We talk about how standardized tests may be biased toward the established culture, but we do not often describe details. Here’s a small example: I am grading a paper that includes many unusual names such as Lourdes, Maite, Lupe, Ling, Sammo, Andrés, Antoinette, Luigi and Pierre. Except for Ling and Sammo, I am on comfortable ground. But many of my students do not know these names, even if they were born and raised in this country. They have never come across a Luigi, Maite, or Andrés. Since they have to know the gender of the people in the questions to provide correct answers in Spanish, I am finding a fair number of mistakes. Some kids asked as they started the homework in class, alerting me to the name problem. Others just guessed, and only sometimes correctly. One girl added a note: “I did not always know if it was a girl or a boy.”

It’s so easy to miss examples of cultural bias, hidden as they are in mistaken assumptions of knowledge that may not come to our attention until after the tests.

P.S. For those who know Spanish, I liked one Eastern European boy’s workaround. For “Ignacio” he wrote, “alto or guapo if a boy, alta or guapa if a girl.”