In this Provocation for the field, Jennifer Randall introduces racism and antiracism in educational assessment. Dr. Randall argues that culturally neutral or non-racist tests do not exist. Rather, the words ‘neutral’, ‘normal’, or ‘typical’ are all pseudonyms for white in item development.
“I encourage all of us to move away from an approach to assessment development that is color neutral or colorless, as such approaches simply privilege whiteness and represent a different kind of post-civil rights era racism. We have to be aggressive in our support of assessment development processes that explicitly value BIPOC students, in the same way that historically, we have been aggressive in our support of assessment processes that explicitly valued and privileged white students.“
Randall, J. (2021, May). The Road to Assessment Hell is Paved with Color-Blind Intentions: Moving Towards Justice-Oriented Antiracist Assessment. Assessment for Learning Conference.