How Do I Create Fair and Unbiased Tests?

Teaching with Valor Podcast: A Veteran Teachers Perspective

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"Welcome back to Teaching with Valor, the podcast where we dive deep into the essential questions that drive us to be better educators. I’m your host, Don Fessenden, and today, we’re exploring a question that every teacher grapples with at some point: How do I create fair and unbiased tests?

Creating fair and unbiased tests isn’t just about writing questions and scoring answers. It’s about ensuring that the assessment reflects students' knowledge and skills in a way that is equitable and accessible to all learners. We’ve all had those moments when a student—bright and capable—doesn’t perform well on a test, and it leaves us wondering: Was it the student or was it the test?

Testing can often be high stakes for students, parents, and teachers alike. But our role as educators is to ensure that these assessments are not only accurate reflections of what students have learned but also constructed in a way that doesn’t unintentionally advantage or disadvantage any group of students. Today, we’ll be discussing how to design assessments that are valid, reliable, and fair, across elementary, middle, and high school levels. We’ll touch on everything from question format to language use, and we’ll explore how to account for the diversity of learning styles and backgrounds.
Show Notes
For more information on this topic checkout the following resources:

• Edutopia – Creating Fair and Equitable Assessments: www.edutopia.org
• The Cult of Pedagogy – Avoiding Bias in Testing: A guide to creating inclusive assessments.
• The Standards for Educational and Psychological Testing: A detailed look at the principles of fair and valid assessments.
• Kahoot and Google Forms: Tools for real-time, low-stakes formative assessments.
• Rick Wormeli – Fair Isn’t Always Equal: A book on grading and differentiating assessments for diverse learners.

Stay tuned for more episodes, and remember, every student is unique, and every classroom can be a place where all students succeed. Keep teaching with valor!