(2002) characterized this history as "testing while Black." Wiley and Wright (2004) argued that the "scientific testing" movement was biased:
The rise of the modern educational technologist-oriented curriculum mak-
ing and the rise of the scientific educational testing movement coincided with the period of Americanization and widespread xenophobia toward non-English-speaking immigrants and lynchings of African Americans and discrimination against other racial minority groups Thus, the so-called scientific testing movement of the early 20th century was intertwined with racism and linguicism at a time when the push for expanded uses of re-
strictive English-literacy requirements coincided with the period of record
immigration. (pp. 158-159)
Leaders of the standards movement insist that today's tests are differ-
ent since they set uniform standards for everyone and most are criterion-
referenced rather than norm-referenced. However, most standards-based tests still retain characteristics that cause concern:
[They] rely heavily on multiple-choice questions, language skills, problem solving undertaken by individuals in isolation, and time limits and content coverage designed to maximize the spread of scores Not surprisingly, therefore, on a range of assessments clear differences remain in average scores across economic, racial, and ethnic groups. These score differences continue to affect access to higher level learning opportunities for students. (Kornhaber, 2004. p. 93)
Further, they generate revenue to test developers, confer political gain on politicians who support them, and confer advantages disproportion-
ately to students from upper socioeconomic communities (Grant, 2004). Many teachers in historically underserved communities have pointed out that "results of standardized achievement tests contradicted their first-hand classroom observations and assessments of students of color [which) re-
vealed higher levels of student performance on targeted learning objec-
tives" (Hood, 1998, p. 189). This was Mona's concern at the opening of this chapter.
Some of the teachers in Multicultural Curriculum Design were well aware of this history and wary because of it. An elementary bilingual teacher said,
We're asked to do this standardized testing, which is racist, it's based on a system of racism. It's normed to certain language groups, and it's basically biased against a whole group of other language learners. And we're asked to use it and advocate for a system we don't believe in. (October 19, 2001)