School pulls test question equating ideology to race, gender

By MATTHEW BARAKAT
Associated Press

FALLS CHURCH, Va. (AP) — Virginia’s largest school system is removing a test question given to a college-level social studies class that equated liberals and conservatives with specific racial and gender demographics. The question appeared on a test given to students of an AP Government class at Fairfax County Public Schools’ Online Campus. The multiple-choice question asked students to accurately identify liberals and conservatives. The potential answers for “liberals” included “Young, white males” and “Middle aged, urban lesbian.” The potential answers for “conservative included “Southern male migrant laborer” and “Catholic, midwestern middle-aged male.” Critics said the question was indicative of educators’ liberal bias to assign ideologies to specific demographics.