All across the country standardized tests, are taken by students of all ages, in order to test their knowledge compared to the rest of the country as a whole. These tests can be in individual subjects or a combination of many. No matter the background of a particular student, all tests are administered and graded the same exact way. Our country has brought in immigrants from other countries who start families and raise them in the states. In the story, Mother Tongue, the author Amy Tan explains her real life story of being raised by a mother who is a Chinese immigrant, and the struggles she faces because of it. Kids from different backgrounds grow up learning and seeing cultures other than the traditional language of English, and then are forced to acclimate.  Based on my research and Amy Tan’s story, evidence proves that in the United States, Standardized Tests are unfair to minority students. 

 Standardized Tests are predominantly written by white middle class individuals who grew up speaking English as their first language. This means the middle class white children have an advantage on these tests because they grow up living and learning in this lifestyle. In comparison, the minority students are taking a test favored towards the majority population and are forced to answer and think about questions that are inappropriate to them (Green and Griffore 242). For example, Amy Tan grew up being raised by a mother who spoke broken English. Amy has learned to view her mother’s broken English as normal, but a simpler form of the English language. Tan realizes this when she is giving a speech in front of many people, as she always does, but this time her mom is in the room and she feels herself wanting to speak in easier words so her mother could understand. She says, “The talk was going along well enough, until I remembered one major difference that made the whole talk sound wrong. My mother was in the room” (Tan 342). Based on her situation, Tan noticed how her level on English can change. For example, when talking to a friend, slang is present and normal. But when talking to an authority figure, better grammar and politeness is used. The human mind does this unconsciously. The words and meanings of certain words are interpreted different from person to person, let alone culture to culture. In the story Tan mentions taking tests and says, “I knew what the tests were asking, but I could not block out my mind the images already created- making it impossible for me to sort something out so logical” (Tan 345). This shows how Tan’s bi-cultural background interred with her ability to answer a question. For example, around the world football is a sport played with your feet, but in the United States football is a beloved game played with pads and tackling. This is where it gets tricky on standardized tests. Minority students have not learned this background knowledge that the test makers expect every student to know. It becomes unfair to penalize a student for not understanding the origin of the question. 

The United States is increasing the amount of immigrants, and more diverse cultures are present than ever before. These diverse cultures tend to speak differently from what American people are generally used to. This results in the traditional people not giving the same respect to different cultures because they don’t understand them and their accents are harder to understand. A 2013 study showed that if a person is not from their same culture, there is a 75% chance they will treat them differently than they would a person of their own culture (Hajnal and Rivera 775). An individual could be saying something very useful and important but because they can’t speak perfect English, like an intelligent person should, they are not taken seriously. This is a term known as ethnocentrism, meaning to evaluate others and their cultures in comparison to your own culture and beliefs. This issue is still a big issue today. In the last half century, the Latino population has surpassed the African Americans as the largest minority. The white proportion has dropped from nearly 90% to 65% in the last ten years (Hajnal and Rivera 773). These new cultures entering the country are infuriating the once prominent white population. In the reading, Tan talks about the time her mother is taken advantage of in the hospital when going for a CAT scan. Tan quotes, “My mother told me she spoke her best English that day. Still, she said the hospital did not apologize when they said they had lost the CAT scan and she had come for nothing” (Tan 344). This shows how larger institutions taken advantage on minorities. They don’t care if it is a life or death situation when dealing with minority individuals. The doctors and nurses being white, treated Tan’s mother with a different about of respect because of her culture. She reads Forbes daily and other high level magazines. Although she is unable to speak in perfect English and may seem as if she doesn’t understand she certainly does. This overall concept is the same as on standardized tests. Immigration into the United States has increased every year, meaning more cultures are present. With this more diverse country, we still test using the same methods established before the increase. These tests are not giving these multi-racial students a fair opportunity to show what they know. 

The teacher to student relationship differs between minority and non-minority students. A study was done in 1986 by Carla M. Trujillo comparing the classroom interactions between professors and students of different race. The experiment was done without any of the teachers or students knowing. This study revealed that teachers have lower expectations for minority students, meaning overall teachers spend less time engaging with them in order to help the more promising kids. As stated in the findings, “Even with limitations of the study taken into consideration, the results of this investigation support the exists of differential treatment of minority students by professional educators” (Trujillo 641). The story by Amy Tan was based on the year 1889, just three years after this study has been taken. Tan mentions her teachers telling her that math and science were her areas of focus and she shouldn’t focus much on English. This shows how the study is true for Amy Tan’s case. Her teachers spent less time helping her in subjects she needed to be taught in. Instead, they forced her to put all her efforts into what she is “supposed” to be good in. Stereotypically, minority students excel in math and science and are never given a chance in other areas. Tan says, “Why are so few Asian Americans enrolled in creative writing programs? Why do so many Chinese students go into engineering?! And perhaps they also have teachers who are steering them away from writing and into math and science, which happened to me” (Tan 346). This quote is very powerful. It shows how Tan feels about teachers and the roles they play in minority students lives. They are not given the same opportunities in the classroom. How is a minority student supposed to excel in the English section on a standardized test if all their efforts are in math and science? Proven true by Trujillo’s study and Tan’s personal experiences, minority students are not given the same freedom in school as their traditional white classmates. Thus, the testing is unfair to these outnumbered students because of lack of teaching in those areas where they need the most help.    

Throughout the United States, decedents of different cultures are treated unfairly. The stereotypes of minority cultures are playing a role in schools, larger institutions and on standardized testing. In schools the minority students are not given equal opportunities to pursue writing. Teachers are less likely to spend time teaching a student from an out numbered race. In hospitals, nurses and doctors take advantage of minorities and give them unequal treatment. Ethnocentrism is on the rise in the country, because of the increase in immigration numbers. All these factors conclude that standardized tests are unfair to minority students.   
