Effects of Ethnicity and Violent Content on Rubric Scores in Writing Samples
Bias in teacher-scored student writing samples were examined in this exploratory study. Four nearly identical writing samples were employed with the following contextual differences: (a) Two sets of distinct ethno-cultural markers were presented in two of the passages and (b) markers of violent content were included in one passage from each ethno-cultural set. Samples were randomly assigned to teachers who were asked to score one writing sample according to the supplied rubric. Results indicated that there was not a statistically significant difference in ratings between ethnicity conditions across levels of the content (violent/nonviolent) condition. Across ethnicity conditions, however, there were statistically significant differences between the violent and the nonviolent content in favor of the nonviolent content.