GENDER BIAS AND FAIRNESS Lisa Dunn and Christina Fernandez February 28, 2009

Outline Definition of Gender Bias Definition of Gender Fairness Detecting Gender Bias in Testing Gender Bias in Aptitude Tests Achievement Test Fairness Testing Is it “Fair” Understanding Gender Bias in Testing Gender Bias in the Classroom

Gender Bias Test results affect students’ educational future a test should provide equal opportunity. However in many test we find Gender Bias. What is Gender Bias? “A test is biased if men and women with the same ability levels tend to obtain different scores”

Examples of Gender Bias Conditions under which a test is administrated Wording of individual items Students attitude towards a test Systematic error- is the result of characteristic of the examinees that are stable (such as gender or race) and the characteristics other than those the test is intended to measure

Gender Fairness Gender Fairness is based on how the test is administrated. For example a test can be unbiased but test taking policy can favor a woman or man. Another example is how the results of the test may be treated differently based on gender.

Detecting Gender Bias in Testing No test is perfect! (all we can do is try our best ) Material or references that may be offensive to members of one gender References to objects and ideas that are likely to be more familiar to men or to women Unequal representation of men and woman as actors in test items Representation of members of each gender only in stereotyped roles. Information is more or less offensive to one gender. Statistical techniques are used to identify to identify gender bias

Gender Bias in Aptitude Test Aptitude test- is a test that can predict a future outcome. Ex. They use aptitude test for college entrance exams to predict what the grades will be in their first year of college. They use statistical techniques to format these type of test. However they also need scores of their first year to measure their accuracy. The result of the aptitude test show that men score higher then women but when you take their grades of their first year of college women score higher than men. Just goes to show there is no perfect unbiased test.

Achievement Tests Achievement Tests are designed to measure ones knowledge These scores are compared to grades from the course Over all achievement is compared student to student Gender should never be factor when comparing scores

Fairness in Testing Sharif v. New York State Education Department Scholarships are given based on SAT scores Girls tend to score lower on tests Girls are being discriminated again Scholarships are given based on SAT scores Girls tend to score lower on tests Girls are being discriminated again

Is This “Fair” This court case attempts to even the playing field for women However, the result is women are complying with an assumption that they are less capable of achievement than men This case is gender bias

Understanding Gender Bias and Testing Gender generalizations have no place in education Not all boys and girls fit the generalized molds Education should be gender blind

Gender in the Classroom Each student is treated with respect regardless of gender Expectations, rewards, and punishments are gender blind