Student assessments are considered to accurately reflect their intended purpose when they are free from bias and provide all students with an equal opportunity to understand and demonstrate ability. Class, language, gender and race are parts of the cultural environment of students, which can contribute to and determine their educational performance. If any cultural characteristic is thought to affect student performance, a test taken under those circumstances may be considered to be bias. Despite the lack of validity due to the bias that exists, standardized assessments continue to be used on a national level. This can severely hamper and prohibit many students from continuing their education, since those tests are used as instruments to qualify for colleges and other schools.
Student equality is affected by the cultural financial issues which result in a lowered level of educational opportunity available. State governments are supposed to be bound to provide quality and equitable public education for all of its citizens, according to their individual constitutions. Legitimate questions may be raised concerning taxpayer equity as under-served school districts in property-poor areas continue to struggle to raise educational tax dollars. In contrast, property-rich areas continue to raise capital to fund their community's education. This imbalance conflicts with providing every person, regardless of race, color, religion, sex, age, disability, national origin or social class with an equal opportunity for high quality education, in accordance with Congressional policy.
Bias in assessments refers to those things which affect entire student groups systematically, as opposed to individually. Gender bias in assessments exists when a person's gender factors into the ability to answer a test question or perform a certain task. For example, if a task required takes place within the context of football and students with knowledge about football will have an advantage toward completing the task, this would be considered an extraneous bias factor. The situation can become a factor of bias to the degree that groups of students are privy to football knowledge over other student groups. For instance, in some communities, fewer girls will have experience playing football. Therefore, boys who play the game will be more likely to perform tasks sufficiently, while girls may not.
Certain student assessment instruments, practices and policies serve to limit learning opportunities. Cultural and gender bias contributes to a lack of student assessment accuracy. In turn, this creates barriers to higher learning for that group of students who have become educationally under-served. The lack of educational opportunity caused by gender and cultural bias can contribute to financial poverty, as more jobs require degrees.