Examining the Importance of Rooting out Bias Through Culturally Responsive Clinical Judgement When Assessing Black Children

Abstract

In response to national attention regarding issues of racial injustice facing Black Americans, education has been highlighted as a fi eld that has systematically operated in a way that has been detrimental to Black children in the form of underfunding, segregated schools, discriminatory discipline policies, and disproportionate placement in special education. While current estimates indicate a narrowing of the achievement gap, also referred to as opportunity gap, a large difference remains regarding how Black students perform on standardized tests when compared to their White counterparts. According to the Education Opportunity Project at Stanford University (Reardon et al., 2019), the differences in standardized test scores are reported to amount to a de fi cit of approximately two academic years for Black students. While racial disparities in education are a longstanding issue, greater focus on dismantling structural inequity is required for Black students to have equal access to quality education. To accomplish this goal, educational professionals across all disciplines must examine their practices through an