Norm referenced tests have ‘the achievement gap’ built in. They were started a century ago to demonstrate that African Americans lacked the “requisites” to become US Army officers. Since that time all reliable and valid standardized test have to demonstrate African Americans as less intellectually capable than whites.

The results come about through the use of complex sentences. In 2003, Susan Huttenlocher of the University of Chicago, found that “low income students construct and comprehend complex sentences less ably” than those from middle and upper income homes. (I asked a colleague about this ‘complex sentence issue and he said, “that’s how we make our sorts.”

William Julius Wilson (UofC now Harvard) changed his designation of Black to “low income”. So...standardized test results are most certainly impacted by income in the home. As Otto Kerner stated, “poverty is an illness” and poor test scores are just one of the symptoms.