotic or dangerous home environments, minority parents argue, they need the order and structure of a traditional school.

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