Mirror, Mirror on the Wall, Which Is the Fairest Test of All? An Examination of the Equitability of Portfolio Assessment Relative to Standardized Tests

Abstract

Do alternative assessments result in greater equity than standardized tests with regard to gender, socioeconomic status, and race/ethnicity? In this article, Jonathan Supovitz and Robert Brennan investigate this question and find that, in the Rochester, New York, school system, gender, socioeconomic, and racial inequities persist even with alternative assessment, although alternative assessments have a smaller gap between Blacks and Whites, and a larger one between the sexes, than do standardized tests. The authors conclude that alternative assessments have potential to decrease the inequities seen with standardized tests, but they caution that care be taken in the development of such assessments to reduce cultural and other biases.