Uncovering Disparities in Medical Education: Advisory Guide of Strategies and Best Practices for Illuminating Blind Spots

Assessment and grading are prone to disparities based on race and ethnicity. Health professions educators need a guide for how to strategically navigate assessment data. This monograph provides a consensus-driven advisory guide, drawing upon common challenges schools face when detecting, measuring, and analyzing gender/racial disparities, and shares practical algorithms and strategies for engaging with the data. Five steps are proposed: create a process diagram; identify assessment data sources and potential manifestations of disparities and inequities in assessments; consider other variables when analyzing data; choose analytical approaches to evaluate sources of disparities; and identify potential threats and challenges.