I want to reference one statement that seems particularly naïve and uninformed from the perspectives of both research and theory. To put it simply, there is no such thing as a “culture-free” test. At the most basic level, we are cultural creatures. The impacts of our cultures are felt before we are born as any study of prenatal, perinatal, and postnatal differences across cultures will demonstrate.

 

I assume that the term “culture-free tests” is referencing nonverbal assessments of cognitive ability. A number of assumptions must be made to give them this moniker.  First, it is not clear that students from all cultures are equally familiar with the geometric shapes used. Second, it is not clear that all cultures are equally likely to encourage verbal overlays on nonverbal tasks (“This one goes this way so that one must go that way.”). 

 

Third, cultures may promote different problem-solving styles with different impacts on how puzzles are solved. For example, some students draw quick conclusions based on very little information and then give a quick and careless response. These students are likely to perform better on any assessment of cognitive skills if given instruction on problem-solving.   Different cultures are likely to have different levels of emphasis on helping their children move beyond this problem-solving style.

 

I will not go on, but I could. Decades ago, some consideration was given to the possibility of “culture-free” tests in research, but it was generally discontinued due to a lack of theoretical or experimental support. Moving away from the absolute concept of “culture free,” some research into the possibility of “culture-fair” tests has been done, but with limited results.

 

It is imperative that we take the effects of culture into account as we continue to search for ways to assess the many ways our children’s gifts manifest themselves.  In particular, we must become more sophisticated at finding the gifts among our minority and our poverty populations.  But pretending that we have ways to peer beyond the effects of culture into some pure assessment of true potential is a fantasy. Fantasies do not belong in regulations.