Effects of Ethnicity and Violent Content on Rubric Scores in Writing Samples

Bias in teacher-scored student writing samples was examined in this exploratory study. Four nearly identical writing samples were employed with the following contextual differences: (a) Two sets of distinct ethnocultural markers were presented in 2 of the passages and (b) markers of violent content were included in 1 passage from each ethnocultural set. Samples were assigned randomly to teachers who were asked to score 1 writing sample according to a supplied scoring 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.